PORC

Hey, I need to purchase a new casette and really don't know too much about them. I don't race so weight is not too much of an issue, just looking for something that shifts well and that will hold up. Any thoughts?

+1 to what biber said. Sram cassettes are great cassettes. I have two and one is two years old and on my hardtail with a 1 year old chain and has 0 issues. doesnt skip never had one problem with it. New Sram 980 is perfect as well. My old cassette survived through winter and spring riding, DH, and lots of creek crossings and mud. I would recommend Sram Cassettes any day of the week especially with a 991 cross-step chain. Good combo. Buy a 980 instead of a 990 and save some money. 971 is junk and i wouldnt put one on a good bike. Never had a problem with Shimano either, but at half the cost Sram works flawlessly. Price point has 980's for 46$ xt is 85$. Maybe shimano is better but not double the cost better.

I also had to call sram for something on my RS fork and got right through to someone that helped me out with a part. No issues there. People say the same thing about Rocky Mountain bikes, but i had no problem calling them in BC and getting a replacement part sent to a shop and then forwarded on to me.

I've been running Sram cassettes and chains for a long long time and have been very happy with them. I've never had to deal with their customer service so can't speak about that. I usually run the 980 cassette with the 991 cross step chain. If your hub has an aluminum freehub body just be sure to pick a cassette that uses a "hub or spyder" (not sure what you would call it) that all the rings are attached to rather than having each ring come down and contact the cassette. Otherwise the individual rings will dig into the aluminum cassette body and eventually cause some problems. If the freehub body is steel then no worries. If you're not worried about weight then you could save a few dollars and run a cheaper cassette. But don't skimp on the chain!

Intense1 wrote: I usually run the 980 cassette with the 991 cross step chain. If your hub has an aluminum freehub body just be sure to pick a cassette that uses a "hub or spyder" (not sure what you would call it) that all the rings are attached to rather than having each ring come down and contact the cassette. Otherwise the individual rings will dig into the aluminum cassette body and eventually cause some problems. If the freehub body is steel then no worries. If you're not worried about weight then you could save a few dollars and run a cheaper cassette.

Can you give some examples, I'm running into this with my hope pro 2. None of the online vendors mention anything about this, and local dealers give me the deer in headlights look.

Jester,
The carriers distribute the load of the rings more evenly across the entire hub body on the more expensive cassettes. The cheaper 970 cassette can dig into the cassette body and mar it b/c the load is on one single ring. It isnt an issue with a steel hub body, but an aluminum one may get chewed up. The rings of the 970 are really crappy too. I wasnt impressed with their stiffness. They had a great deal of flex in them. I actually couldnt believe the one i was looking at was a 970, but the bike book at the shop said it was. 980 and 990 are in a totally different class.

so your saying that the 980/990 will have the full carrier instead of individual rings?

Yes Jester, the 980 and 990 use a very similar design which uses a one piece hub type design that the chainrings are attached to. The XT and XTR do as well, or at least they did... I've been out of it for a little while and don't know what the latest offerings are.

I run XTR cassettes... with mismatched chains. I just want to say that i've had little to no problems and I am not easy on equipment. I always wanted to get them matched up like people say, but never have... so continuing to spin miles up on my setups, they've been fine. :dunno:

I had a SRAM 970 cassette and just switched to a 980. The reason being I bought a new wheelset with an aluminum freehub body. However, the SRAM 980 cassette aluminum carrier is only for the 3 largest cogs, the rest are still individual like in the 970 model. The 990 cassette puts 5 or 6 cogs on an aluminum carrier. I have not taken it off yet to see if the freehub body is marred up, but I think it should be ok since the 3 largest cogs also yield the highest torque on the wheel. Both the 970 and 980 seem to shift the same to me, but the 980 is lighter.