Tandem Cycling - IRC 10sp Cassette

Has anyone tried the IRD new 10sp cassettes? They are available in 11-32 or 11-34. However, they are fairly expensive at $169.

Word of warning on the Strength- I always use LX cassettes as they are the strongest for my use and I use the 11/32. Have gone up to XT for quality and I fold the 12/34 at the first hill. Did try the XT 11/32 but mentally I kept feeling it was not going to last so swopped it over to the solo and got an LX for it. Given strength over quality- I would normally go for quality- but in this case- I definitely need the strength.

I believe you mean IRD, right? As in Interloc Racing Design, like these here: http://www.interlocracing.com/cassettes_steel.html correct?

I've got an IRD 10-speed 12-28 mounted on my da Vinci. It's the "10-speed Elite Road Conversion Cassette" type that allows for Campy spacing on a Shimano-compatible freehub. This is in conjunction with a 9-speed SRAM chain, as I have not found any 10-speed chains long enough for the da Vinci (which uses 124 links) and didn't want to purchase two and splice. I'm leery of the strength of a spliced chain. I suppose I could use two master links, but haven't gone to the trouble yet.

The only problem we've had is that two of the spacers between the cogs were too thin for the 9-speed chain. This caused the chain to rub on the next largest cog at times and ghost-shift on to it under load on occasion. I firmly believe this is caused by the 9-speed chain and has nothing to do with the cassette itself. I solved it by replacing the two spacers with slightly thicker ones. The new spacers were thicker by .05 mm (yes, that's 1/2 of 1/10 of a millimeter). Not very much difference in thickness, I know, but it's enough that we've not had a single problem in the 1700 miles we've put on the bike in the last three months.

I share stapfam's concerns about avoiding carrier-mounted cogs, which most high-end cassettes use to save weight. However, I believe that is most relevant on tandems using the larger rear cog sizes (like 32 or 34) and with strong full-sized stokers...especially off-road. Our cassette has a maximum of 28 teeth, we ride on the road exclusively, and my largest stoker just barely tips 80 pounds. Needless to say, we're not a powerhouse team. If this is a concern, you can use the Comp versions listed further down the page; just like the LX line stapfam mentions, they don't use carriers for the larger cogs.

However, in looking at the page, I don't see any 10-speed cassettes listed with cogs larger than 28. They have several 11-32 and 12-32 available as 9-speed, but not 10. Are these new cassettes that might not yet be listed on the page? Wouldn't surprise me, knowing IRD, but still curious.

I share stapfam's concerns about avoiding carrier-mounted cogs, which most high-end cassettes use to save weight. However, I believe that is most relevant on tandems using the larger rear cog sizes (like 32 or 34) and with strong full-sized stokers...especially off-road. Our cassette has a maximum of 28 teeth, we ride on the road exclusively, and my largest stoker just barely tips 80 pounds. Needless to say, we're not a powerhouse team.

However, in looking at the page, I don't see any 10-speed cassettes listed with cogs larger than 28.

Here's the link to the 11-32 and 11-34 cassettes.

http://store.interlocracing.com/10elcas.html

I guess they are on carriers. Right now we're using a 12-27 Ultegra cassette and so far no problems.

I would like the 11-32 but for that price, I think I'll wait until I hear more about it.