Jump to content

Racing / Training Wheel help pls?


Nickzta

Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I just bought a new cassette to help me up the hills, my knees were starting to kinc-in. Thing is, I will still want to use the old cassette for flat rides/races.

 

My question is, whether it will be technically easier to swap Wheels or Cassettes? I'm fairly practicle, but find that cog/derailer alignment can be difficult to get perfectly right.

 

Any comments/wisdom from people who have been here before?

 

Should I invest in a new back wheel and switch wheels; or should I just change cassette on the day, according to the ride profile?

 

tks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How much money do you have?

 

A cassette tool and chain whip should be less than R300 and it should take less than 10min to swap a cassette.

 

Changing cassettes shouldn't affect your shifting much, if at all. I often swapped between 11-23 and 12-25 and never had to adjust the derailleur.

 

For convenience, you just need some way to keep all the sprockets and spacing rings in order. Campag cassettes come on a plastic cassette holder that allows you to just slide the cassette off, otherwise you could use a cable tie or something like that. The image below seems to indicate that SRAM/Shimano cassettes also have these.

 

http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/rimages4/vil_speedloader.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use 3 different cassettes and swop them all the time, depending on where I will be riding. No problems whatsoever, just make sure that the back spacer (if fitted) is always in place. Once you've done it a couple of times, it is literally a 3 minute job, and there should be no need to adjust anything after the swop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the reply.

 

I don't have "tuns of muney" for this. But could find enough to buy a new back wheel.

 

Chatted to my LBS on this, they recon a 2 tooth jump between cassettes will be fine. (on that info, your 12-25 vs 11-23 would be fine.)

 

I'm swapping an 11-23 with an 11-28, so I'm a little concerned.

 

In my mind two 10 spd cassettes should both work on the same derailer settings, chain tension would obviously be the biggest factor.

Edited by Nickzta
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is anybody else out there swapping back wheels. Say from a wheel with 11-23 cassette to an 11-28 ?

I use 23:11 for flattish routes, 25:11 for rolling hills, and 27:12 if major hills are expected or if my legs are stuffed. All with the same chain, same settings, and on two different sets of wheels.

You are stressing about nothing, buy the chain whip and cassette tool, and just do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use 3 different cassettes and swop them all the time, depending on where I will be riding. No problems whatsoever, just make sure that the back spacer (if fitted) is always in place. Once you've done it a couple of times, it is literally a 3 minute job, and there should be no need to adjust anything after the swop.

 

Thanks! What cassettes are you swapping?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will have to adjust the derailer settings. The tension might be off.

 

I would keep to one cassette and save loads of pain. Have two sets of wheels and the cassette ratio on both is the same so it's just a swap of the wheels.

 

Now days you get 11 - 28 which might be the best solution?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have two wheelsets. One training and one racing (well 3 actually.... coz I have one spare, and another which the back wheel has a trainer tyre on = 4 in total).

 

Both are 12 - 23 8-speed cassettes.

 

When I get my 10 speed groupo, I will have a std 11-26 cassette for both racing and training. Having the extra gears on 11 - 23 cassette isn't really necessary IMO.

 

If budget is a problem, stick to a nice all-round cassette, but if you have two and they work well for different scenarios, then go for the swapping maneuver.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is anybody else out there swapping back wheels. Say from a wheel with 11-23 cassette to an 11-28 ?

Provided the chain is sized correctly for the 11-28 cassette, chain length will not be an issue: both cassettes have an 11 which is where you'd start running into tension problems.

 

You will have exactly the same problems if you swap the two cassettes on one wheel or if you swap two wheels with different cassettes. In fact, swapping wheels may result in more problems since some wheels have a slightly different offset from the edge of the hub to the first sprocket. I've encountered it a couple of times and it's usually very small, but enough to produce noisy shifting on at least one of the wheels.

Edited by Edman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use 23:11 for flattish routes, 25:11 for rolling hills, and 27:12 if major hills are expected or if my legs are stuffed. All with the same chain, same settings, and on two different sets of wheels.

You are stressing about nothing, buy the chain whip and cassette tool, and just do it.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Provided the chain is sized correctly for the 11-28 cassette, chain length will not be an issue: both cassettes have an 11 which is where you'd start running into tension problems.

 

You will have exactly the same problems if you swap the two cassettes on one wheel or if you swap two wheels with different cassettes. In fact, swapping wheels may result in more problems since some wheels have a slightly different offset from the edge of the hub to the first sprocket. I've encountered it a couple of times and it's usually very small, but enough to produce noisy shifting on at least one of the wheels.

 

I have had that on my one wheelset - it got decommissioned from the road and is now my IDT wheel...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Settings My Forum Content My Followed Content Forum Settings Ad Messages My Ads My Favourites My Saved Alerts My Pay Deals Help Logout