Anyone have a pic of a worn cassette? I am builing up a bike from
old parts and need to buy a chain. I know conventional wisdom says replace at same time but money is a bit tight at minute so don’t want to replace something that may not need replacing. How can I tell a worn cassette by eye?

I can’t tell them by eye. No difference I[/b] can see clearly enough to be sure

very difficult to tell by eye. Try and see or use the tool.

cynic-al – Member

very difficult to tell by eye. Try and see or use the tool.

There’s a cassette checking tool?

I think park or ROFLOFF do one it’s a lever with some chain IIRC

Oh FFS.

How do the teeth look? If they look hooked, i.e. worn on one side, then it’s ****. Otherwise give it a go. How extreme is your riding?

I tend to like to be able to pedal irrespective of the extremeness of the ride

Got a 500 mile XTR cassette that looks indistinguishable from a brand new one. I@ve put it on 3 times now, just hoping I made a mistake and magically it’ll somehow work without skipping!

no tool that i’ve seen! just put it on with new chain, if it skips it’s fecked.

just googled oit, rohloff do it. I’d post a link but there’s no cut and paste function on my iPod.

Never seen or used one but ………..

Can’t you just fit the one you have & see if it works OK?
If it doesn’t – replace it, simple 🙂

coffeeking – Member

Got a 500 mile XTR cassette that looks indistinguishable from a brand new one.

I should bloody hope so.

New chain on at the weekend, carefully checked my SRAM 990 cassette (by eye), all looked fine, off I went, but the middle sprockets all jump like a crazy thing (despite looking like new-ish).

The moral of the story is put it on and try.

just put it on with new chain, if it skips it’s fecked.

If it skips, refit the old chain!!!!!!!!

TBH I always thought it was down to how hooked and fin like the teeth looked so I was hoping that someone would post a pic of a worn cassette as the OP asked. Fair point though that its not how it looks, its how it performs.

The cassette is definately tired if: the fourth, and or fifth sprockets have pointier tooth profiles than the rest. This wil guarantee chain skipping with a new chain.

Additional tell tale signs are the previous chain being quite worn and the middle ring teeth being hooked.

Thing is – it will be too worn too mesh with a new chain long before you can see that by eye.

I would say that my last XT cassette looked fine but wafter putting anew chain on it (do it every 6 months or so) it jumped like hell. Seems the newer cassettes seem less worn visually before they start to jump! The old ones I have changed in the past have looked a lot more worn before I have changed them?

I once changed a new chain onto an older cassette which then started to skip as soon as any power was put through it. It was annoying at first but i persevered and eventually it stopped as i assume the new chain eventually meshed in nicely with the old cassette.

This was on my commute bike though where it’s easier to put up with chain skipping than when riding offroad.

Mr Tall, that sounds like the old cassette mashing your new chain at an advanced rate so it was as worn as the old cassette!

I should bloody hope so.

Yeah, unfortunately it skips like a schoolgirl in summer, depite having been assembled in the first place with brand spanking new chain/rings.

Sheldon is still the authoritative source for things like this: worn in front, new behind

http://sheldonbrown.com/chains.html#wear