Originally Posted by
shelbyfv
Change your cassette when a new chain skips or otherwise acts up. Most people get two or three chains per cassette.
I'm always surprised when I read that people get two or three chains per cassette.
I keep my chain pretty clean and check it regularly for wear.
I get ~2,500 miles on a chain and change it at most a couple of hundred miles early.
This may seem like low mileage on a chain, but I ride a lot of hills & shift frequently.
I use a Sram PC Red22 on my 11-speed Sram Red drive train.
I'm at ~14,000 miles on a XG-1190 cassette, and it looks like it's new, no skipping or bad shifts whatsoever.
I switch to an Ultegra cassette for the fall/winter, and that's got t least 15,000 miles on it, and shifts as if it was new.
I figure that by changing the chain just before it's time, I use one extra chain over two seasons.
That costs me ~$40, but gets me thousands of more miles on each cassette.
So I pay ~20/yr to save $100's on cassettes.
This also saves $100's on chain rings.
Even if I change my chains far before needed, it still amount to short money over two years to save quite a bit on cassettes, chain rings & derailleur pulleys.
Aside from that, I don't have any degradation in shift quality.