Weight Weenies

I know they haven't been out long, but anyone want to give an opinion on the durability of Campy's new SR 11 speed cassettes? $300++ is a lot of money for a cassette that may not last long, titanium's never been known for it's durability as a metal under friction.

Buy two Chorus cassettes, ride more, and still save over $100

Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com

I also purchased Chorus cassettes. I have had the one on my training wheels since mid July with right around 4500 mi on it -- my first chain lasted close to 2k mi before it showed stretch against my Park chain checker. I have had great success with the Chorus cassette, but I think that the SR or Record will hold up to a number of miles if you keep a close eye on your chain. If you are really worried, it is not that hard to change chains every 1k mi or so -- Campag chains are the best in my opinion (based on both Park and Wipperman chin checkers) and will give you well over 1k mi. So long as you don't let your chain go, your cassette should last. If you had an aluminum cassette, that would be different -- but a steel and ti should be just fine.

SR cassette lasted me approx 4500 miles. Even then most wear was on the small ti cog. Replaced it with Record and am over 6000 miles and it's still going strong. Both of these outlasted the 10 speed Record full ti cassette (3500 miles). IMO the Record is the beat trade off of durability vs weight. Chorus would be my choice for winter training. I weigh 95 kilos and have always been hard on drivetrains. I replace the chain every 1500 miles if not sooner and clean my chain daily. Keep your old cassettes as sometimes you can mix and match some of the unworn ti coggs for use on the cheaper Chorus

Record chain too rusty?

1K miles to change em is pretty early....

I always use Record chains... they are only like $5 more expensive and a bit lighter.

rustychain wrote:SR cassette lasted me approx 4500 miles. Even then most wear was on the small ti cog. Replaced it with Record and am over 6000 miles and it's still going strong. Both of these outlasted the 10 speed Record full ti cassette (3500 miles). IMO the Record is the beat trade off of durability vs weight. Chorus would be my choice for winter training. I weigh 95 kilos and have always been hard on drivetrains. I replace the chain every 1500 miles if not sooner and clean my chain daily. Keep your old cassettes as sometimes you can mix and match some of the unworn ti coggs for use on the cheaper Chorus

This was also the advice from my LBS, and what I chose to go with for my new build. There is a difference of about 30gms and $100 from SR<>Record<>Chorus, and I had to try and save a few $ somewhere (I got a great deal on the SR gruppo - less than the cost of Record). I am almost half of rustychain's weight (58k), so maybe I can do even better in the longevity department!

Tinea Pedis wrote:Record chain too rusty?

1K miles to change em is pretty early....

Yes Record chain. I mentioned 1500 miles as I am more concerned with cassette life then chain. I would increase that milage for a Chorus cassette as I am less concerned about wearing out steel teeth. My yearly bill for chains, cassettes, and tubulars is unbelievable. I think it's cheaper to drive my car Its a beast being a WW

Ive been pretty lucky with my casettes I guess. Ive cranked out thousands of KMs on the same 10s casette without a glitch... the key is cleanliness, and proper chain maintenace/renewal.... it will save you in the end! As for 11s, I would agree with the others on here... I opted for a Record 11s block with my new SR groupo as well... the main reason being the top 6 cogs are Ti and my 2 favorite cruise gears 16 and 17 are ti on the SR block.. I think I saw it was over $230 US for the Ti Cogs cluster group to replace...

The new 11 speed cogs are the same thickness as Shimano 10 (1.6mm), so the life should be similar. Ti cogs will last about half as long as steel, so I buy Chorus cassettes. I've can buy three for the cost of one SR.

If you're really interested in long cassette life and sasving some money, then you should try alternating the use of 3-4 chains on one cassette. If no chain is left in use for more that it's half life, and you get the last chian in the rotation in use without chain skip, each chan can be used longer with no fear of chains skip. A well maintained Campy chain will rarely reach the commonly recommended .5% elongation, if it's properly measured with a precision scale, not one of the highly inaccurate chain checkers. I trash a chain when the roller spacing has increased .200 inch to about .240 inch or 6mm. I either use calipers or a home made plug gage to monitor the roller spacing. If you find that a scale shows a true elongation of .5% or 1/16 inch per foot, very quickly, it indicates that your lube or lubing frequency is inadequate and/or you're not cleaning enough.

@DaveS

What have you averaged insofar as life of a Chrous 11 cassette?

R11 chain life?

Even the Chorus does not come cheap. I like the Record cassette as only the last sprockets are Ti, these I do not wear too much. I have a full season on this and it looks good, little obvious sign of wear. With a drive train costing this much, you need to invest some time and effort into cleaning it regularly.

I split my mileage up between three bikes, so it will be a long time before I know how long a cassette lasts. As for the chains, I'm not seeing a major difference between 10 and 11 speed, but I know the 11 can't last quite as long. The greatest mileage I ever got from the wider 6.1mm 10 speed chain was 6,000 miles. The 5.9 would get less and the 5.5 less again.

I'm relatively optimistic that I'll have no problem getting 4,000 miles from an 11 speed chain and the life of 3-4 chains from a cassette, as long as I use those chains in a rotation, so chain skip is never an issue. Then the life ends whenever I finally decide to toss all the chains and the cassette with it. Long before that time, there will be one or two cogs worn enough that they would skip if a new chain was installed.

The definition of "chain life" is somewhat elusive. A chain checker always exaggerates the wear and leads many people to toss half-worn chains. I'll use mine until the roller spacing is at least .240 inch, but each chain will be on and off the cassette several times before that much roller wear occurs. I still don't expect the elongation to exceed .5% - properly measured with a precision ruler.

About that record cassette, Danton. I only pay about $100 USD for a Chorus cassette. A Record model is more that twice that.

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/pp/road-t ... -Road/CASS

Whether the larger Ti cogs wear out first depends on where you ride. I do a lot of climbing, so the Ti cogs would be some of my most-used. Despite being larger, they will be the first to go and last half as long. I'd pay at least 4 times as much to use Record cassettes.

Danton wrote:Even the Chorus does not come cheap.

I just got some Chorus cassettes from Ribble for $92 each. That's inexpensive enough for me!

I had several Record 10 cassettes and they last a really long time though. Just couldn't justify the huge price increase to the higher end cassettes on 11 speed. Maybe this summer when the roads are in better shape.

Ari wrote:What have you averaged insofar as life of a Chrous 11 cassette?

R11 chain life?

I've put about 4,500 miles on my R11 chain and Chorus 11 cassette since May. The chain shows no perceivable elongation (measured with a 12" metal ruler and 6" calipers) and the spacing between rollers measures .210 with calipers. I suspect my cassette could be good for 10,000 miles.

Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com