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Cassette Chainring wear - and spares availability
One perhaps for Cycling Funnies - "the great thing with cassettes over freewheels is that the whole thing comes apart so you can replace individual cogs when they wear out; works out cheaper."
A whole bunch of chain skipping in mid gears under load - checked the mech alignment, lockring, recently replaced chain, only one thing left. Another upgrade - from Ultegra to a Miche 13-30t 10s cassette.
Maybe if I surfed hard enough, I'd find more around, but you have to wonder even at £5 a time whether it would be economic. This was the best selection I found:
https://www.highonbikes.com/collections/cassette-spares?srsltid=AfmBOoq2...
pucture coming up
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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I've got replacements for the 3 cogs I reckon are the most worn. One was a Miche cog which seems to be built slightly differently to the Shimano - Shimanos are a perfect disc, Miche are dished slightly. It came with a paper-thin spacer.
I've assembled it, not 100% sure if the distances are even - might be one for a friction shifter using bike.
PS it looks like I've found yet another Brexit benefit here - there looked to be more choice of spare cogs from European suppliers, the ones we're cut off from now either completely or by massive postal charges. That said, I did a modest order from Santafixie last month who I didn't even realise were in Spain - no outlandish charges, no undue delays and in general good service.
PPS I'd assembled a similar shopping basket at Planet X, which came up with a bizarre £17 shipping charge - anyone else had that?
You can get aftermarket cogs on Aliexpress, but I guess it's a bit of a gamble?
My understanding is that the correct way is to check the chain regularly (tools are cheap), replace the chain when needed (<0.75% for 11 speed, <1 for 7 speed), then change the cassette every 2-3 chains... BTW I've heard that a new chain on older cogs "adapts" very quickly, so it's recommended to also change the chain, with a new cassette.
Also the chain and cogs might last much longer with a good lube and clean drive train.
Everything Ali Express seems to be a gamble, but don't some of the steel frames on there look tempting? One could take a punt on a few £££s of smaller items like these cogs, I guess.
I guess it's sensible to run a log-book for each bike - Bike A / SRAM chain / date, Bike B - new tyres - date, bike C - regreased f and r wheel bearings - date
But do you find the idea of supporting the economy of a hostile nation tempting?
Strava is handy for keeping track of gear usage (assuming one is already using it of course)...
Yes, I found cheap cycling tools and clothes on aliexpress that are fine, TPU tubes quality slightly more random, aftermarket spare parts for Garmin were useless... For cassettes/cogs and similar parts they may have genuine, branded kits/parts, too.
I can only remember chain skipping on my first bike, long ago... although I have now an old bike with almost pointy tips on some cogs (I didn't notice it until recently), for some reason the chain doesn't skip. It's at least the 3rd or 4th chain with the same cassette/chainrings.. I'm still using it for short urban rides.
I'm now logging every lube application for my new bike, I recently switched to Squirt lube after decades of oil when it was obviously needed, and I also bought a small chain checker, I hope I'm good for a few years!
If I put the micrometer on the tips of the cogs on a new cassette or the unworn smaller cogs, they're about 3.5mm across. I was getting readings of less than 3mm on some of these teeth.
Rohloff do a cassette checking thing. I only found out about it when I got my Rohloff, so don't really need it, same with the Pedro's vice whip and the Abby Crombie.
Someone may have experience of it's real world usage, mark1a might have one?
I have the Unior sprocket wear indicator tool, around £20 I think, and it takes a bit of the guesswork out of whether to change a cassette or not. Basically, with the wheel off the bike, you wrap the chain part around a sprocket (like a chain whip), leaving the last link raised. Then apply some turning force to the bar and drop the last link into the gap. If it drops in with no interference, it's good, if the link sticks on a tooth, it's time to change. It's the closest thing available to a "go no-go" type check I've found. Has possibly paid for itself by not changing a serviceable cassette prematurely at some point, or conversely indicating a change is due and saving the chain.
My Christmas 2024 list is now open.
I guess the party trick there is to simulate some torque - better than a problem you can only detect under load.
Have you (or anyone) tried changing out individual cogs? Given that a new 105 cassette, assuming I can find one, isn't going to be less than £45 it sounds like changing 3 or 4 worn cogs might be worth doing. Don't even ask what 10s ULTEGRA costs.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355666306926
I've always replaced the whole cassette, and not the individual cogs, I wasn't really aware of the individual ones being available as spares until reading this. TBH I'll probably still change the whole unit, as I record distance/usage on all components for all bikes, and I don't want to start tracking individual cogs, I get fairly long use from cassette & chainrings as I keep the chains in good order and tend to stay on top of the chain wear.
Miche cassettes are made up of individual cogs.
Did it with a Record cassette at one point. I bought a cheaper cassette and took the sprocket or sprocket pair or whatever it was from that.