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Excessive cassette weight?

by Phil H
Fri, Apr 24, 2015 01:07
12

I have a query slight/rant about the weight of gear cassettes.

I have recently invested £350 on what I hope will be a great wheel upgrade of Shimano RS-81 c35 with a claimed weight of sub 1600g (to replace crappy stock Alex 500's).
However when I started looking for decent cassette to match (I am still running 9spd until I can afford a bike upgrade) - I find they are ~ 300g for an 11-32 ( I'm a solid shape so need that 32t to get up the hills!).

So why are there no decently priced lightweight cassettes?

You have just spent all your hard earned cash on saving a few 100g's on the wheels, only to slap them grams back on with a lump of steel.
Are there ANY decent lightweight cassettes, that don't cost as much as the wheels?
There are still many of us running 9 speed who want a better product than the most basic. Surely and unrecognised/unfulfilled gap in the market?

Phil H 20 14

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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12 comments

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Phil H | 9 years ago
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Thanks for the helpful comments. To be clear, not 'obsessing' about 50g, just very surprised on the weight of cassettes that do not cost a fortune.
Especially after all the research to choose a wheelset upgrade where many reviews comment on differences of a few 100g!
Now to try the wheels

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Metjas | 9 years ago
0 likes

obsessing about 50g? don't fill your water bottle all the way!

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Simon E | 9 years ago
0 likes

In the immortal words of Keith Bontrager:

"Light, Strong, Cheap. Pick any two."

260g is not particularly heavy for a cassette, Shimano 9 speed 12-25 is only 230g.

Back in the 1960s and '70s riders drilled everything they could (google 'drillium') then realised it didn't make them any faster. A cassette is already full of holes, I'd save your energy for something more productive.

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700c | 9 years ago
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Don't think 300g is excessive, apparently the centaur 10s I just fitted is close to 250, and that wasn't cheap..

Interesting that actual and claimed weights can differ by more than the 50g margin you're worried about here - eg the two weights quoted for ultegra in these comments are 90g different

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Phil H | 9 years ago
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Thanks for the comments 2wheeled idiot & hoski
Really helpful to an honest query - very mature.
If you cant be helpful why bother?
I expect you are beanpoles with plenty of weight saved between the ears?
41

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JonD replied to Phil H | 9 years ago
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Phil H wrote:

Thanks for the comments 2wheeled idiot & hoski
Really helpful to an honest query - very mature.
If you cant be helpful why bother?
I expect you are beanpoles with plenty of weight saved between the ears?
41

Well, you were kinda asking for it 3 Since I'm 74-78kg riding a 18-19kg recumbent, saving 100g is rather amusing 4

The thing is, once you've got past ally carriers and slimmed down steel cogs, the only way to go is ally/titanium. The cogs in the former makes more revolutions wrt chainrings so wear relatively faster, the latter's more expensive to produce. As the expression goes, durable, light, cheap, pick any two. Cassettes are consumables, IMO for such a minimal weight difference there's little point spending more than the kinda xt-level or even cheaper.. at some point it goes in the scrap metal bin and it's a good way to chuck money away.

An xt cssette is of the order 260-300g depending on what you read,; and mebbe 35quid, deore is mebbe 400g and 18-20 quid..Sram kinda similar..I'd keep the change and invest it in beer !

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dave atkinson | 9 years ago
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presumably the cassette weighs the same as the cassette on your old wheels though? so you still get the wheel weight saving.

a 9-speed XT 11-32 is about 260g and you can have one for £35 or less. 9-speed road and mountain groupsets from shimano are fully compatible for rear shifting, they're the last ones that are

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 9 years ago
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If you say you are "solid" maybe lose some fat and not worry about a 50g penalty at the cassette 40

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ricardogarlondez | 9 years ago
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http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-xt-m770-9-speed-mtb-cassette-48282.html
merlin cycles 11-32 xt cassette 256g and only £32.50.
i fitted a 10 speed 11-32 xt to my giant defy works well .

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hoski | 9 years ago
0 likes

Why not lose 0.1% of your body weight? It'd be cheaper.

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tom_w | 9 years ago
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I think the issue you'll have is that 11-32 road cassettes didn't show up until fairly recently, so 9 speed dura-ace and Ultegra don't have that range.

Then it occurred to me that 11-32 is an MTB gear range too... A Shimano XTR cassette is seriously light at 224g: http://www.merlincycles.com/shimano-xtr-m970-9-speed-mtb-cassette-48900..... You'd probably want to check the individual gear spacings though, not sure if they would be different on an MTB cassette, might have some funny jumps between ratios?

If you want to spend even more, SRAM do a 175g one "hewn from single billet": http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/sprocket-cluster-casse...

For reference, I just weighed an 11-32 Ultegra 6800 11 speed cassette and that comes in at around 290g

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Shep73 | 9 years ago
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300 grams? Is this cassette a gearbox from a Scammel lorry? Ultegra cassettes are about 200. And the weight is at the centre of the wheel so you will still see the benefits of the upgrade.

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