10-speed, not 8-track...The Cassette

In terms of the drive train, the cassette is every bit as important as the chain.  Without it, we would need no derailleur, for the bike be a single-speed.  Oh, for the days of the seventies, when New Zealand was populated by Lolines, Cruisers, the ubiquitous Raleigh Twenty, and (drum roll) the Chopper. 


 Stick shift, three-speed Sturmey-Archer internal hub gears.  Alas, the reign of the S-A hub gear was already under the shadow of the ten-speed, the race-style bike with FIVE gears on the rear, that any kid with a paper-run could afford. 

 I can say that with confidence, because I still have my ten-speed hanging in the garage.  All original (except for the bar tape).  made of gate iron, with Japanese Suntour components, which seem to have been made in a Soviet tractor factory, as they still work as they did when I first rode it new, back in 1981. 
The Raleigh Arena pictured is almost identical to the one in my garage, which I couldn't be bothered photographing.  This will do.  The main difference is that mine does not have the cool friction shifters on the down tube.  Instead, it has thumb shifters mounted on the bar stem, together with extensions on the brake levers, so you can control everything from the bar tops.  It was never meant for racing, and climbs like a wet toad up a greasy pole.


Times have changed, and although Campagnolo are again leading the style challenge with their new 11-speed cassette, I'm sticking with 10.  And again the choice came down to SRAM or Ultegra.  The temptation had always been there with the SRAM Force cassette ranging up a monster 32-tooth sprocket, reason had the day.  This is how it works.


Even with a 39 small chainring on the standard, a 32t would still be spinning, a low gear that would ease the load of long climbs.  For a derailleur to cope with the wide diameter of a 32t, it requires a long pulley cage, and an appropriately longer chain.  Getting the match between front and rear gears and decent chain tension becomes more of an issue, so if you want an SRAM 32t cassette you are pretty much committing to an SRAM derailleur, and because of the different ratchet pull distances, SRAM shifters.  And the whole lot of SRAM Force components each cost significantly more than the equivalent Ultegra 6700 components.  Which are also lighter.

The SRAM PG1070 11-23 cassette weighs in at 210 grams, while the Ultegra 6700 11-23 is 208 grams.  Okay, so 2 grams.  Keep in mind that running a standard chainset I selected a 11-28 cassette, giving me the same bottom end, and a higher top end than the regular compact 12-25 combination.  This gets me up hills the same as a compact, and a steep top end for the extra push through the group when the beer tent comes into sight.


The deal that I found was marginally better than others, as there is not a lot of variation pricewise once you start looking outside of New Zealand. From the eBay dealer Koo-us (http://stores.ebay.com/koous), the NIB cassette was listed at US$76.99 with free shipping.  With exchange rate, the cost to me was NZ$103.01.  This is a distinct improvement over the local NZ online cost of $117.50.


And now to look for a rear derailleur - that won't take too long.