A cassette is cassette, and Shimano make the only ones, yeah? WRONG!

We’ve just got hold of some 2001 samples of SRAM equipment (the Gripshift people who also own Sachs). Their rear cassette has THE MOST INCREDIBLE SHIFTING OF ANY CASSETTE WE’VE EVER USED!

It’s early days yet – literally only been up and down the road on it, but from the outset everyone who’s ridden it has commented on the smoothness of the shifting. You literally can’t feel the gear change – you can only tell it’s changed because of the change in feel due to the higher or lower gear. It’s quite remarkable.

We’ve got a 9speed version, running a useful 11-34 combo which makes for an easy time when going uphill. The 9.0 version apparently uses a Grilamid plastic carrier (like the alloy one on XT and XTR) but saves a load of weight in the process. This 7.0 (XT-LX level) one has full size sprockets and curiously coloured spacers.

We’ll get some more miles in on it and report back. Unless performance drops of markedly, we think this will be the best cassette around. And SRAMs competitve pricing policy means that it won’t cost a fortune either.

More news when we have it, but hopefully we’ll be looking at a cassette that’s a product-for-product replacement for Shimano units, but that works better and costs less!

9.0 (9spd) 11-32t & 11-34t options, retail £50.00

7.0 (9spd) 11-32t & 11-34t options, retail £35.00

5.0 (8spd) 11-28t & 11-32t options, retail £20.00

I’ve been riding the cassette for just over a week now and it’s still impressive. If I had to pick holes in it, I’d say its shifting down (to larger sprockets) is smoother than shifting up (to smaller ones). But it’s still smoother than anything else I’ve ridden. I can’t make any comments on durability, as it’s only had about 20hrs use, but that’s enough to have proved itself so far. Certainly no bits have dropped off. Also, working alongside the cassette is a 9.0 shifter and a 9.0 rear mech, all of which are working fine. They’re running with a continuos length of cable (for complicated reasons) but shift quality is excellent – really light action (probably thanks to the Black Snake gear cables). Infact the shift action is so light, I can push the shifter with my thumb, rather than having to move my whole hand.

More later, and also a review on the new Hope XC4s which I got yesterday.