Bike Cassettes Review

A bike cassette refers to the bike drivetrain components that affect the collection of cogs that the chain wraps around on the rear wheel of any multi-geared bike. This acts as half of the gearbox on a bike and works in exactly the same way as that in a car or motorcycle. It’s job is to transfer energy into motion using gears of different ratios. The cassette locks in once direction to allow for forward motion, and releases in the other direction to allow for coasting. A SRAM cassette is one of the most popular cassettes amongst the biking enthusiasts. 

In the early days of bicycle gears, the rear cogs were connected to a freewheel, which in turn threaded on to the hub of the wheel. The cogs in this configuration were called sprockets, which is a term often still used now, albeit incorrectly, when talking about bike cassettes.

The main limitation of a freewheel that was, by design you couldn’t have more than 8 gears on the back because the axle protruded too much to hold the sprocket. It was also difficult to change the sprocket, especially if you needed to change the larger gears as they held everything together. The main disadvantage was the placement of the bearings and the design meant they had to be close to the center of the axle. This left either end to cope with a lot of downward pressure, which resulted in bent axles for the more energetic riders. 

This worked well for many years until it was succeeded in the 1980’s by Shimano cassettes. The cassette revolutionized bicycle gearing as it standardized the fittings, and works really well. Rather than screwing on to a hub like the freewheel, a cassette sits on a group of splines that hold it in place. Initially that system was called the Uniglide, and used wide splines on the hub. The smallest cog then had a thread, which held everything in place.

In the late 1980’s Shimano introduced the Hyperglide system, which used different fittings, but allowed for much smoother gear changes by changing the shape of the teeth on each cog. This allowed the chain to engage two cogs at once, which made shifting down the gears much smoother.

The advent of the cassette allowed Shimano to house the freewheel mechanism in the hub. This meant they could put the bearings closer to the end of the axle, and ended the bent axle phenomenon which plagued bike freewheels.

You might notice that a single company, Shimano, changed the way bikes were geared. Many people complained that Shimano had entirely too much influence and were changing things for the sake of market position, rather than the good of the bike. In some cases this might be true, but in the case of the cassette, and Hyperglide in particular, it isn’t. The technology may have made all other methods obsolete, but provided so many advantages to the rider that it was a definite move forward for bikes, and bike technology. Other quality products include American Classic cassettes and Campagnolo cassettes.

Models

SunRace freewheels

Pricing

This market is also somewhat dominated by Shimano. A HG40 8 speed cassette can be bought for around $20, whereas a Dura-Ace CS7900 10 speed cassette will set you back $300. There is a massive range of cassettes at almost every price point in-between these two to match every kind of budget.