Had a thought the other day that whilst chain rings attach to a crank and can be swapped when worn, there’s nothing like this for cassettes. Like a spider that the cogs attach to and can be swapped when worn, saving some of the cost of buying a whole new cassette.

I can imagine many problems with this including increased weight, potential for noise etc but it was just a thought.

Good point, most high end cassettes consist of steel rings riveted into an alloy or composite block. It does feel wasteful to chuck it all away.

In the old days, you used to build your own cluster so could pick individual cog sizes and replace when worn.

The cheap ones are actually both cheap and bloody good. So there is not much point in changing just the cogs you want to change.

You can buy individual parts for Shimano cassettes, I’ve bought a replacement XT 11 tooth before. One of the German shops IRC. I know they don’t split down completely but it’s a start.

In the old days, you used to build your own cluster so could pick individual cog sizes and replace when worn.

When I went from 5 speed at the back to 6 on my first mountain bike I had it configured as I wanted it. The steps were far more even than what was available off the shelf at the time.

In the old days,

Please pause while I put on my Oakley Eyeshades with a rose tint…

In those old days, there was no hyperglide, not even uniglide and no one had even thought of indexing. Having cassettes in a single lump seems like a fair trade.