JimShep

11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,28

I will be upgrading to 11 speed soon. I love single tooth jumps down to the 17 cog but I also want a couple of low gears for the steepest hills. I don't mind big jumps at the bottom of the cassette since I consider these 'bailout' gears. If I switch to the small ring at the 21 tooth I get 13 tightly spaced gears plus 2 big jumps to my bailout gears

So- does anyone make this cassette or is there any way I can piece one together for a reasonable cost. I will probably have a standard shimano 11-28 to work with.

Closest I have found is the campy 12-29 (12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-26-29). I lose a little top end but probably what I will go with, if I can't find/build my dream cassette.

Or SRAM 11-28 (11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-22-25-28) The 19-22 is a big jump a little higher than I want it.

I currently have a 10 speed 11-28 and hate the 15-17 jump.

If this is anything like the racers forum I will get 20 responses telling me I don't/ shouldn't want this

redlude97

i think you are overthinking it. Just use the SRAM 11-28

Spoonrobot 

I did the same thing for the same reasons, I can't stand anything other than 16-18-20 or 17-19-21.

The death of custom gearing is the saddest loss in modern cycling. It makes a huge difference in both recreational riding and racing but is rarely addressed and almost always met with degradation (see above )

My custom cassettes have been 9/10 speed SRAM or Shimano as they are all loose cogs with pins or a tiny 2.5mm hex screw. For 11-speed I only have experience with Shimano 105 cassettes and they do not appear to workable as the three largest cogs are combined on an aluminum spider and cannot be separated like other speeds/levels.

fietsbob

Depends on the size of your Machine shop.. the big companies put all but the 2~3 smallest cogs fixed, on a combined carrier,
because individual ones dug into even the steel driver splines..

& Gram counting marketing wants to use light softer alloys of Al & Ti.

John_V 

+1

joelcool

I sure wish custom gearing was possible. So sad to be stuck with mass marketing.

79pmooney

Can you still mix and match with Campy? The 10 and 11 speeds?) I went Campy 9-speed when I set up my good bike and love the gear choices. Yes, most of the clusters use a 19-21-23 cluster and just the 25 and 28 beyond, but everything from 12 to 18 and be used above so that is a lot of good choices. Top cog can be 12, 13 or 14. I often run 12-14 at the top then one tooth jumps to the 19-23 cluster, pulling the 18 if I want to use the 25 and 16 to use the 28.

Now I have it set up 13-23. Almost a "corncob" and really sweet!

My primary reason for going Campy had nothing to do with the gear choices. SRAM index barely existed and I will never put brake lever shifting on a bike I ride. Too many decades of riding with my index fingers pushing the levers inward to steady the HBs, especially when riding one-handed. The Shimano shift system is, for me, an accident waiting to happen. I've had enough.

Ben

ptempel

I recall reading that the Shimano Tiagra 10 speed cassettes have separate cogs. But that doesn't help for 11 speed. Maybe a third party cassette supplier like Miche might have something closer to what you want?

LIGHT PRIMATO 11 SH - Cassettes / sprockets - Components - Products

Looking at that page and page 73 of the catalog PDF, it seems that they let you customize most of it. However, I don't know who will sell this. Searching only showed the 10 speed primato cassettes so far.

smarkinson

Contact this guy and ask him if it's possible to build your ideal cassette from Miche sprockets.

https://thecycleclinic.co.uk/product...r-shimano-sram

Just readng his website it seems you can only have a max spacing of 3 teeth so maybe 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,22,25,28 ?

indyfabz

+2000. We are talking about a difference of only one tooth on only two of the cogs OP is fixated on. 22 instead of 21 and 25 instead of 24. The "Princess and the Pea" is a fairy tale.

coominya

1x People are getting lazy. Soon they will want automatic transmissions...

europa

Nope. If you want it, go for it. Customisation doesn't have to make 'sense' to the masses, only to you. Find a way to make it happen, the solution that belongs to you is always more satisfying than the one dictated by a marketing committee.

CliffordK

10 speed and 11 speed cassettes have the same sprocket width, the only difference is the spacer width, and the first couple of loose sprockets without spacers.

So, one could potentially convert a 10s cassette into a 11s cassette.

The big issue with "custom" cassettes is that one can't guarantee the shift gates are lined up, unless there is a way to do a full custom ground cassette. But, mixing and matching parts, invariably the shift gates will be slightly out of alignment.

What that means to the rider is that a stock cassette will have reliably smooth shifting at relatively high power, while a customized cassette may have slightly clunky shifting, perhaps being slow shifting, or require over-shifting.

ptempel

By shift gates, you mean the different shapes of some of the teeth on the cog, correct? I can see that you would degrade some shift performance if they don't line up like the manufaturer intended. I've never tried it (and usually stick to 12-27 shimano and 12-25 campy cassettes mostly). The few hills in my area don't warrant much lower than 39x27. However, it would be interesting to try a custom cassette. Its too bad that Shimano doesn't sell separate cogs for 11 speed. Maybe they will when it trickles down to Tiagra. Campy does have separate cogs for Veloce so that should be easily customizable. The last time I searched for a source for custom spacers, the company (or individual) was no longer making them. I was interested in them to do a minor cassette conversion to let me use a Shimano freehub on a Campy 10 speed drivetrain.

CliffordK

With the Uniglide (and most of the vintage freewheels), the sprockets were all the same shape, and never needed to be lined up.

With Hyperglide, the sprockets can only go on in one direction, and are designed with gates where one side lifts the chain, and the other side releases it, and it all happens so that the chain theoretically sets down on the next sprocket at exactly the right place. And thus smoother shifting.

Thus, no individual sprockets separate from what goes into specific cassettes.
Shimano does list parts numbers on sprockets that aren't riveted together, or on common carriers, but I don't know how easy it is to buy them. E-Bay? LBS?

Anyway, one can buy spacers (or re-use spacers), and potentially merge 10s and 11s sprockets to build one's dream cassette, but don't expect shifting to be perfect.

Personally, I run a merged cassette, with a single jump in the middle. It is a little rough shifting at the split, but not too bad. If you do the custom cassette, I'd encourage choosing two cassettes to merge that you only have a single split in the middle, like merging a 11-25 cassette + 12-28 cassette... or something. I have considered milling a second shift gate into the merged cassette, but haven't tried it yet.

Download the Shimano parts lists for your target cassettes by searching Google for things like "CS-6800 PDF", "CS-HG500-10 PDF". That will help you figure out options.

Keep in mind that different cassettes have common carriers differently.

Tiagara: Riveted Sprockets.
105: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3
Ultegra: 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3
Dura Ace 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 2

The differences between Ultegra and Dura Ace can be handy, but also EXPENSIVE.

ThermionicScott 

If we're voting, the Campy 12-29 gets mine. My hat is off to you if a 12t top cog limits your speed.

ptempel

I honestly use the 12 so rarely that I wouldn't really miss it. Only place that I can think of is a downhill starting at Degraw Ave and Teaneck Ave in Teaneck. Even then, I think I'm not always using it... Most other downhills have too many lights and intersections. I like life too much to go hog wild on them.

ThermionicScott 

All of my cassettes start with 13.

I must be slow.

ptempel

No, no. You can spin like Chris Froome!

Leebo

One can put together any cassette they want. Easier with some of my 9 sp setups. Got a 26-11 something. Took out the 16? Put on a 30 in the back with a spacer, seems to work fine.

nz_aj

Sunrace makes 11 speed road cassettes with the 17,19,21,24,28,32,36 progression of cogs.
To create an 11-28 the 21,24,28 spider from the CSMX8 11-40 or 11-42 can be used.
I run 12-32 built from a MTB spider so spacing for bottom two gears is not perfect. I'm in the process of getting a 21,24,28,32 spider from a CSRX1 11-32.

Litespud

Litespud

Point

bicyclridr4life

Too bad they don't offer that progression of cogs on a 7 speed freewheel. That gearing would be perfect for my trike (with a 28 tooth chainring).