How many miles would you expect to get out of a cassette?

Took my bike in for a gear service, don’t have a go, the chap in my LBS does a far better job of fettling that I ever could. When I got it back the chain slips, whereas it didn’t before. Had a chat with him and he reckons it can only be cassette wear. This cassette is a HG50 and I’ve been running it between 2 pc991 chains, which I change over and clean roughly every 3 rides or so. I reckon the cassette has possibly done about 700 miles but neither chanin has reached 0.75 yet. He reckons he’s lucky if he gets 500 miles out of mtb cassettes and he runs XTs. The mech hanger was bent and also replaced with the service, for complete info.

How many miles would YOU expect to get out of a cassette? or any other thoughts on the matter? thanks

More than 700.
A lot more.

Did you only have the chain replaced?

no, the chain wasn’t replaced at all. The gear cable, 1 outer and the mech hanger were replaced with the recent service.

I take it everything worked before you took it in? Try this;

I’m not too sure what I’ve managed to get out of a road cassette that I’ve been alternating between two chains, but I think somewhere in the region of 5000 miles.

I don’t run a computer on my mtb, but I’ve had the same XT cassette on that since I built it, about 3 or 4 years ago? Probably do 500-1000 miles on it a year at a rough guess. But I run a double so everything wears really evenly, and it all gets looked after too, but I’ve only used the one chain I think.

Maybe check the chain doesn’t have any bent/twisted links?

Perhaps that new gear cable has stretched.

No way should it skip after a service.

thanks for that vid link merak but it’s indexing fine, but skipping when on the cog.

45 miles each way.

Probably around 500miles for me. It depends on a lot of things, how your your ride, where you ride, your weight / power. Also if you use the whole cassette or tend to wear out the middle 3 (I do this a bit).

No doubt someone will be along to say that they get 8000miles out of a cassette, and they lube it with nothing but spit every four rides whether it needs it or not.

I get 8000miles out of a cassette, and lube it with nothing but spit every four rides whether it needs it or not. 😉

Haven’t worn a cassette put in years. Roadie one is going fine after god knows hom many miles and other bikes are either SS or fixie.

Never kept track of mileage myself but the lad I work with who like to take note of these things
Gets 400 to 1000 miles of out of a cassette depending on how many muddy/ sandy miles

But seems a bit odd if it was not slipping before , could it be the hub body that’s suffering in the cold ?

I reckon a cassette, chain and chainrings lasts about 1 year and then they all need replacing at the same time. I only have 1 bike so it is ridden every week

As for cassette and chain life it can be affected by conditions of use ie sandy conditions wear rate will increase, you say its swapped between chains and cleaned regulary is this to the point of a full degrease? are you sure it’s not cable stretch/ferrules seating in cable stops fully issue causing gears to come out of index. Any bike should have been test ridden prior to leaving the shop to test for this. I’d be inclined to drop it back at the shop ask him to have a look over it and try from there. Failing that get him to try a cassette and see if it solves the issue if so then there’s a worn cassette.

About 1600 miles replacing the chain at 700 – it all needed replacing at 1600 but would last some of my buddies a lot longer.

Get at least a 1000 miles out of chain and cassette.

Always change both at same time.

Furthest i got is 1600 miles.

Thats both on my mountain bike.

Keep the chain and cassette together, replace both at the same time.
What you could do is have two sets to alternate, with a power link to ease.

I ride until its knackered and falls off. Then use as objects for my students to draw.

45 miles each way.

Yep. No more no less. Or 90 on continuous ride.

Into thousands of miles on the road for cassette life. I think the last MTB cassette wore out due to a twisted chain. Usually they go 18 months or more depending on the weather ( in biblical rain I ride the road bike as the mud here is like glue).

One cassette should see through three chains. Change chains at .75.

Changed the other day. 731km – chain and cassette on my MTB.

Currently done between 1.5 and 2k on each of my bikes and not had to change a cassette yet, though two are beginning to show signs of wear.

I recently changed the chain on mine and ended up having to replace the cassette as well. I doubt I got any more than 700 miles.

I’ve not heard of anyone running two chains before. Is that common? Could that adversely affect the rate of wear (not sure how, just putting it out there…)?

miles is a completely pointless measure in mountain biking nearly as bad as the months it’s been on the bike.

There are so many other variables out there of conditions etc you may clean the chain every 3 rides but if the rides are muddy then it’s in mud all the time it’s moving.

In general the softer/weaker component wears out faster you get to decide which this is.

I run 3 chains, and would expect a year out of that, so maybe 3k for the lot. Though if you just run one chain then 1500 Max and then have to change everything.

Also people piss me off with getting skipping and slipping mixed up.

>He reckons he’s lucky if he gets 500 miles out of mtb cassettes and he runs XTs.<

For comparison I run XT and alternate 2 x Sram PC991 chains every 250 / 300 miles. I’d say circa 50% of my riding is done in wet & muddy conditions (Central Scotland & the Highlands) My bike very rarely comes back dry and I get at least 2000 miles out of a Cassette! 500 miles is like 15 or so rides to me so I’m struggling to see what kind of weather and soil conditions you’d need to be riding in to be down at that level.

I had similar problem recently, and struggled to find the solution… Turned out to be a bent tooth on a SRAM cassette, rather than worn.

It might also be the free hub slipping rather than the cassette.

Sometimes it easier just to replace parts to eliminate them from enquiries.

I’ve had many thousands out of a single cog, mostly off road.

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cog[/url] by Jon Wyatt[/url], on Flickr

Of course, it was starting to slip a little bit at this stage.

I have 2 bikes(FS+HT), that get approx equal use. Maybe less so on the HT, but it gets the majority of the cack weather. Change the chain on each approx 1/year (951 or KMC X10), thats a little before the .75 wear.
My cassettes last a lot longer, maybe 3 chains. Not something I change often (XT BTW).

miles is a completely pointless measure in mountain biking nearly as bad as the months it’s been on the bike.

this

I’ve covered 3k so far this year, with dry rides that I could probably count on the fingers of one hand… About 5 chains and 2 cassettes so far. I bin chains at .75 but only buy base SRAM ones to keep the cost down, although XTR cassettes 😯

You need to learn how to maintain your bike, that way you’ll be able to better judge why things fail/break.

As others have said, too many variables…

I have got just over 1000 miles on a Dura-Ace cassette fitted (on the MTB) towards the end of this year and it still looks great whereas I have just gone back to XT and rarely get more than 500 or 600 miles of the same riding out of them. Same KMC X10 SL chains, same conditions, same riding, same maintenance, same everything. I am OCD about cleaning and re-lubing equally too on both cassettes 😀

+1. Clean and lube makes things last longer.

If your chain ever corrodes you can knock a fair bit off its life expectancy