Doe my cassette look worn?

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faster

Über Member
Maybe it's just me, but apart from the largest sprocket and the smallest one that is mostly obscured, that cassette looks to be clearly well worn with an obvious deformation of the teeth at the pressure point! Defo need to bin the whole cassette, shame you ruined a good chain.

The chain will be fine.

Old chains quickly wear out new cassettes, but old cassettes don't rapidly wear out new chains.
 
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I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
The chain will be fine.

He kept shortening the chain until it was too short. Chain is now in great condition, but unusable.....
 

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
Since the old chain and cassette are running fine (and now re-fitted), and only at 75% worn - why not continue using it like that until 100% worn? Both are going to get binned then anyway. Running the chain to 100% worn is unlikely to cause extra wear to the chain rings in my experience.
 

Punkawallah

Über Member
Since the old chain and cassette are running fine (and now re-fitted), and only at 75% worn - why not continue using it like that until 100% worn? Both are going to get binned then anyway. Running the chain to 100% worn is unlikely to cause extra wear to the chain rings in my experience.

I was given to understand if both the cassette and chain were worn out, it’s likely you’ll need a new chainring as well?
 

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
I was given to understand if both the cassette and chain were worn out, it’s likely you’ll need a new chainring as well?

I can't see the logic in that. Rings are much longer lasting than chains or cassettes. In fact I cannot remember when I last had to replace a chain ring. 10k miles at a guess on regular Shimano 105 or Tiagra groupsets. They certainly see off many chains and cassettes whether both have been worn or not.

Edit to add.... Unless of course someone has been completely negligent on maintenance and simply run the whole drivetrain into an early grave? I don't know. But I stick to replacing the chain at somewhere between 75% and 100% wear. I get 2, maybe 3 chains replaced before the cassette needs replaced. At that point, obviously both chain and cassette are worn, but that does not mean the chain rings need replaced. They have probably only covered about 6k miles at that point (assuming roughly 2k miles per chain).
 
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Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
What do you mean by 100% wear?

I have a chain wear gauge but it measures up to (and a bit beyond) 1%. Are other ones calibrated differently?
 

richardfm

Veteran
Location
Cardiff
He kept shortening the chain until it was too short. Chain is now in great condition, but unusable.....

Unless he kept the links that were removed and can add some back.
 

Brandane

Legendary Member
Location
Costa Clyde
What do you mean by 100% wear?

I have a chain wear gauge but it measures up to (and a bit beyond) 1%. Are other ones calibrated differently?

Looking at mine, it is graduated 0.5 and 0.75 (cm of stretch??). So 0.75 would be 100% wear, and 0.5 would be "keep an eye on it and start thinking about ordering a new chain", or 66% of the way to maximum wear. Or something like that!

20241110_100038.jpg
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I've only ever changed one chain because it skipped and it had spent over 3 years on a turbo (maybe > 5k miles).

My chains last upto 2000 miles outdoors. I then bin them. I regularly oil them - which probably contributes to their longevity. Re cassette, never swapped one due to wear
 
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