On Jun 12, 11:12 am, Matt O'Toole wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 14:32:14 +0000, wrote:
I'm switching my snow bike/beater from 8-speed to 9-speed. I don't
want to spend a lot of money on this, but hear bad things about the
nashbar & performance house brand cassettes. So, I'm going to have to
spend over $20 on the cassette. O.K.

How much more?
The Shimano M580 looks like a nice unit, but it's around $50. I'd
like to avoid spending that.
The SRAM PG-950 is mighty tempting @ $30. Then again, the PG-970
The Shimano Nexave & Deore are both $32. How do they compare to each
other & the PG-950.
Finally, the SRAM PG-970 looks good @ $40. Is it worth the extra $10
over the 950? If I get to spending $40 on this would I be notably
better off spending the $50 on the M580?*

The shiny ones look nicer but that's about it. Supposedly the
chrome plated cassettes last longer, but that hasn't been my experience.
I get the same mileage from a $15 house brand cassette that I do from an
XT.

Shimano cassettes do shift smoother, but even this is an aesthetic issue
more than a functional one.

Of course, the cassettes with aluminum spiders are lighter, if you care
about that.

If you don't care about appearance or weight, get the cheapest one that
has the gearing you want.

The chain: I'd like to spend under $20. Shimano or KMC? The place
I'll be ordering from has both in stock. They don't have any SRAM
chains, and I don't want to spend over $20 on a chain for this
particular bike. Still, I hear great things about powerlinks & the SRAM
chains. Am I really missing the boat if I don't go SRAM w/ the chain? I
could buy one locally, but it'd be over 150% of my target price.

Again, there's no reason to spend more than the minimum on this stuff. In
my experience, the expensive ones don't last any longer.

While some older KMC chains were terrible, lately I've had great
luck with them. I just bought another 9 speed KMC chain from Nashbar for
$8.45 (with free shipping too), the same kind I've been riding for the
last 5k miles. These chains are usually $15-16, which is still
cheaper than any 9 speed chain from SRAM or Shimano. A bike shop
will rarely offer you anything for less than $30.

You can almost always get 8 speed chains really cheap somewhere.

It pays to stock up when they're on sale. A particularly good buy are the
tandem chains from Nashbar, literally two chains for the price of one.

Finally, the chainrings. This is a pawn-shop bike that until recently
was on it's original grips (though worn out) and rims (not worn out).
That's the best indicator to mileage I have. Everyone who has seen the
bike says the (original) rings & cassette look fine. I agree. However,
the chain is stretched well past spec. I'm inclined to do the chain
rings when I do the chain and cassette, but am loathe to spend the $ if
I don't need to. Thoughts?

You can use chainrings until they're worn to nubs and start skipping,
or until the chainsuck drives you nuts. These days it's usually
cheaper to buy a whole new crank with fresh chainrings than just the
chainrings.

*Scary sidenote: I have this same attitude when in the bike shop. See
how fast I just went from Nashbar house brand for $15 to a $50 Shimano?
I don't allow myself to bring credit cards into bike shops anymore.

Bike shops could work harder to bring better value to their customers.

Matt O.

I was thinking house brand cassette until I started reading up,
there's a lot on the web about bad Nashbar 9 speed cassettes. Hearing
you're using them without problem is encouraging. How pronounced is
the smoother shifting of the Shimano? Is SRAM basically on par with
Shimano?

Thanks for the reply, it's certainly helpful.

Dan