dksix

Can it be done? It's common for a few of the small sprockets to be loose and then the larger ones riveted on to a carrier. I would like a close ratio cassette but in the range of say 14-32, which isn't made. What would be involved in buying 2 or 3 cassettes, take them apart and reassembly one with the sprockets I want? I can't be the first to wonder about this, reasonably sure it's been done, just asking what's involved or what might complicate something like this.

bikeman715

this what Sheldon Brown said on this subject . [h=3]Building Custom Cassettes[/h]Shimano wants you to use one of its standard combinations, and offers a wide-enough choice to suit the needs of most cyclists, but you don't have to if you don't want to!
Shimano cassettes that don't use spiders have most of the sprockets held together by 3 small bolts or rivets. These are not essential. Their function is convenience, in allowing the cassette to be installed slightly more easily. To make a custom cassette, you will often need to remove the screws or rivets. Just discard them: they are unnecessary in practice.

• Some cassettes use screws with a 4 mm hex head. These can be removed with an adjustable wrench.
• Some cassettes use screws with a 2 mm Allen head. These are frequently mistaken for rivets.
• The easiest way to remove rivets is to grind off the heads where they protrude from the largest sprocket. I generally do this on a bench grinder.

It is not difficult to customize Shimano cassettes. If you substitute an un-approved cog, Uniglide or Hyperglide, it will still work, but the shift to/from that cog will probably not be as smooth as a Hyperglide shift normally is. Since people managed without Hyperglide for several decades, this shouldn't scare you off. In particular, if you substitute the top or bottom sprocket, you will only have one shift that isn't HG; shifts to or from the extreme sprockets tend to be less troublesome than intermediate shifts anyway.
For example, Shimano doesn't make any true "corncob" (one-tooth-jump) cassettes for time-trialists or flatland riders. In 7 speed, the closest is the J (13/14/15/16/17/19/21).
If you remove the 21-tooth sprocket from a J, you can make it into a 13-19 corncob by buying an 18 to put between the 17 and the 19. Alternately, you could make it into a 12-18 by removing the 19 and the 21, and adding a 12 and an 18.
Similar modifications can be done with other ratios. Generally, the smallest sprocket needs to have a built-in spacer, designed for the top-gear position. While you can't insert or remove a sprocket within a spider module, you can add sprockets on either side of these modules.
For example, if you want a 13-32 9-speed, you can start with a 12-27:

• Replace the 12 and 13 with a top-position 13.
• Add a spacer and a 32 after the 27
  (you don't need to buy the spacer, because you can use the spacer that came between the original flat 13 and the 14.)

There is no problem mixing 7-speed or 8-speed flat sprockets into a 9-speed cassette, or vice versa. The smaller sizes (11, 12, 13) that feature built-in spacers should ideally be matched, but even this isn't generally a problem in practice. If you want to get finicky, you can compensate by using a wider spacer next to a narrower sprocket, or vice versa. On the other hand, if you use 9- or 10- speed sprockets with built-in spacers in a 7-or 8-speed cassette, the spacing will be too narrow for the wider chains used with these sprockets. You should use only 10-speed sprockets in a 10-speed cassette, because the internal width of the chain is narrower.

dabac

Look at "junior cassettes", they start at higher tooth counts.
Might save you some hassle.

Eric S.

I have a 14-25T 9sp Shimano cassette on one bike - it's almost a straight block. I rarely use the 12T or 13T unless going downhill, so I thought I'd try 14T. I don't feel I'm missing anything.

fietsbob

READ Miche has possibilities on that . after market not coming out of the big 3.


for slackers, https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/miche-...shimano-miche/

CliffordK

There was an almost identical thread a couple of days ago.
https://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-me...ano-105-a.html

What speed are you using? 9s, 10s, 11s?

If you have a group of sprockets riveted together, each riding on the freehub, they can be easily separated and used individually. On the other hand, the high-end cassettes (Ultegra, Dura Ace, and maybe 105, as well as some of the MTB cassettes such as M9000) have groups of 2 or 3 spockets riveted to a common carrier, which isn't easily modified.

I'd encourage minimizing the transition points between dissimilar cassettes. So, perhaps merge 2 cassettes to form one with a single splice in the middle.

dksix

It's 5700 based 10 speed. I just emailed a seller on eBay with a MicroSHIFT cassette listed as "without carrier" about what that means. I'm thinking it might mean loose sprockets that all ride on the freehub body, if so I'm going to look at their MTB cassettes and see if I can find a couple or 3 to answer my curiosity with. I expect that might add some weight but if I like it I might do some lightening later.

After you linked it I remembered that thread, thought about posting this there then but hate to jack someone's thread with a tangent series of questions.

CliffordK

Shimano 6600 series cassettes are still available, with a 14-25T option, having the proper first sprocket.

You could probably figure out how to get one combined with your favorite MTB cassette.

Retro Grouch 

In the age of 9+ cog cassettes, I think that mixing and matching to make a custom cassette is less advantageous than it used to be.

Work out the gear inches of all the ratios that you have now. What you will find is that the widest gaps are at the small end of the cassette where the cogs are only 1 tooth apart. There is no 12 1/2 tooth cog.

I like the idea of using with a "junior" cassette that starts with a 14 tooth cog but you might be able to accomplish the same thing more simply by substituting smaller chainrings.

D1andonlyDman

It's still useful. For example, why do all of the cassettes that go up to 28 or more teeth seem to start with an 11, and in most cases jump up to 13? To me, an 11T cog might as well be a spacer. On multiple occasions, I have made my own sprocket combo that discarded the 11 cog from a wide range cassette, and replaced it with the 12 from a narrower cassette.

CliffordK

In the MTB world, say you do a 10T - 40T, then one gets a 4:1 gearing range which is absolutely HUGE.

On the other hand, a fairly wide 14T - 28T only gives one a 2:1 gearing range.

To gain the use of the 10T & 11T sprockets, the MTBs have moved to a "compact" crankset, or the equivalent, with smaller and smaller chainrings.

So, for example, a 10T x 40T would be the same as 13T x 52T.

But, one can get a huge gearing range with either a single 40T chainring, or a simple double ring setup.

On a road bike a standard compact 50/34 crankset is certainly an option. Or, if you wish, go to something even smaller to gain more low range gears.

Personally, I'd rather not burden myself with the super-low gearing. I can stand up once in a while for most of what I need to climb. Perhaps if I do another crazy climbing day like I did in Portland recently, I'd try something else. And, of course, low gearing is nice for super-heavy cargo. But, ordinarily I'd like to keep the chain somewhere mid-cassette, and have both higher and lower shift options available.

CliffordK

There are 11s MTB cranksets that should work.

Many people have reported having reasonable success using 10s cranksets with 11s chains/derailleurs. The derailleur might not match the curvature of the small rings perfectly, but it should be ok. The biggest issue might be small rings with braze-on derailleur mounts.

I've narrowed my spacers slightly, and used 9s sprockets for my first 3 rear sprockets, and they seem to work just fine with 11s. The only issue seems to be a bit tight adjustment for the 4th (11s) sprocket.

D1andonlyDman

Easy for you to say, but I'm 56 years old and live near the top of an 8% grade. So there's nowhere I can ride without having to ride my last half mile up a steep hill. I still won't ever have any use for an 11T cog. OTOH, every bike I own has at least a 27T cog, with some as big as 32T. And even my hybrid with a compact crank has a 48T big ring, and 48/12 is as big a gear as I ever need to turn. And most of my bikes are 9-speed in back. And I have no desire to upgrade my bikes to 11 speed, with faster wearing thin chains, and bad chainlines at the extremes.

Flinstone

10 speed cs-hg500 11-32 and 12-28 come fully apart if you grind the pins and they have some nice differences in gear selection between them. The last spacer is different because the big cog is different (to squeeze the gears in), so be mindful of that. In principle the smallest cog should have originally been a smallest cog because it's knurled to lock on to the retaining nut, but it's not critical. There can be a little issue with the spacers and the way the top gears interlock. This might restrict choices slightly but not much. If you're clever you can work out how the ramps are supposed to align and find the best places to splice cassetes or rotations of gears that work well with that. To change rotation you have to grind off a tab. That's optional though. Not all rotations are allowed with big gears because of pronged spacers.

Miele Man

All that's required is to unbolt the larger cogs or grind off the rivets that hold them together. I built a custom 9 speed corncob cassette for fun by combining sprockets from different casettes. It shifts very well with the friction bar end shifters I'm using.

A custom cassette gives YOU EXACTLY the gears YOU NEED/WANT.

Cheers