Technical help please changing cassette

[Jim on the hill]

Evening all,

Very limited knowledge here apart from I like to ride up hills, recently did the Devon ToB stage and struggled on the hill. The other cyclists I was with stated I was under geared, I have a big standard 2014 Felt F75 and was wondering if I could change this to a Shimano 11/32 cassette? Appreciate I may need a longer chain but I could probably do with a new one anyway and I also need to change the front cog as some of the teeth are worn down.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-f75-105-2014/

Thoughts? Not interested in buying a new bike or upgrading from 105 as I do a lot of miles and it's a cheap hobby.

[anonymous-user]

It might need a long cage rear derailleur too, but it can be done

[klootzak]

As far as I can see, your bike already has a compact chainset with 50/34 chainwheels up front, so there isn't a smaller option there (unless you go to a triple, which I'm not sure your shifters will support).

As for the back, you could get an 11/28 cassette on there which would give you a slightly smaller gear for hills but without needing a longer chain or different derailleur. Shimano reckon 28 teeth is the limit for your derailleur, but they are notoriously conservative in their specs and plenty of people have short-cage mechs working okay with 30t on the back.

All that said, if you're replacing the cassette you should probably replace the chain and front rings too, just to avoid unnecessarily fast wear.

k

[Jim on the hill]

klootzak said:

As far as I can see, your bike already has a compact chainset with 50/34 chainwheels up front, so there isn't a smaller option there (unless you go to a triple, which I'm not sure your shifters will support).

As for the back, you could get an 11/28 cassette on there which would give you a slightly smaller gear for hills but without needing a longer chain or different derailleur. Shimano reckon 28 teeth is the limit for your derailleur, but they are notoriously conservative in their specs and plenty of people have short-cage mechs working okay with 30t on the back.

All that said, if you're replacing the cassette you should probably replace the chain and front rings too, just to avoid unnecessarily fast wear.

k

Thanks, seems to be some good deals on Chain reactions right now so keen to pick the bits up.

Derailleurs seem to be about £25-35 so I certainly don't mind picking up one of those. Which numbers should I be looking for 5700, 5701, 5800?

Seems like so much to learn!

[ClassicMercs]

I would probably go with 5701 derailleur - medium cage - the HG500 cassette - the 4601 chain. Total £66
The chainrings - is it just the outer thats worn - or have you been grinding lots of hills on the small ring ? 5 hole 110bcd ?? £60 the pair roughly.

[Paul Drawmer]

Your chain ring might not be worn. The teeth are different sizes around the ring to aid changing gear, they may just look worn down.

[upsidedownmark]

Chances are the front ring is fine. The inner has all the teeth the same, the outer looks nuts with sharp ones, 'snapped off' ones and all sorts to make it change better. It generally takes a lot of miles to wear the fronts out 'cos they're big. Cassettes a bit less so becase they're much smaller and so do more work on each tooth.

You can't go with a 58xx mech, they're 11 speed and pull totally different amounts of cable. So you're stuck with 57xx, or a tiagra (4601, not 4700 as I first wrote). The GS (long) version of 105 will take 32 teeth, the tiagra (fully compatible) 32. You might save a bit of money by going with the 4600 cassette/mech. IMHO the place you notice the difference is the levers, not what's at the far end.

If you want to get really silly, you can also use 9 speed MTB rear mech with what you have, but that's a bit specialist! Chain wise, I'd just buy something cheap and 10 speed. I like the KMC ones because of the magic link vs shimano's silly pin.

[Edited 'cos I screwed up the initial post!]

Edited by upsidedownmark on Friday 7th September 17:28

[GOATever]

Get yourself one of these

https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Wolf-Tooth-Compon...

You put it in between the existing hanger and mech ( where the little jockey wheels are mounted ) It moves the existing rear mech down, and keeps the top jockey wheel away from the largest sprocket, meaning you don’t have to get a new rear mech / hanger, if you go for a cassette with a larger big sprocket. It doesn’t change the chain wrap though and you may need a longer chain than you currently use.

Edited by GOATever on Friday 7th September 10:47

Edited by GOATever on Friday 7th September 10:50

[Usget]

klootzak said:

As far as I can see, your bike already has a compact chainset with 50/34 chainwheels up front, so there isn't a smaller option there (unless you go to a triple, which I'm not sure your shifters will support).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-32-N11-Crankset-Crankset-32-N11-Cranks-Cranksets/dp/B074XDXK67
https://www.evanscycles.com/praxis-works-alba-chai...
https://www.evanscycles.com/praxis-works-zayante-c... (NLA but it does exist)

Absolute Black also sell 46/30 ovalised chainrings but not full chainsets.

None of which is relevant to the OP, I'm just being a smartarse.

[Barchettaman]

You can get a 33 tooth inner chainring for a standard 110 BCD compact crankset.

[louiebaby]

Jim on the hill said:

Very limited knowledge here apart from I like to ride up hills, recently did the Devon ToB stage and struggled on the hill. The other cyclists I was with stated I was under geared, I have a big standard 2014 Felt F75 and was wondering if I could change this to a Shimano 11/32 cassette?

Hi Jim,

I may be relatively local to you, Ottery St Mary, so may be able to help you change things if you need to. I dabble with my own maintenance, and only really avoid spokes and wheel truing.

Happy to help out if you need it.

Lewis

[Matt_N]

upsidedownmark said:

Chances are the front ring is fine. The inner has all the teeth the same, the outer looks nuts with sharp ones, 'snapped off' ones and all sorts to make it change better. It generally takes a lot of miles to wear the fronts out 'cos they're big. Cassettes a bit less so becase they're much smaller and so do more work on each tooth.

You can't go with a 58xx mech, they're 11 speed and pull totally different amounts of cable. So you're stuck with 57xx, or a tiagra (4700). The GS (long) version of 105 will take 32 teeth, the tiagra (fully compatible) 34. You might save a bit of money by going with the 4700 cassette/mech. IMHO the place you notice the difference is the levers, not what's at the far end. http://productinfo.shimano.com/#/spec/3.0/ROAD/Rea...

If you want to get really silly, you can also use 9 speed MTB rear mech with what you have, but that's a bit specialist! Chain wise, I'd just buy something cheap and 10 speed. I like the KMC ones because of the magic link vs shimano's silly pin.

Whilst still 10 speed, Tiagra 4700 uses the same pull ratio as 5800/6800 so it's mechs and shifters are not backwards compatable with other 10 speed stuff.

[upsidedownmark]

Apologies, I kinda knew that but misread - was a bit surprised when I looked at it. It's the 4601-GS that is compatible and will go to 32 teeth. That does work with the 5700 levers according to shimano's compatibility chart.

[Matt_N]

upsidedownmark said:

Apologies, I kinda knew that but misread - was a bit surprised when I looked at it. It's the 4601-GS that is compatible and will go to 32 teeth. That does work with the 5700 levers according to shimano's compatibility chart.

Bit silly to make 10 speed not compatable across the generations, bet some people have been caught out by it.

[upsidedownmark]

More than a little mean! as I recall pretty much everything used to work with everything, then they went off and changed the cable pull accross the board. May have saved me making the same mistake myself as I've just revived the old roadbike groupset out of the bits box to build an ebay bargin cyclocross frame for gravel/cx/touring/general whatever use. Think I'm going to want something bigger than a 25 on the back

[GOATever]

upsidedownmark said:

More than a little mean! as I recall pretty much everything used to work with everything, then they went off and changed the cable pull accross the board. May have saved me making the same mistake myself as I've just revived the old roadbike groupset out of the bits box to build an ebay bargin cyclocross frame for gravel/cx/touring/general whatever use. Think I'm going to want something bigger than a 25 on the back

This is 41 tooth big sprocket, on a 9 speed cassette with a Sora rear mech, using a hanger extender. It works just fine.