noviques

Hey there,
I was told that I need a new chain and a new cassette for my bike. What product and what retailer do you guys recommend. I own exactly this bike.

tkm433

Call me strange but I run a Shimano Ultegra road cassette 12-27 9-speed and a Sram chain on any of my geared mountain bikes. I like the closer gears on the road cassette (I live in flat country) and I hate the Shimano chain pin and feel more comfortable with the Sram master links. ( they are almost fool proof)

If you have worn out your cassette and chain ther is a good chance that you might need the middle chain ring replaced also if that is the one you use most. It tends to be the one that wear out first in most cases.

If you are running 8-speed I would probally stick with the Sram stuff. It in my view works just as well as Shimano and it useally cost a few bucks less and again the Sram master link is better than the Shimano pin.

BCRider

If you've worn it out from riding in dirt and mud then go with not the cheapest and not the most expensive. Mid line SRAM is my choice for the best price to performance blend.

If you're riding in areas where there's mud or serious dust then it doesn't matter what you get. It'll all wear out just as fast thanks to the abrasive qualities of the riding conditions. But you want it to work decently while it is in use and the middle of the road option offers the best blend of quality, performance and cost to suit such use.

Yeah, OK, you can save a few grams with the higher priced options but look at your bike..... it's a burly solid framed mountain bike intended for rough use. As such a few grams here and there isn't going to mean diddly.

Now if I'm wrong and you're only street riding and the original parts lasted a long time then MAYBE it would be worth saving a few grams by going up the product scale a little. But even so I would not bother shooting for the top of the line stuff if your money means something to you. In the Shimano line the Deore level is fine for mud or dusty conditions. If you ride it cleaner than that then the LX or XT level so suit your wallet is great stuff. Even so I'd still use SRAM chain because of the Powerlink. I really like being able to snap it open when needed. The SRAM chain that comes in at around the $25 mark is just fine. The fancier stuff has nice plating on it and at the high end it may or may not shift a hair better. But you'll pay dearly for that possible gain.

z415

Products: Sram PG-970 & Sram PC-991 -or- Sram PC-971 -or- Wipperman 908.

Retailer: Never had one that was bad, so any one. Nashbar.com might be the cheapest although I do encourage you to support your local bike shop (LBS).