I'm a telecoms engineer. In my spare time I enjoy photography, fiddling with my Landrover and consum...
I'm a telecoms engineer. In my spare time I enjoy photography, fiddling with my Landrover and consuming fine ales.
Member since:21.07.2000
Reviews:106
Members who trust:7
OK, let's start by clearing up one thing here which I bet at least 90% of the people reading this review will be asking: What's a cassette?
Well, a cassette is one of those incredibly boring things on a bike that doesn't look posh, and which your average bike owner would probably never even think about buying. So, take a look at the back wheel of any geared mountain bike or road bike. See that set of between five and nine cogs? That's a sprocket cluster or cassette.
So, why would anyone buy such a thing? Simple. A bike in regular use gradually deteriorates, and the drivetrain (front and rear cogs and chain) is no exception. The chain stretches, and this causes the teeth on the cassette to wear down. This eventually leads to the chain jumping under load, and until I could manage to get the money together to buy a new cassette, I was stuck with having to get off to go up hills due to the horrendous banging and slipping coming from behind me. And the bike wasn't too happy either.
So then, off to buy a new cassette. At the time, the Deore was all I could afford. It's a fairly substantial piece of kit. Many high end cassettes have fairly little metal in them, the sprockets being held together by plastic spacers. On this one, you've got no such luxury. Everything is metal. Fortunately, not solid metal, but still rather a lot, and it can add quite a bit to the weight of your bike.
Anyway, the upshot is that my bike didn't skip when I pedalled. Nice.
Now the downside. Having just had a peek at it, the teeth are starting to wear at an alarming rate. I've had it about four months. Granted, it's been ridden in some rather bad conditions. My local area's combination of gritty mud and sand isn't the kindest to ride a bike in, but I don't think it's going to last very long.
If your bike gets used for commuting or anything else that doesn't involve mud or sand, this is a good buy. Anything a bit harsher, save your pennies and get a better one.
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I've just fitted the 7-speed version of this to a hybrid that I'm building. Having never used a cassette before one thing puzzled me. The final locking ring that you are supposed to screw down to a set torque has a knurled or milled section like the edge of a coin and so has the flange on the smallest cog that it screws down onto. After a few 'clicks', the milling seems to lock the two in place, so the prospect of applying a prescribed torque doesn't seem possible. However, I can't see how it would come undone anyway. Time will tell I guess. Thanks for the tip about wear and tear - fortunately mine will be used for commuting.
veramck 07.01.2002 21:37
thank you for enlightening me, good op
ChigwellChick 07.01.2002 17:02
My poor bike will never get one of these - even if it begs LOL. Well written and informative - thanks. Jackie.
Close ratio 9-speed sprocket cluster with up to 32T low gear results in a wider Range of gear choices and a lower bottom end. Chain Compatibility Super Narrow HG
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