hjoe1112

Hi All,

My first post and happy to have found this website. Have a 2013 Lexa S I've been riding for 2 yrs and now upgrading my wheels. Currently have a Sram 11-28 cassette, 9 speed, triple crankset on my bike. Plan to use my old wheel as a trainer so need a new cassette. I ride flats, rolling hills, big descents on my usual rides. There is a Sram 12-26, 9 speed I can get on sale for $29. Should this be comparable to my old setup? Or should I stick with looking for another 11-28? Or should I upgrade further and spend more money on a different cassette and any suggestions?

Thanks for any advice.

hjoe1112

Forgot to mention it's a [h=1]SRAM PG-950 9-Speed Road Cassette[/h]

Damien09

as far as gearing the 12-26 may be a little smoother. But the big question is do you ever need your smallest chain ring and 28 cog in the back? If so dont go to the 12-26 would run out of gears if you need that 28. But as seeing you have a tripple id think with that granny gear a 12-26 shouldnt be to bad even for bigger hills

hobkirk

1. Do you have problems with the "large" gaps betweens gears? I.e., you are riding at 80 rpm and you want the options to be shifting up to put you at 86 rpm instead of 88?
2. Do you ever crank hard going downhill? My highest speed ever was 44 (53x11 at almost 120 rpm) - 53x12 would not have been sufficient.

Homebrew01

Gearing is a personal choice. You already know what range gears you need, based on what you currently use.
We can not tell from the other side of the internet which gears you use.

hjoe1112

I use the granny and 28 cog on occasion on one of my routes going 3miles continuously uphill. But usually on the middle or biggest chain ring. If I do go to the 12-26, would I need a new chain or need to make any adjustment to the front or rear derailleurs?

MRT2

Assuming your small chainring is a 30 tooth, the difference between a 28 tooth cog and a 26 tooth cog is 2 gear inches. (28.7 gear inches vs. 30.9 gear inches.) So, not much of a difference. That said, I switched this year from a 12 - 25 cassette to a 12 - 27 cassette to get my low gear down to 26 gear inches and I don't think I will be switching back to a 12 - 25. I don't often need the smallest gear, but it is comforting to know it is there.

Homebrew01

No changes needed.
If you went to a larger rear cog, then you would probably need a longer chain.

hjoe1112

Thanks for all the recs. Now this maybe a dumb question but can i use a 10 speed cassette instead of a 9 speed without having to buy a new chain or make any adjustments? And can i could use Shimano cassettes also if available to replace the SRAM?

Drew Eckhardt 

No.

Yes.

hjoe1112

Ok. Thanks.

f4rrest

Personally, I liked the closer spaced gearing of 11-21 when I ran a 9 speed triple.

The 12-26 you're considering would give you less spacing between gears, so maybe you could avoid some front chainring shifts.

woodcraft

You could also use the 12/26 on the trainer for that matter.

rm -rf

Do you have a triple front, with three chainrings? Googling your bike shows it with a 50-34 double front chainring.
The rings will have the number of teeth stamped on them (or count them!) Can you post the 3 chaninring teeth counts?

A double vs a triple would probably change some of the above advice.

EDIT-- I found the triple version. 50/39/30 chainrings.

rm -rf

Triples work great with closer spaced cassettes like a 12-26.

You said you ride "flats, rolling hills, big descents". This 12-26 will be perfect. And you can still do some very steep climbs with it.

Mike Sherman's gear calculator shows it clearly. (When you click the links below, a box pops up to tell you that you can save those settings as a favorite/bookmark. Just click OK.) The calculator changes it's charts on the fly if you change rpms or cassette sizes.


Here's your current 30-39-50 triple with the 11-28 9-speed cassette. Each chainring is a different color, 30-red, 39-black, 50-blue.
See this link to the 11-28 setup on the calculator.

The Speeds at RPM chart:



And see this 12-26 setup.



Compare the gear spacing between 10 and 20 mph. The 12-26 has closer spacing, which is better when you are trying to get the "just right" cadence, not too hard or too easy. It loses a few mph of top end speed over 32 mph, but you can just coast downhill at those speeds anyway.

The 30-26 low is about 8% harder than the 30-28. It's about halfway between your current 30-28 and your next highest gear, 30-24.
At a slow 60 rpm, the 30-26 is 5.4 mph instead of the 30-28's 5.0 mph.

If you sometimes climb very steep hills in the 30-28 and are struggling, and wish you had one more shift, then you might want the wider range cassette. But otherwise, go for the 12-26.

D1andonlyDman

You could always split the difference and get a Shimano 12-27 cassette, Shimano and SRAM cassettes are interchangeable. You probably wouldn't need to add a couple of chain links for just 1 added tooth, and you still get to keep narrow spacing on the small end of the cluster. The only difference between the Shimano 12-27 and the SRAM 12-26 is that the last 2 cogs are one tooth bigger: the Shimano goes from 21-24-27 whereas the the SRAM goes from 21-23-26.

I ride both of those cassettes on different wheels of mine, and the quality is the same, but the Shimano having one more tooth on the biggest cogs does make a slight (not substantial) difference on big climbs.

79pmooney

OP, there is a lot of information here that isn't the full picture. A 26 tooth cog is a full step higher/harder on hills than a 28 tooth cog. The 2" difference talked about in a previous post is 2" in 30" or 7% harder.

That said, you will find the 12-26 is far nicer to ride 90% of the time because the jumps will be smaller. And missing that 11 tooth? Not a big deal. 53-12 is plenty big!

Assuming the two cassettes are interchangeable (I don't know S-Ram) I'd buy that 12-26. Then ride it ans see if you like it. Yes? Keep it on your new wheels. No? It's a better trainer wheel because you get better choices of gears. Either way, you will be able to swap wheels (or just the cassettes) for different rides/events. I ride a different cassette (Campy) and have cogs to make up 12-23, 12-25 1nd 12-28 with a 53-42-28 in front. All a little different from yours but not very. I love it. (I ride out of Portland, OR and can ride flats or big not-so-steep hills or hills that are bears.)

Ben