Road Bike Cassette Types

A typical gear spread for an mtb cassette the amount of teeth on the smallest and largest sprockets would be 11 34t.

Road bike cassette types. I ran a 9 cogs of a 10 speed set up for about a year on my road bike having been originally inspired to give it a shot after reading sheldon s 8 of 9 article while waiting to build a new bike with a true 10 speed set up. Most mtb bikes use 9 10 11 or 12 speed cassettes although more budget models may use 8 or less commonly 7 speed. Their gear range is usually between 21 to 32 teeth for the low gear and 11 to 13 for the high gear usually with a single tooth increment. There are different types of cassettes that you could choose for your bike.

I used an ultegra 10 speed cassette with the 4th cog and one spacer removed on a 7 speed 105 hub. This cylindrical mechanism ratchets counter clockwise for coasting and locks clockwise for driving the bike when pedaled. It also helps determine which tool is needed for removal and installation. They typically differ from road bike cassettes in having greater gaps in gearing between each sprocket.

Do i have a cassette or a freewheel this video gives the answer. For example the cassette you d want for a mountain bike would be very different to the cassette you d choose for a road bike. Cranks come in a number of forms for road bikes including standard compact super compact. The freehub body has a series of splines on the outer shell.

Standard which is commonly 53x39 and compact commonly 50x34. Road bike cassettes can be found in a massive range of sizes but they have a rear cassette with very little difference between the sprockets. When selecting a cassette the main thing to consider is the range of gearing. Most road bike cassettes have an 11 12 or 13 tooth smallest sprocket then between 21 and 32 teeth on the largest sprocket.

The vast majority of road bikes come with a 12 25 cassette which is suitable for most cycling terrain when paired with a compact or standard chainset. Thus a 11 28t cassette would denote a cassette with a smallest 11 tooth and largest 28 tooth sprocket. On a road bike you have two choices of chainset. Cassettes generally offer gears in the range of 11 25 or 11 28.

Cassette sprockets slide over these splines. If you are running a 1x drivetrain with a regular sized cassette i e. 11 36t or smaller or some 2x mountain bike drivetrains with a similarly sized cassette you may want to use a medium cage.