I have a P3 and for two years have ridden the stock cassette, I am guessing it is an 11-23. I really struggled up the Ralphs hill on the 70.3 Ironman. Also for hill riding around Santa Clarita, would a 12-27 makes sense and is the $125 they are getting on e-bay for them right now about right.
Also, can it just slap right on with no adjustment to the chain etc?
Slowman, this would be a good one for you to weigh in on.
Michael
You could go with the Ultegra that is much less expenisve and yes you will have to do some minor adjusting on the rear derailleur. I switch between three sets of wheels, all with different cassettes on them. If you only have one set of wheels, you will need a chain whip, the cassette tool and a little help the first time from a bike mechanic.
As for the question of do you need it? If you are struggling up the hills, it should help.
12-27 is NICE is your training includes any big hills. I ride a 12-25 with 39/53 front rings and get by fine. There sure are a lot of times when I’d love that 12-27 though and I consider myself a pretty strong rider (sub 1hr 40K). It’s not wimpy, it’s smarter than grinding yourself into lactic acid hell up the steep hills. Racing you might go back to the 11-23 for a little more top end, that’s what I do.
Skip the Dura-ace unless you really have the $$$. Go ultegra on the replacement, you’ll never know the difference and it’s practically 2 for the price of 1
You can do a lot better than $125. Performance has Ultrega cassetes; 10 spd $72, 9 spd $58. You'll also need two tools; a chain whip to hold the cassette still and a cassette removal tool. To use them you'll insert the removal tool them intall your skewer a little loosely to hold it in place. Then use the chain whip to hold the cassette and use a large adjustable wrench to loosen the cassette. Install the new one in reverse. Finally, you'll have to fine turn the rear derailler; put the bike on a stand and turn the barrel adjuster one click at a time as you run through the gears. Stop when it shifts smoothly.
Finally, I don’t think you need a 12-27. A 12-25 should get you up everything you’ll find in relative comfort. My wife has a 27 that she bought for Nice Triathlon. We don’t have mountains like that in America. She was riding the 27 when I met her until she borrowed a wheel from me with a 25 and found how much faster she could climb without the “granny gear”. Now that cassette sits on her trainer wheel.
MHCoburn,
Try the 12-27. Just because you have the 27, doesn’t mean you have to use it even if you find you don’t need it. But, if you don’t have the 27, you can never use it.
If you find you don’t use the 27, you can shift to the 12-25 instead. On less vertical terrain, I discovered I had more desire to have the cogs I lost to get the biggest cog than I had for that biggest cog. But you will have to make that decision yourself.
For me, one of the reasons I purchased a bike in the first place that had interchangeable cassettes was to be able to change cassettes to get the most desirable gearing for any route I chose to ride. For what little a cassette costs and how easy it is to change a cassette and/or swap out a wheel, why not take advantage of this opportunity? As I got lazier, I just purchased another training wheel and kept the cassette mounted on it so all I had to do was swap the wheel when I wanted to change cassette rather than actually change the cassette each time. But this means I frequently change wheels and consequently gearing. I certainly believe that it has increased my enjoyment of the riding I have done.
I run Campy but have 11-23, 13-26 and 13-29 cassettes. I use the 13-26 and 13-29 cassettes when the terrain becomes really vertical.
Sometimes in the Fall as the season winds down, some of my riding becomes just fun rather than training or racing focused. Then the mantra becomes why suffer? This ride is for pleasure to remind me that not all riding has to be suffering to make a gain.
Lastly, as others have recommended, go Ultegra. I have stayed away from the Record (Campy top end/Dura Ace counterpart) and use Chorus. Some of the Dura Ace/Record cogs are titanium and wear much faster than steel cogs besides costing twice as much and more! You won’t notice any shifting difference between the top end grade cassettes and the next grade level down, at least I never have been able to. But I was never a weight weenie so you must take that into consideration as well. Durability and dependability was much more important to me than saving 10 or 15 grams for an extra couple hundred dollars.
FWIW. I hope it helps you.
First, count the teeth on the largest sprocket, so you know what you’re comparing to.
Then, go find the biggest hill you need to climb. Keeping in mind that steady effort is required in triathlon (not spurts), climb the hill at race effort and note your cadence. It will be too slow, of course, because you’re overgeared.
Now, get a calculator.
Desired cadence/current cadence = new sprocket/old sprocket.
Dura Ace costs much more than Ultegra, but is probably only slightly better. The value judgement is up to you. If you’re in the market for a $200 cassette, see Dan’s article about 11-27 in the Slowtwich main pages.
If you are switching from the 23 to the 27, you will probably need to get a longer chain if your current chain is tight.
Check out the SRAM PG970, it comes in a 12-26 & seems to be a nice compromise between the 12-25 & 12-27 and a lot cheaper. Performance has ‘em for $49. I’ve been using one all summer without a problem & it seems to shift as well if not better than my Ultegra cassettes.
This may be a dumb question but why do you have to buy the whole cassette? It all comes apart so why can’t you just buy one bigger sprocket and swap it out for your smallest one?
For example: I have a 11-23 DA cassette. Why couldn’t I just buy a 25 tooth sprocket (with spacer) and remove my 11?
"It all comes apart so why can’t you just buy one bigger sprocket and swap it out for your smallest one? "
I think that was the idea when cassettes first came out. You could build it any way you wanted. You can still do it, but I don’t know of anyone that sells single sprockets. You have to buy the whole thing.
I’m not sure about this, but I think the 11 has to be on the outside to accomodate the lock ring. The 12 isn’t recessed to do this job.
Oh, but I think on 7 and 8 speeds the outside cog isn’t recessed so you could do it on these cassettes.
The ramps might be an issue though.
i’ve got that cassette on my road bike. I think it’s perfect
the SRAM 12-26 I mean…
On the original freehubs, 25 years ago, the smallest sprocket threaded on to the hub body, and held all the other sprockets and spacers on by compression. There was no lockring. After a few rides, the chain tightened the outer sprocket so tight that it was quite a fight to get it off. Dura Ace and 600 (600 is now called Ultegra) had different threads, so you had to buy the threaded sprocket to match your hub, but all the other sprockets were completely interchangeable. I have a tandem with Dura Ace hubs and 11 - 34 sprockets, and a road bike with Dura Ace 11 - 28. This was before the days of ramped sprockets, and the latest innovation was called “twist-tooth.” I bought a good selection, and changed my gearing around to experiment. I still have a number of these sprockets kicking around my garage, some of them never used. They won’t work with current hubs because the spline spacing is different.
Nowadays some sprockets have to be in a specific position to fit, and the ramps have to line up right for crispest performance. It’s been decades since I’ve seen sprockets for sale a la carte in the Nashbar catalog (actually it was called Bike Warehouse back then, before Arni Nashbar bought it). See Dan’s 11-27 article in the main pages.
I never understood why they make a 12-27 and not just an 11-27. If you go up it that slow, you will want your 11 to go down it most likely.
I do pretty much what Dan says, I take the 11t off my 11-23 and put that in in place of my 12t on my 12-27.
I love my compact crank on my tri bike. I run an 11-21 for everything this way. Although when I do a TT, it sucks only having a 50/11.
If I have an 11t, I rarely use my 12t.