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Custom Cassette - too good not to share

Like most of us, I've been looking for a cassette that would have no cadence gaps, be fast on the down hills and let me climb like goat.... 

Well, after looking over many options I realized they don't seem to make what I was wanting so I customized my own from 2 Ultegra cassettes.  I took the 3 cog spider from an 11-28 and put it on the backside of a 12-23

11-28:


11,12,13,14,15,_,17,_,19,_,21,_,_,24,_,_,_,28

12-23:


12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,_,21,_,23

Frankencogs:

12,13,14,15,16,17,18,_,_,21,_,_,24,_,_,_,28

Crank is a compact 50/34

Took it out for my first ride yesterday on a 4:30, 88 mile ride at IF = 0.80 fro the first 3:30 then 0.76 the last hour.  Covered over 2900' of elevation.  Part was flat, part rollers, several steep climbs and some fast descents.  All went well.  While I did give up a bit on the fast descents since I did not have the 11T cog but with less than 10 minutes at top downhill speeds it was not something I missed very much.

Having 7 consecutive gears was fantastic for accelerating on the flats and crests.  Rollers were much easier shifting wise too.  I plan to ride Quassy using this next week.  And since I have a PowerTap and spare spline shaft, I will have a standard 11-28 I can swap to in less than a minute if I decide there is some drawback I have yet to discover but I don't expect that to happen.

Anyone else tinker with custom cassettes?

Comments

  • "but this one goes to 11" - Spinal Tap
  • @Steve - never even thought about mixing and matching to customize a cassette. Good thinking and I'll have to remember this!
  • Back in the Day I used a FrankenCassette on my first tri bike for at least a couple races. It was a 650c Cervelo P3...and for some reason I put a 54/39 on it, the older solid disk 54 that looked like a pie plate. Anyway, I don't remember the mix I had, but I think I took the cluster off a 25-12 (so probably 25, 24, 23) and mixed it with the remaining gears from a 21-11. 

    I tworked well. No shifting issues, etc. 

  • I've used a 30 tooth mtn bike cassette back in the day to get the cluster, then added the 12-25 bottom end off my road bike to get a climbing set up for the 6 gap century in Georgai. Was a 9 speed setup and worked even though the bike shop said the rear derailleur wouldn't handle it. New chain obviously.
  • Steve, please let us know next week how this worked out at Quassy, and good luck.
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