Originally Posted by Gee3

The current cassette is only about 3 mos old so it should be fine with the new chain.

As for just cleaning it... I clean it often and oil it after every cleaning. Or if I don't get a chance to clean it I oil the chain and wipe off the residue. It helped a lot and I highly recommend cleaning it but replacing the chain after so long is an easy and cheap fix that anyone can do.

Granted, I only have 1500 miles on the chain (not sure if that's a lot or not for one chain?), but like my cars, I never waited for things to completely wear out before replacing them. To me it's cheap insurance and it really made a difference.