cassette and crankset ID
 

I was reading a couple of component threads ( 52/36 vs 50/34 and 11-30 vs 11-34 cassette ) and wondered: is there a way to tell what cassette you have and what crankset?

I have an older (1990s) bike with Shimano 105 installed.

Cranksets usually have the names on them. Exact number may be on the inside of the crank arm.
Cassettes may carry a small sticker, also on the inside. May not be visible with the cassette on the bike. Some can be identified by their structure. How many sprockets that attach to a carrier, how many that extends all the way to the freehub body.
Functionally, counting the teeth and number of sprockets will tell you most things about a cassette.

Any resources / links to correlate number of teeth with cassette ID?

See I have this figured it out. An 11-34 cassette is a eleven speed (11 cogs in the rear) with a 34T as the biggest cog (34 tooth cog)?

It was annotated on my 105 chainring: 53/39. Cassette is an 8 speed.

11-34 is the gear ratio so an 11 tooth small sprocket and 34 large sprocket. It could be in a wide variety of cog numbers probably 7 speed on up to 12 speed though.

Thanks vbikes.

Count the teeth on the crank and cassette. How hard could that be?