Sy Reene

Was the product I linked HERE not what you're looking for - just curious? What is your front gearing/crank that a 12T isn't getting you fast enough down the hills?

ThermionicScott 

The more I think about it, I probably shouldn't use the success of my IG60 cassette fitting to infer that an HG41 might also work. IG cogs are wider, and the stack is wider overall, which may help give the 11T cog enough material to overhang the freehub body and yet be rigid enough. Adding a 1mm spacer behind a regular HG 11-28 cassette may not be enough. Anyways, still a moot point if you use a 12-28...

I don't have much experience with Shimano chains, but there is a difference in wear life between the SRAM PC-830 and PC-850 chains I've used. The PC-850 has chromed-hardened pins (whereas the PC-830 doesn't) and lasts at least twice as long. Maybe something like this is at play between the CN-40 and CN-71 chains you've used.

As far as I know, the cassettes are all just stamped steel, and should last about the same unless they deliberately used softer steel on the cheaper cassettes and freewheels.

studbike1

I recently got one of the sunrace 7 speed cassettes and I am 100% satisfied. It was like 25 bucks or so and the shifting is every bit as good as anything else I've used from Shimano

v8powerage

Sy Reene yes that's the one I need but I have no money to buy 20 of them, I buy one a year that's why it's very bad for me that they're discontinued.

ThermionicScott Could You perhaps measure that IG60?

ThermionicScott 

Let's see... without lockrings, I measure the IG60 as about 33mm thick, the HG50 as about 32mm thick.

BTW, have you considered rotating chains on your cassettes? The idea is that if you get three or four chains and run each one for 500 miles or so at a time before switching to another one, you can get a lot more miles out of a freewheel or cassette before it skips. Might be something to consider now that the cassettes are getting scarce, but the chains are widely available.

v8powerage

Well if IG60 is same size and fits then perhaps HG41 will as well, I'll get one they're half price of HG50 so won't loose much.

CN71 chain is very strong I recommend it, it lasts longer than cassette, it started skipping but chain was still ok.

v8powerage

Update, so I got HG41 from shop nearby and it does fit, however now the chain is closer to the frame, as you have measured your HG60 ThermionicScott it's 1mm thicker, same deal with HG41, it's that 11t cog that's thicker, rest of the cassette is same. I tried removing the hub spacer that I always had on but then even HG50 with 12t won't mount because the lockring is not thick enough and there's empty space between it and the 12t so it's all very strange…

This is HG50, it's already very close to the frame, perhaps it's the hanger, I don't know, although I had it straightened some time ago.

ThermionicScott 

v8powerage , hope this doesn't sound condescending, but I'm a little curious if you've been installing your cassettes correctly or not. This spacer:



is only supposed to go between the two smallest cogs. It's not supposed to go behind the cassette (on the hub before installing the cassette.) A 7-speed hub should never need any spacers behind the biggest cog.

By omitting it between the 11T and 13T, those two cogs are too close together and might cause indexing problems.

P.S. If nothing else ends up working except for spacing out the cassette, you can always add a 1mm axle spacer on the drive side to restore clearance to the chainstay for the chain. It's possible that someone before you rebuilt the hub and removed one of the spacers in order to achieve better dish on the wheel. It's what I do with my wheels.

v8powerage

Well You said Yourself here pertraining to my cassette that it doesn't need spacer between the cogs: https://www.bikeforums.net/21098451-post4.html

Documentation confirms it as I have 12-28 so it's an E model https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/si/SI-0099A-001-00-ENG.pdf thus no spacer beneath 12t.

Anyway that spacer was beneath uniglide cassette that came with this bike, I think it was on the bike since it was new, it was same with my other 7 speed bike, I always had it beneath and I always used only either uniglide or 12-28 hg50.

As for HG41 I guess the chain will be little closer to the dropout/hanger because it is 1mm thicker than hg50 and since I can't remove the spacer there's nothing I can do…

ThermionicScott 

Ah, I couldn't remember if you were using the 12-28 specifically. Most other 7-speed cassettes require that spacer between the top two cogs.

Why can't the spacer be removed from your hub, is it rusted on? It's absolutely not necessary for HG50 cassettes on a 1055 hub, and that's probably why you keep running out of room to the chainstay so easily.

v8powerage

It is necessary, if I remove the spacer then there's a gap between lockring and rest of the cassette…

ThermionicScott 

Weird. Can you thread the lockring all the way in if no cassette is installed?

v8powerage

Without spacer cassette is lower than top of the hub… I think it's because there were two versions 126mm and 130mm

ThermionicScott 

Hmm, 7-speed freehub bodies themselves are all the same length -- are you using an 8-10 speed hub with a 3.5mm spacer?

v8powerage

No this is 1055 hub it was only 7 speed and my bike has 130mm dropouts.

studbike1

They make spacers of all different widths. You might have to look on eBay if your local shop doesn't have one. It doesn't matter where on the freehub the cassette sits (were talking a millimeter or two, right?)

Buy whatever spacer width you need to make it work, and then retension the derailleur so that it lines up with the gears correctly

Phil_gretz

The current MicroShift stuff out of China is surprisingly nice. Hollowed out spider and decent plating. Light enough. I just bought and used a few 12-28T 7-speed Shimano compatible cassettes. They're in the $15-20 range. Quite good enough.

ThermionicScott 

Could you post a picture of it? It’s possible that Shimano made a 130mm configuration of their 1055 hub, but the difference would be in the axle hardware alone. A 7-speed freehub is a 7-speed freehub, and doesn’t need spacers to run a stock cassette.