Originally Posted by jph6t
I heard a rumor though that this method of using two wheels is a bad practice. That a chain and a cassette wear themself out together, forming similar wear patterns. As such, when I put on the cassette that has been on the wheel in the closet ... it won't fit right ... sorta like loaning your buddy with a different shape foot your broken in sneaker.
It's my personal opinion (which everyone will probably disagree with) that the cassette/chain mating thing is a bit of an exaggeration. IMO as long as you 1) clean and lube your chain regularly, and 2) replace the chain once it has served it's useful life, you'll have no problems using the same chain on different cassettes. You can check your chain for wear by following
these steps (scroll to bottom of page).
I have serveral wheelsets with different cassettes of varying ages, and I swap among them on my spare bike (because they're all 8-sp and the spare bike is 8-sp) and the most I've had to do is give a little twirl on the cable tension adjuster.
The only problem (as jabike mentioned) is if there is a
huge difference in cog sizes (like going from a 21 to a 34). I swap between 12-21 and 12-25 with no problems.