Mountain Bike Cassettes Explained

Road bike cassettes will have smaller sprockets with a smaller jump between the teeth sizes when compared to mountain bike cassettes.

Mountain bike cassettes explained. Wiggle s best selling 11 speed mountain bike cassette is the shimano deore xt m8000 cassette 11 46. This video simplifies all the terms and explains how your gears impact your riding. Cycling gearing can be confusing. Meanwhile 11 speed mountain bike cassettes come in even larger sprocket ranges providing an even greater gear ratio choice such as 11 40 10 42 and even 11 46.

Shifting explained for beginners if you haven t a clue how many gears your bike has how many you actually need or even how to use them properly don t worry you re not alone. Global mountain bike network 932 647 views. It connects via the chain or belt in some cases to the drive wheel of the bike. They typically differ from road bike cassettes in having greater gaps in gearing between each sprocket.

Cassettes generally offer gears in the range of 11 25 or 11 28. Bike gears explained. On the crankset the smallest chainring is closest to the frame. The brands in mountain biking there are two key brands that control the vast share of the market shimano and sram.

On a typical mountain bike. When choosing cassettes. A chainset is part of the drivetrain on a bike. Most road bikes will come with 11 12 or 13 teeth on the smallest sprocket and then will have anywhere between 21 and 32 teeth on the largest sprocket.

The chainset rotates using the bottom bracket as a support and housing. When the chainset travels in a clockwise direction this provides the power to move the bike forwards. It can be confusing to get your head around but generally speaking chainrings are smaller and cassettes are bigger on mountain bikes when compared to other popular bike types. Road bike cassettes for climbing.

A typical gear spread for an mtb cassette the amount of teeth on the smallest and largest sprockets would be 11 34t. 12 speed drivetrains are also available for mtbs. Single or 1x chainrings are gaining popularity particularly among mountain bikers and cyclocross riders but are still a fairly niche application. Most mtb bikes use 9 10 11 or 12 speed cassettes although more budget models may use 8 or less commonly 7 speed.