Originally Posted by
sp00ki
I'd bet you a zillion dollars (i can do that because i'm a zillionaire) that the "whisper quiet" ride has everything to do with chainline and 0 to do with the cog.
swap the cogs to prove it.
in fact, i'd bet that the phil is quieter on whatever you have the surly on; depending on the eai model, it might be even quieter.
i rode a 16t da on my bob jackson for like a month. i thought it was the quietest thing ever. then i bought a 16t superstar. now, i literally only hear the carbon of my fork resonating when i'm moving fast at night.
i'll send you my paypal info for that zillion later.
I realize there are other factors like the chain and the chainline (though they are all track bikes and the chainlines are perfect). I don't want go switching the cogs on all my bikes to prove something. My point was just that I put a Surly cog on a bike and it is extremely quiet and smooth. If there was something inferior about a Surly cog -- which is what a lot of people seem to be saying -- wouldn't it be making noise even
with a perfect chainline? How else do you judge a cog?