Hi all,

I’m going to buy a new set of wheels and fit them with skinny tyres for the trip to work. I’m thinking it would also be a good idea to fit a roadie cassette to them so it makes it nicer to ride in.

Questions are:
Would the chain length be ok or would I need to change that also?
Is the width of the chain going to casue a problem?

Current set up is XTR 9 speed cassette & chain running on truvative froont chainrings.

Basically, I just want a swap the wheels and forget about it – will it work?

Cheers

Morgs

….I’d also worry about whether your brand new cassette will work with a part-worn drivetrain, and how often you will use each cassette/will it all wear evenly together. New cassette/rings with an old chain will, potentially, skip like crazy.

the current set up probably has less than 100 miles on it….

New cassette/old chain won’t skip IME, it’ll be very very noisy, feel rough, and it’ll trash the cassette in no time. New chain/old cassette will skip.

Chain length will be fine, no real advantage to a road cassette, in fact many are 12-up, so you’ll have a higher top gear with many MTB cassettes, which is what matters.

You’ll have to get the same hubs, shim one set, or adjust your calipers when you change (assuming disc brakes?).

I run 2 sets of wheels, but run them both about the same amount and keep an eye on chain wear. It doesn’t need to be too much faff.

Almost certainly OK then in that respect.

No idea what the issues will be using a road cassette other than those you’ve mentioned, I reckon you’ll just have to try it

As for the part worn thing, I currently swap rear wheels around 3 bikes, all with different mileage on the drivetrain and don’t have any problems whatsoever with shifting etc.

looks like it wont be the easy fix I thought about then. Currently got hope XC’s and thinking of EVO / Flows for the new set. I know they are too nice for commuting work but I want to build up something nice over time and I may as well use what I buy!

anyone have experience of alternating between hope xc’s & evo’s? Brakes are Hope M4’s if that matters

cheers

Just get some rotor shims and shim one set, bit more initial faff, but you only need to do it once.

The road cassette is a non issue, sprockets are the same width, and the smallest sprocket is the same (or bigger) than most MTB cassettes, which is the only issue where chain length could matter.

cheers all.

I think I can run with this now – right, shopping time for some evo/flows, cassette, tubes & tyres and some rotor shims.

I love that feeling of spending money on bikes….just not looking at bike statements lol!

I have two sets of wheels for my hybrid – one with nobblies and a mountain cassette, ‘tother with narrow slicks and road cassette. Set chain length for the mountain cassette, and chain length won’t be an issue. So long as they are both 9 speed (or both ten speed)then chain width won’t be a problem either. Shimano’s ‘normal’ RDs are better at handling different ranges of cassettes, the shadow ones like to be adjusted very close to the sprockets. To njee20 – advantage of a road cassette is granularity in the gears – its nice to have the small steps of a road cassette to keep cadence at the optimum level.

I ran two sets of wheels on the same bike for a while and just bought two chains .
With fast links it didn’t take long to swap and never had any
problems.
The long term solution is…. get another bike 😆

To njee20 – advantage of a road cassette is granularity in the gears – its nice to have the small steps of a road cassette to keep cadence at the optimum level.

Yes, I realise that, but a lot of people think a road cassette offers a higher gear, which it doesn’t. At best it will be the same as an MTB, and there’s a good chance that it’s actually lower, which rather defeats the purpose. If I was on an MTB on the road I’d sooner have an 11-32 than I would a close ratio 12-23 block.

Make your own 11-whatever road cassette by using an old 11t mtb sprocket and taking out a sprocket higher up the cassette. Take the last one that goes up one tooth if possible.

I did this once, the problem was I bought swanky Hope hub wheels for off roading with the idea of relegating the LX hubbed originals as the commuter wheels. The problem is that there was enough difference in the wheel centreline to cassette between the 2 that the indexing went out on changeover. If you go for it I would recommend getting the same hubs for max compatibility.

Comments about wear between worn and knew are worth considering but I am sure you are aware of this.

I’m on Hope XCs at the mo and thinking Evo’s for the new set. Hopefully they won’t be all that different?

Why not check your frame clearance too see if you can get some 700c or 29″ wheels for commuting, with lower profile slick tyres there may well be clearance and will make more difference to your commute than a road cassette – faster rolling, easier to maintain speed and a bit more comfortable

iain – though about it but the new hoops will take over the old ones at somepoint!

I’ve done this with my Inbred.
Just went into the LBS & asked for a cheap set of wheels to stick some slicks on.
I still need to shim the rotors, but there is only a bit of rub between wheels & with Avids it only takes about a minute per wheel to re-align the caliper.
I only use 1 chain, but when I replace that one, I will probably get two and use one per wheel.

It all works fine.

I had the same problem as Speakert2Animals, I was also swapping between Hopes and LX. I had to re-sync the gears and move the break callipers when I swapped over, real PITA.

I ran two sets of wheels on the same bike for a while and just bought two chains

Am I missing something or isn’t the above blindingly obvious?

what about swapping chains with the wheels/cassettes? Is that a bad idea?

Get a chain checker if you don’t already have one and keep an eye on the chains and swap them before they get too worn and preserve your rings.