Aftermarket Cassettes

[joebusby]

Same cassette but ztto 11-34



12s Ultegra di2. About 7k km. It just works.

Any reason to be wary when accelerating hard on those 3 largest cogs like some suggest? I want to get the 11-30 cassette for my road bike which I use for gran fondos, so I would like for it to not break when I have to "get on it" at >500W in those gears

At 11-30 you could get a 9100 cassette for perfect shifting - not persuaded?

[warthog101]

Same cassette but ztto 11-34



12s Ultegra di2. About 7k km. It just works.

Any reason to be wary when accelerating hard on those 3 largest cogs like some suggest? I want to get the 11-30 cassette for my road bike which I use for gran fondos, so I would like for it to not break when I have to "get on it" at >500W in those gears

I am almost 56. I can put out 500w when I need to. Haven't deliberately done it in the largest (most teeth) sprockets. I centainly have at various points on the cassette. It has never done anything wrong.

[nickf]

Been riding that cassette with zero thoughts about those 3 cogs. Responding to accelerations on group rides while climbing 10%+grades, no issues at all.

[raisinberry777]

Looks like a new generation of Chinese XDR cassettes are available with a slightly lighter weight:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOl7kd1

[JWTS]

Same cassette but ztto 11-34



12s Ultegra di2. About 7k km. It just works.

Any reason to be wary when accelerating hard on those 3 largest cogs like some suggest? I want to get the 11-30 cassette for my road bike which I use for gran fondos, so I would like for it to not break when I have to "get on it" at >500W in those gears

That cassette is the all steel version, you don't need to do anything special... Just ride it. It works flawlessly for me. Like the Gen 3 hybrid it was a little noisy in a couple of cogs, but that went away after a copy of hundred km's.

[warthog101]

That cassette is the all steel version, you don't need to do anything special... Just ride it. It works flawlessly for me. Like the Gen 3 hybrid it was a little noisy in a couple of cogs, but that went away after a copy of hundred km's.

I am interested to hear how the gen 3 goes longer term. I cross chain in the big ring on the 2nd and third largest (as in most teeth) sprockets a bit. Dunno how the aluminium will wear long term. Still plenty of teeth and chain rings are aluminium and last ages.

Dunno what this cassette was classed as but it was rubbish. The aluminium gears shifted ok, but toward the bottom of the cassette, the steel ones did not.

[DeathClassic]

I've found some hanging on 7>6 when pushing above 200w in a shift. Every other gear is pretty ok. I might have to change the jockey wheels at some point. Der hanger is straight. Might be worth having a play with the B screw.

I did the opposite to what shimano recommends on the 12 speed casettes and actually reduced the b-screw gap to halfway between what the shimano guide is for 30t and 34t. This has livened up the shifiting and so far, has stopped the annoying hanging of 7>6 downshifts. On 12 speed you give more of a gap between derallieur pulley and casette, while on 11sp its about getting it as close as possible. I guess that the regular 12 speed shimano can handle the wider gap but this ZTTO design can't.

[JWTS]

That cassette is the all steel version, you don't need to do anything special... Just ride it. It works flawlessly for me. Like the Gen 3 hybrid it was a little noisy in a couple of cogs, but that went away after a copy of hundred km's.

I am interested to hear how the gen 3 goes longer term. I cross chain in the big ring on the 2nd and third largest (as in most teeth) sprockets a bit. Dunno how the aluminium will wear long term. Still plenty of teeth and chain rings are aluminium and last ages.

Dunno what this cassette was classed as but it was rubbish. The aluminium gears shifted ok, but toward the bottom of the cassette, the steel ones did not.

That looks like the 2nd gen aluminum cassette (the naming conventions seem to apply to the hybrid cassettes, not the steel ones). On the one I have, the bottom of the cassette is visually identical to the latest steel version and shifting is identical to it.

How long will the top three last? I mean, like all things,"it depends"... Everyone has their own approach on this stuff, but personally I'm not going to be bothered with worrying about what gear I'm in because of the material of my cassette. The bike is their to work for me, not the other way around. So, I'm going to x-chain in the 9th position cog pretty frequently, the 10th position cog every now and then, and the top/11th position cog almost never. Looking at the cassette, I can tell you that the 9th position cog is going to determine the lifespan of the cassette... Yes, chainrigs list forever, but there's a reason back in the old 3x mtb days, they often made the inner out of steel. A 27T cog is going to wear a lot faster than a 34T chainring. This is actually why I went with the 11-34--I'd be less x-chained, and the aluminum cogs are bigger (27/30/34 vs 24/28/32).

I'm only about 61kg, so a 30 second sprint is only 600W or so, peak south of 1,000, but I've done some full-gas hill sprints on this cassette, and pretty sure I was in the 27 during it. There's a fast extended climb near me where I'll spend some time in the 52/27 as well. Right now, there is some visual wear on the black anodizing on the 27T cog, and what I'd describe as some scratches, but nothing terrible. Performance is perfect at ~2,000kms. That said, I'm at a crossroads with it. Because it works so well, I'm thinking of pulling it off and relegating it to "race/event cassette"...but, I'm curious to see how long it will actually last, because science and all that! If I could be assured that a new one would shift as well as this one, I'd do that, but the performance of these seems pretty variable.

This raises the question for me: what is an acceptable length of time out of a sub $100, sub 140 gram cassette?? I mean, when you think about it, that's insane. 4,000 kms? Pretty sure this cassette will make it that long. 10,000 km? I doubt it the way I'm using it, but I'm not sure.

[warthog101]

That looks like the 2nd gen aluminum cassette (the naming conventions seem to apply to the hybrid cassettes, not the steel ones). On the one I have, the bottom of the cassette is visually identical to the latest steel version and shifting is identical to it.

How long will the top three last? I mean, like all things,"it depends"... Everyone has their own approach on this stuff, but personally I'm not going to be bothered with worrying about what gear I'm in because of the material of my cassette. The bike is their to work for me, not the other way around. So, I'm going to x-chain in the 9th position cog pretty frequently, the 10th position cog every now and then, and the top/11th position cog almost never. Looking at the cassette, I can tell you that the 9th position cog is going to determine the lifespan of the cassette... Yes, chainrigs list forever, but there's a reason back in the old 3x mtb days, they often made the inner out of steel. A 27T cog is going to wear a lot faster than a 34T chainring. This is actually why I went with the 11-34--I'd be less x-chained, and the aluminum cogs are bigger (27/30/34 vs 24/28/32).

I'm only about 61kg, so a 30 second sprint is only 600W or so, peak south of 1,000, but I've done some full-gas hill sprints on this cassette, and pretty sure I was in the 27 during it. There's a fast extended climb near me where I'll spend some time in the 52/27 as well. Right now, there is some visual wear on the black anodizing on the 27T cog, and what I'd describe as some scratches, but nothing terrible. Performance is perfect at ~2,000kms. That said, I'm at a crossroads with it. Because it works so well, I'm thinking of pulling it off and relegating it to "race/event cassette"...but, I'm curious to see how long it will actually last, because science and all that! If I could be assured that a new one would shift as well as this one, I'd do that, but the performance of these seems pretty variable.

This raises the question for me: what is an acceptable length of time out of a sub $100, sub 140 gram cassette?? I mean, when you think about it, that's insane. 4,000 kms? Pretty sure this cassette will make it that long. 10,000 km? I doubt it the way I'm using it, but I'm not sure.

Thanks for the detailed response.
Despite being on weight weenies I am not a weight weenie. If it wont last 10k km it's a scratching. The 12s steel one I have has ~7k km and is doing everything perfectly. I'll stick with them then.

[OtterSpace]

I just recieved my 11s 11-32 3rd gen cassette which I am testing against a sram XG1190 11-32 that I've used for many years.

No ride feedback yet but here are some comparative photos. It seems to me like XG1190 is clearly the predicate design they iterated from. If you look at the XG1190 design there are roughly three cog designs the small cogs all have circumferential total metal contract to the next cog, the middle cogs are weenied down as they transition to the next cog, and the largest ring is a big block of Al. The aftermarket cassettes simplify and weenie down this design by basically using the middle cog design, removing the "Stealth rings" like I did on my XG1190 to save weight, and going for 3 Al cogs instead of 1. I do really like that the 11t is attached to the block vs the SRAM design where it was separate. The aftermarket lock ring also lacks a thin metal washer so I won't be using it given I have others that have one integrated which are lighter.

From this I don't think my expectations are much changed at a high level but it's interesting to see the details to better understand where these cassettes make sense to suggest and where they make less sense. I'm guessing that there is some loss of stiffness in the smaller cogs and obviously the smallest Al cog comes earlier so long term wear will be worse but SRAM seems more and more confident to trickle Al cogs to lower teeth numbers so should be good for most. Also without the "Stealth rings" it should be louder than it would otherwise be but I've been fine without them on my XG1190. Seems like a fairly sensible weenied down and cheapened XG1190. Ride testing will be the true test though.

Provided the attachment pins hold out I'm fairly optimistic it will be a good recommendation for people weening down an 11s build that already have the lighter SRAM cassettes. Will be interesting to compare to Shimano 12s cassettes though but thats for another time.

[warthog101]

decided to weigh that 12s steel ztto cassette today whilst doing some other work on the bike. Hadn't bothered previously.
252gm including the lockring

[JWTS]

Compared to the 1190, it's much quieter even without the dampers, and shifting is much better. With Di2, I never got the 1190 to where I was really happy with the shifting. There was always one troublesome shift, or some noise. After some break-in miles, shifting in this is equal to or better than an Ultegra 11-32, and it's actuator less noisy. Only thing that remains to be seen now is the long-term wear.

My 11-32 was 139 grams with locking.

[OtterSpace]

ZTTO 12s SLR gen3 11-34 cassette arrived today and is way over the claimed weight of "about 137g". Still way under an equivalent sized Dura-Ace cassette with Ti cogs, much more material, and individually made cogs which is kind of an outdated approach now vs what SRAM does that I hope Shimano improves on for future gens. The aftermarket cassette design is basically the same between the 11s and 12s parts on individual cogs except for likely having small changes to the teeth design to fit a 12s chain so fewer pictures of this one.

[alanyu]

ZTTO 12s SLR gen3 11-34 cassette arrived today and is way over the claimed weight of "about 137g". Still way under an equivalent sized Dura-Ace cassette with Ti cogs, much more material, and individually made cogs which is kind of an outdated approach now vs what SRAM does that I hope Shimano improves on for future gens. The aftermarket cassette design is basically the same between the 11s and 12s parts on individual cogs except for likely having small changes to the teeth design to fit a 12s chain so fewer pictures of this one.
ztto12.PNG
DA.PNG

The problem is, individual cogs are easy to be shaped. One piece CNC has very limited gap for the bit to angle. That's one of the reason why Shimano shifting is a gold standard.

[Charlie69]

I need an 11 speed cassette for a trip to Italy.... hoping to get an 11-32 or maybe 11-34 to work with dura ace 9170. Without reading over the whole thread can someone recommend a light cassette with decent shifting performance?