cassette advise: sram vs. shimano

markw83

hey guys,
just looking for a lttle advise. at the moment i am running a chris king for my rear hub, and i had some trouble with my cassette comming lose and also putting small dings in drive shell. i bought an xt cassette to solve the problem, and it developed play in a very short period of time. its being warrantied now. i was wondering if someone had advise on a good hub to buy?
xt, xtr and the pg-990 have the spider or carrier that interfaces with the hub instead of each cog independantly there fore not making dings in my drive shell. anyone know which contacts better? also, i am not sure what caused the play? if it were my hub, the cassette, what? might i need a spacer?

i guess my question is, what cassette shoul di be looking at for a relyable and quality hub/cassete interface.

where i have had trouble with the xt already i am leaning towards the sram pg-990....any comments?

motorhommer

XT or LX hub should be no problem. Very hard to beat Shimano hubs. I am not familiar with the Chris King so cannot comment. Either cassette should do with this hub. I use an LX cassette and have absolutely no problems. Just grease the hub bearings every 6 months, put some light oil into the freehub, change your chain maybe 3 times to each cassette depending on miles and wear and you should have trouble free cycling and lovely shifting.

davebee

I disagree with motohammer. It is VERY easy to beat shimano hubs. However whilst the quality is not the highest (except for xtr which is generally excellent) they do represent very good value for money (which xtr don't EVER).


The main problem that I have with shimano hubs is that they use cup and cone bearings. This is not a problem if you stay right on top of the maintenance but they have a tendency to let muck in and if that happens and you dont clean regularly then the cup can get warped and then your hub is trashed. Far better to use something like hope or king that uses sealed cartridge bearings. If you trash the bearigns you chuck them out and replace and the hub stays fine.

Cassette wise, I use cheap shimano cassettes (on Hope hubs) and replace them regularly. I have not had ANY issues with the cassette sliping.

alfeng

This is not quite true ...

It probably takes less skill to tap out the old cups and press in new ones than it does to do the same with a set of cartridge bearings.

Unless the flange is damaged (hey, that's true with ANY hub), a Shimano hub can be completely rebuilt.

MidBunchLurker

To add to that -
Shimano (and Campagnolo) still use cups and cones in their hubs because they offer less friction than cartridge bearings. There are few things smoother running than a Campy record hubset, and XTR and Dura-ace aren't too far behind.

__________________
nick.

www.nickcoyne.com

davebee

Hmmm. Not sure I agree with that. repalcing loose ball bearings in a cup and cone doesnt take much skill, but it can be a bit fiddly (esp with lwoer quality stuff) to get it so that it runs nice with no friction and not too loose. personally, I have found cartridge bearings to be much simpler to replace. Whack it with a mallet and out it comes.

. also, cartridge bearings do not require ongoing maintenance, you let them run until the are wrecked and then knock them out and replace the cartridge. this will not damage your hub. With loose bearing hubs, if you do not maintain them, the hub is more likely to get damaged as dirt etc can get in. I have seen situations where the inenr race has become warped due to the hub coming loose and not being noticed in time. The end result is that the hub is wrecked.

Granted loose ball hubs can be adjusted to run smoother but personally I prefer cartridge, even if they are mroe expensive. This is alrgely down to the obscene amount of mud in Britain which virtually necessitates a full rebuild of loose bearing hubs after every couple of rides to have any life in the hubs whatsoever. Not had the same problems since switching to sealed cartridge.

Bending/ breaking/ warping flanges is an entirely separate issue that can happen to any hub.