Originally Posted by
veganbikes
A custom wear item on a touring bike, no thanks! Stick with the many cassettes already out there. If something does happen I would rather be able to replace with a commonly available part rather than waiting on some specialty parts to build some custom cassette. Now if I was a sponsored racer yeah custom all day every day and my team mechanics can figure out the parts. If I was a casual cyclist or was mostly riding around my area then yeah custom fine but for touring I want known reliable quantities.
Very clear, very concise, some of the best advice on this board.
That is why my derailleur touring bikes use eight speed chains and a Sram 11/32 eight speed cassette. Last time I bought a chain and cassette was in the early months of covid. I paid about $12 for the chain, $25 for the cassette, plus a few bucks for sales tax. You want expendables to be easy to source and easy to swap out and cheap enough that you do not even think about replacing them.
For simplicity, my rando bike and folding bike use the same cassettes and chains, so I keep several spares on the shelf. I do not even want to think about replacing expendables, just do it when they are due.