Shimano 12 speed cassettes?

Hello everyone.

I have two new sets of wheels, one with an m8100 cassette, the other with no cassette.

When I swap wheels, do I?

A) just swap cassettes as well.

B) buy another m8100

C) buy an m7100 or m6100.

If I went for C, is there an issue of sharing the chain between say the 6100 and 8100?

OCD says B.

I go with A myself on my gravel bike. You’ll have a bias to one set in the end anyway. I do have two sets of rotors mind.

If swapping often; buy another cassette the same.

If not swapping often; move the cassette over too to avoid any uneven wear between the chain and cassette.

I’d definitely put another m8100 on and also shim the rotors if required so everything lines up nicely. Makes swapping wheels painless

Oh and buy the most expensive Shimano chain you can afford. It’ll save you money in the long run…

D) Make sure both wheels have the same DT Swiss hub (or similar) then just pull the entire freehub off with cassette still attached and put it on 2nd wheelset.

Hubs and rotors hopefully not an issue as got the same on both wheels.

Think I’ll stick with A for now. Cheapest option, and think again when I get fed up.

I do A, one Hunt, one Giant wheelset. No issues with rotor alignment.

Re. C – there’s no mechanical reason not to get a cheaper SLX or Deore cassette on the other set, apart from weight.

IME XT cassettes and chains in 12 speed last quite a bit longer than SLX and Deore. I’ve had almost double the life from XT compared with SLX. The only problem is whether you want to pay double the price in most cases.

Weight I think is minimal, 120g I think, but good that they are mechanicly the same.

Xt lasting longer is almost counter intuitive as the two bigger rings are made of aluminium. I wonder if the teeth are cut slightly differently.

IME XT cassettes and chains in 12 speed last quite a bit longer than SLX and Deore. I’ve had almost double the life from XT compared with SLX. The only problem is whether you want to pay double the price in most cases.

I doubt that about the cassette. XT has two biggest cogs in alu, SLX has one, Deore is all steel.

Did you have any major other varying factor in your comparisons?