What cassette?

[Zed]

Resurrecting. My new bike came with Shimano 12 speed and shitty Sunrace cassette that doesn't shift well at all. I do have an XT 11 speed shifter and mech, so going 11 speed will cost me nothing, so I'm thinking I might. I'm looking at the Connex 11sx chain,

Wippermann 11 speed wear test finds Connex 11SX chain lasts longest - Bikerumor

and yeah it's them doing the testing, but I've used Connex before and they did seem to last forever. It's more expensive but if it's lasts more than twice as long, it's better value. So I was thinking 11 speed SLX 11-46T, and a Connex chain. Possibly just changing cassette & chain together in 6 months time or something. Keeps things neat, can budget for it

Interestingly, the SLX cassette is $100AUD, the Connex 11sx is $119AUD but for another $6 I can get a Connex ebike chain. Which probably makes the most sense.

Connex 11 Speed EBike Chain (pushys.com.au)
CONNEX 11SE (connexchain.com.au)

 

[Manc44]

Sorry it's an old thread but I started out on 11-32t and soon realised I'm nearly always on the 48t outer chainring (I only ride on the road but I try to find the steepest hills I can most of the time) and found I hardly ever need anything beyond the 24t on the cassette, even on the 48t outer. I became more concerned with getting the smallest jumps between as many gears as possible, albeit on 9-speed.

Next I put a 13-23t on (9-speed) and that solved the jumps between gears since it went 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23 but now, I'm again wanting to put my old 11-32t back on! Why? Because it means the bike is always usable if the motor fails. I'll still be able to get up hills, within reason, with ~9 KG of battery + motor on it.

MTB cassette pros:
- It has an 11t (I'm not a washing machine!)
- The 24t is 3 sprockets down from the lowest sprocket, so there will be less cross chaining on the outer.
- I can get up hills without the motor if need be (within reason).
- Rear mech can be setup better. I had to use a Saint M810 on with the "close ratio" 13-23t cassette and although that Saint rear mech is able to adapt to do that, it's just not suited to use with a triple chainset since it only has a GS cage on it. Also the shifting is harder on that mech. It doesn't shift as well as a MTB setup does. If I put my old XT M772 SGS rear mech on, that has a total capacity (45t) exactly matching my setup.
- The Saint rear mech setup needs a chain that is slack when on small/small, so big-big works (and I am always cross chaining it so I have maybe a longer chain for that reason too, but shifting is a bit crap because of it).

MTB cassette cons:
- Big jumps between gears.


If you're using a mid drive with say a 36t single chainring, something like an 11-speed 11-40t gives you a gear just under 1:1. I've never had to use a gear lower than my 24x23 which is about the same as 36x40 (slightly higher). Good luck on those 40t+ alloy low sprockets on a mid drive. This is just one more reason I use a hub motor, I wanted to keep a triple chainset. That alone can be the difference between having massive jumps on the cassette (like 17-20 or 18-21) and not doing.

I hunted for ages to find the perfect cassette on 9-speed and there's only one that exists that goes 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32 and that's the crappy cheap as f**k HG200 - so this is what I use. Notice how it goes 17-19-21... that's where the gaps are most annoying and it has no 3t gap around that area, unlike every other 11-32, 11-34 and 11-36 cassette in 9-speed.