apacherider

Yes, I hear Performance has a good return policy, especially with their house brand stuff like Forte. Looking into this further it looks like others had the same problem as me with the second smallest cog blowing up. There are 7 cogs that install as one complete unit, the other two, the two smallest plus the lockring are individually installed.

Just a heads up. I like Performance as a store and cannot complain. But these Forte cassettes are rubbish.

jedrider

I repair older bikes a lot. I've bought Performance Forte linear brakes. I've bought Nashbar linear brakes. I'll give the edge to Nashbar, although the Forte brakes on a child's bike seemed OK.

I took one look at the Forte cassette and brought it back to the store. They are very, very nice at the store BTW.

I've bought SRAM and Shimano cassettes. Anywhere in their lineup, the cassettes are meticulously designed and manufactured. I don't think you can beat them at their respective price points. Why bother?