In your opinion what is the best cog for under $25

I feel like all cogs under $25, as long as they are CNC'd, are pretty much the same.

duraace is like 28.00

Dura ace. And it's NJS if you care.

Generic FTW!

Yea shimano makes a pretty good cog.

IF you have the money there's always philwood ones....

They are pretty much the same as long they are not stamped ***.

A cog I don't like is Surly's. I don't know if it's the teeth profile or what, but it's noisy as hell.

I didn't know that about Surly's no wonder my drivetrain makes so much noise although I've lubed up my chain.

i've got generic stuff, works well. Here's one i just bought recently https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

It's pretty quiet and strong, seems like it'll last awhile.

I just switched to DA, and it seems marginally better than the $10 formula or whatever I had before.

DA is my choice. You can get a DA cog and lockring shipped from ebay for 30ish.

I have a surly and it is very noisy. I knew the noise is due to bad drive train match, but now this makes more sense. I am going to see if I an go get a new cog soon. I wanted to try something different anyways.

I too have a Surly. The only time I hear any noise is when I flip the bike over and have my ear next to the cog.

well seems like the majority votes surly as being the cheapest. besides Aries and xxguitarist, does anyone else have experience w/ DA?

or generic ones for that matter?

I have a Surly and it's quiet, but I am running it w/ Surly lockring and Surly hub. You guys might wanna try oiling and slackening your chains if they are noisy.

Really, when it comes to it, I don't think there are any huge differences in a given price range.

That's not the problem. I really think it is the tooth profile. Compared to EAI, Dura Ace & Soma cogs, the teeth on the Surly's don't taper as much. It looks like they're thicker. I have no rationale for this making for a noisier drivetrain, but it's a lot quieter when I run the EAI.

EAI all the way! smooth, quiet, and perfect chainline.

There's really no point going for generic or other **** cogs when DA is $25-$30. Seriously. Is wrecking your hub worth saving what, $15 on a cog?

The best? Discarding the 25 buck being cheap method..

Eai gold and Phil wood

I'm very happy with the Surly. My chainline is pretty good, so I really don't hear much noise from the drivetrain while riding at all. My current Surly cog/lockring combo is much better quality than the Soma and Formula ones I've also owned. I snagged the combo for about $20 brand new, so I was pretty pleased with the deal I found.

If you want the best cog for the least money, the Miche cog/carrier system is the way to go. Once you buy the carrier, the cogs are about half the cost of a normal cog, and when worn you can flip them around and get another full life out of them, so the operating cost is about 25% of regular cogs.

I have a 16t cog with the hub being about centered. If i put a 18t cog on will I have to add a link to my chain?

Just put on a 18t EAI about a month ago, it's smooth and quiet.