Second set of wheels
 

I've noticed that a lot of people in this forum have either a winter bike or a second set of wheels for winter riding or training.

My question is ... does that normally mean that you typically buy a second cassette to go with the second set of wheels or do you just swap the cassette (I assume that's possible)? The price of a lower end cassette doesn't seem too much but I'd rather not buy one if I don't have to.

I think I'd buy a new cassette. If you've got a nice cassette on your racing wheels, you probably shouldn't put too many miles on it.

Also, you may want an 11-23 cassette for a crit, rather than using a 12-25 for a training wheelset.

If you're going to be changing wheels frequently, it's much less of a PIA to have a cassette on each one. If it's for the whole Winter, then back for the whole Spring through Fall, that wouldn't be a big deal to swap out a few times per year.

I dont have a second wheelset (working on it...) but I would get a second cassette just so i wouldnt have to move the one back and forth

I would think that first we would need more background information about your riding.

The easy answer would be that you should get atleast the same cassette that you currently have and put it on the better set. If you are using your "fast wheels" now, put the old cassette on your "new traing wheels." If you are buying "race wheels" then you should get the best set and cassette that you can afford.

There are advantages to having multiple cassettes, you can improve your chain as well as cassette life. And as was mentioned above, you can widen or lower your gearing for training.

Thanks for the answers. Concerning what I'm riding right now, it's not much to speak of. It's a freebie 30 pound steel bike with what I think are 650 sized wheels ... not something that I'm inclined to toss much money at. I've been toying with the idea though of getting another rear wheel so I can go out riding on good days yet not have to swap off the trainer tire. My worry is that switching the tires too much would damage them and be more costly than just getting another wheel/cassette combo.

The most likely outcome is me just sucking it up and riding on my trainer till I finally decide which of the many great choices for a road bike I'll go with. Just about every brand has something that seems intriguing to me. My favorite LBS only has trek and norco, neither of which are my top choices though I do like the madone 5.2 ... it just may be a bit more money than I want to spend.

As for training right now I'm pretty much just using the same two gears - the two tallest on this bike. I can pretty easily spin out of the tallest gear going downhill so I'm definitely looking forward to getting a bike with taller gears. On average though I'm not in good enough shape yet to use the tallest gear on the bike continuously for more than a few minutes ... the second tallest seems to be the sweet spot (~33km/h @ 85 rpm).

Sounds like you have a Winter bike and just need to start saving up for a daily driver.