Aftermarket Cassettes

[Butcher]

[glepore]

Good to know. I own a German auto repair shop. Mostly Mercedes, but I suspect that might just work. Do you know if it works on clients?

LOL. I have 2 m120's just bc I'm a glutton for punishment...I squeak a lot. Great cars but parts becoming a real issue.

[gruppetto]

I bought a Neutron 11-34 cassette. The positive: Machining looks really well made. The negatives: Weight was 185 gramms instead of the claimed 175 gramms. Shifting is ass.

[OtterSpace]

I just bought two 3rd gen ZTTO cassettes and will report back after testing but wanted to capture my thoughts and expectations before so that I can come back and see how my opinion shifts from testing.

Cassette 1: 11s 11-32. This will replace a SRAM XG-1190 11-32 with rubber rings removed 181.69g cassette + 5.32g lockring = 187.01g. ZTTO claimed weight 119g; delta 68.01g. Same size direct swap over. I expect I will keep this cassette deployed as that bike is a weight mostly first build currently at 4.4kg inc pedals that has mech SRAM 11s and extralite rings so shifting is meh/poop already. Depending on the grams saved I might be able to justify moving to 11s mech Dura-Ace and stay under some magical self imposed arbitrary weight limits that I have for that build of 10lbs (~4.5kg).

Likely the best case deployment for these aftermarket cassettes.

Cassette 2: 12s 11-34. This will replace a Dura-Ace 9200 11-34 stock 249.9g cassette + 5.28g lockring = 255.18g. ZTTO claimed weight 137g; delta 118.18g. Same size direct swap over. I expect I'll not get on with the shifting of this cassette and sell it on. It will be used on a rim brake bike with very short 405mm chainstays, Dura-Ace RD cage, Dura-Ace chainrings, and a rotation of a YBN and Dura-Ace chain. This bike currently has the best shifting I've ever experienced when using the Dura-Ace chain. The build is fairly light weight but is more of a no compromise optimized & balanced build.

Likely the worst case deployment for these aftermarket cassettes but where the market volume is (apart from being a rim brake bike).... Well not quite worst case. I do have an ebike that could use a 11-28 but no way I'd subject myself to that kind of test putting crazy high sustained wattage (500w) through 23-25-28 Al cogs.

Lets see if my expectations hold.



edit: for reference here are the rubber rings I removed from the SRAM XG-1190 11-32 that ZTTO does not have. When I removed the rings weight went down by 7.8g but cassette noise went up as one would expect.

[joebusby]

Any advice on a good shifting aftermarket 11-36 11 Speed to run with a 52/36 GRX Di2 Setup?

I'd be happy with Shimano weights for equivalent shifting. I don't like 9 tooth small cogs etc.

Everything I've read says the ztto and sroad ones are a dead end with poor shifting. I could run a 11-40 XTR, but then I'd need a 54/40 front and I don't think any mech is going to happily manage those jumps!

[Greny]

I just bought two 3rd gen ZTTO cassettes and will report back after testing but wanted to capture my thoughts and expectations before so that I can come back and see how my opinion shifts from testing.

Cassette 1: 11s 11-32. This will replace a SRAM XG-1190 11-32 with rubber rings removed 181.69g cassette + 5.32g lockring = 187.01g. ZTTO claimed weight 119g; delta 68.01g. Same size direct swap over. I expect I will keep this cassette deployed as that bike is a weight mostly first build currently at 4.4kg inc pedals that has mech SRAM 11s and extralite rings so shifting is meh/poop already. Depending on the grams saved I might be able to justify moving to 11s mech Dura-Ace and stay under some magical self imposed arbitrary weight limits that I have for that build of 10lbs (~4.5kg).

Likely the best case deployment for these aftermarket cassettes.

Cassette 2: 12s 11-34. This will replace a Dura-Ace 9200 11-34 stock 249.9g cassette + 5.28g lockring = 255.18g. ZTTO claimed weight 137g; delta 118.18g. Same size direct swap over. I expect I'll not get on with the shifting of this cassette and sell it on. It will be used on a rim brake bike with very short 405mm chainstays, Dura-Ace RD cage, Dura-Ace chainrings, and a rotation of a YBN and Dura-Ace chain. This bike currently has the best shifting I've ever experienced when using the Dura-Ace chain. The build is fairly light weight but is more of a no compromise optimized & balanced build.

Likely the worst case deployment for these aftermarket cassettes but where the market volume is (apart from being a rim brake bike).... Well not quite worst case. I do have an ebike that could use a 11-28 but no way I'd subject myself to that kind of test putting crazy high sustained wattage (500w) through 23-25-28 Al cogs.

Lets see if my expectations hold.



edit: for reference here are the rubber rings I removed from the SRAM XG-1190 11-32 that ZTTO does not have. When I removed the rings weight went down by 7.8g but cassette noise went up as one would expect.
rings.jpg

Keep us posted , loved the zit to 11 speeds , got a 12 s it was....rubbish

[JWTS]

Any advice on a good shifting aftermarket 11-36 11 Speed to run with a 52/36 GRX Di2 Setup?

I'd be happy with Shimano weights for equivalent shifting. I don't like 9 tooth small cogs etc.

Everything I've read says the ztto and sroad ones are a dead end with poor shifting. I could run a 11-40 XTR, but then I'd need a 54/40 front and I don't think any mech is going to happily manage those jumps!

ZTTO Gen 3 cassette on di2 (8150 GS) 11-36 has been perfect shifting after about 500kms. My wife has one of these. Shifting was actually perfect out the box, but the cassette had a bit of noise. This went away after the first 500kms. I've also used a SRAM 1170 on my gravel bike 11-36 11 speed di2, and shifting was really good with that as well (much better than the 11 speed RED cassettes, which never really worked right in all of the gears). It's heavy though.

Now that I'm about 1,500-2K in on the ZTTO Gen 3 cassette (11-34 11 speed) on my road bike, I have to say that the shifting is 100% equal to Shimano. I was able to get rid of the creak as well by spraying some lubricant on the aluminum ring where it mates to the steel cogs.

All that said...performance on these seems a bit...variable? Maybe I've been lucky, but I'm actually shocked at how well these are performing.

[satanas]

...I could run a 11-40 XTR, but then I'd need a 54/40 front and I don't think any mech is going to happily manage those jumps!

Is there some reason why you don't want a bottom gear less than 1:1? If so you could just run 50x34 with a Shimano 11-34, which will absolutely work, and is within Shimano specs.

As for 11-40, this will work with any of the 11 speed long cage Shimano road RDs, including GRX, Ultegra RX, R8000GS, & R7000GS. FWIW, with Ultegra RX and 42x27 + 11-40 *all* gear combinations had chain tension, and shifting was fine; Shimano specs don't tell you anything helpful IME.

54x40 + 11-40 has less range than I had so should be okay, although why anyone would want 54/52/50x11 off-road is beyond me - unless you're MVDP and racing UCI "gravel" worlds.

Much as I'm not a fan of 1x (because of the gaps), if 1:1 is a low enough gear, then either XPLR, or GRX with a 10-45 cassette should do the job in this case. (I'm a spinner and go bikepacking on occasion, so don't care about high gears, but do care about low gears and excessive gaps; I didn't like 21-24T with the 11-40 cassette.)

[joebusby]

...I could run a 11-40 XTR, but then I'd need a 54/40 front and I don't think any mech is going to happily manage those jumps!

Is there some reason why you don't want a bottom gear less than 1:1? If so you could just run 50x34 with a Shimano 11-34, which will absolutely work, and is within Shimano specs.

As for 11-40, this will work with any of the 11 speed long cage Shimano road RDs, including GRX, Ultegra RX, R8000GS, & R7000GS. FWIW, with Ultegra RX and 42x27 + 11-40 *all* gear combinations had chain tension, and shifting was fine; Shimano specs don't tell you anything helpful IME.

54x40 + 11-40 has less range than I had so should be okay, although why anyone would want 54/52/50x11 off-road is beyond me - unless you're MVDP and racing UCI "gravel" worlds.

Much as I'm not a fan of 1x (because of the gaps), if 1:1 is a low enough gear, then either XPLR, or GRX with a 10-45 cassette should do the job in this case. (I'm a spinner and go bikepacking on occasion, so don't care about high gears, but do care about low gears and excessive gaps; I didn't like 21-24T with the 11-40 cassette.)

The 1:1 is for training in my area, where I struggle to stay in Z2 (280ish) due to the grades. A 50 isn't big enough to race road on the same bike that I plan to also race next year at gravel worlds.

Maybe a 11-34 with a 52/36 might work, but Dura ace only goes to 11-30, and the ultegra is a boat anchor.

In retrospect you're probably right, I should just get two sets of chain rings, two cassettes and two chains.

[jeanjacques]

Hello,

I'm using this Goldix, 12s 11-34 with Shimano mechanical shifting (105, DA, Ultegra and GRX mixed together, KMC x12 chain):


After some trouble with a clicking noise at the end of the cassette, it was an incorrect setting. Now it's just perfect and I'm the first to be surprised, any noise, crisp and fast shift, can't ask more.

[rowdyyy]

Could you please explain what the incorrect setting was and how you managed to fix it?

[jeanjacques]

The cliking noise was on the second to last cog, annoying to the point to avoid it.
Normally I set the rear derailleur to have the least space between the upper pulley and the last cog but here the result was a poor shifting, not even fast. So I tried with different space, some setting I never think about gave a very good result. At the same time I played with the main tension screw (I had to change the housing for pearl one, too little margin) and finally found a sweet spot. A new Shimano chain was on the way and I discussed with a guy to bought a second hand DA cassette, my previous attempts had come to nothing.
So I can't help more, I never had to setup a derailleur like this and if I have to do it again I don't have a lot of clue to be faster.

[warthog101]

Same cassette but ztto 11-34



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

Doing some work on the bike today. Decided to weigh that cassette. Didn't bother previously. 252gm with the lockring.

[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.

[TriJoeri]

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