assettes are another component which you can swap out and upgrade on your bike to further reduce weight. However if you’re not even familiar with what a cassette is or how to upgrade them don't worry as we'll be diving deep into all this in the following sections.
As a quick disclaimer, please do note that this guide and the Compare Tool on this site are meant purely as a guide and ultimately it’s up to you to vet the products listed for their compatibility, features, and weight savings.
Lastly, if you have some foundational knowledge of cassettes, feel free to skip ahead to the section “Evaluating Your Cassette Options”.
A Cassette is part of your Bike’s Groupset
Before we get into the details we should define what a cassette is. Cassettes are the collection of gears that are attached to the rear wheel of your bike. These gears play an important part in how your bike performs as you pedal. Cassettes make up an important part of your bike’s Drivetrain which consist of the components that connect the power from your pedal strokes to the wheels of your bike.
If we were talking about a car, this would be similar to how the transmission and various connected parts take the power from the engine to the wheels. Other parts of a bike’s drivetrain are the chain, crankset, bottom bracket, and front and rear derailleurs as you can see below.
Your Drivetrain finally is part of your bikes Groupset, which includes the rest of your bike’s mechanical components such as your brakes, rotors, and shifters.
Groupsets like other cycling components come in a variety of performance tiers based on features, weight, and cost. As you go up a groupset range, you’ll find a variety of benefits across the board ranging from more gearing options to even electronic shifting. In addition higher level groupsets tend to use more exotic materials in their parts which make them lighter.
Similar to shopping for a new car, you can think of groupset tiers as the different trims/variations offered on a specific car model. Therefore the base car may be similar but the engine and features offered are better as you go up trim levels.
Upgrading your groupset can be expensive and there are other options to consider first if you’re focusing on direct weight savings. However, you can change specific parts of your groupset to experience some of the weight saving advantages offered in higher level tiers without having to commit to the cost of swapping out your whole groupset.
Your cassette is one of these options where you can see decent weight savings for the cost. This is why we feature cassettes as one of the main components on our site. Alternatively, you may also be looking at cassettes because you have picked up a new lighter wheelset and you want to see what other options are out there. Lastly, cassettes are also one of the easiest upgrades to install for any local bike shop or something you can do if you happen to have the right cycling tools and knowledge.
Despite the simplicity of this upgrade from an installation and weight savings perspective, understanding which cassettes are compatible with your bike is not as straightforward. However, I hope to help you navigate through this upgrade so you can start evaluating your cassette options.
Lastly I do want to mention that if your looking for a straight forward and easy upgrade for your bike you may way to start with your tubes first which I discuss in detail here.
Pulling up your Bikes Technical Details
Before we even start to look at possible cassette upgrade options we need to determine what cassette is equipped with your bike. The easiest place to start is your bike manufacturer’s website.
Once you pull up the manufacturers site you simply want to browse for your model. If you're not sure which model you have you can simply look at your bike's frame/body as it’s usually indicated on there.
For example, if I had this Specialized bike below, I can see the model, Roubaix, is highlighted towards the back of the bike.
However, generally knowing just the model is not enough as each model may offer multiple groupset options. This means they will feature a variety of different components and we need to find the one you have.
One way to narrow down which bike you have is actually the color of your bike as many bike manufacturers tend to associate each bike model with a specific collection of colors.
Going back to the Specialized Roubaix example, if I pull up the Specialized site I can see all the different models offered for the Roubaix.
Based on the color alone I can see that the Light Pink/Lilac color is only offered in the Roubaix Sport. So this is likely the bike I own.
Once I click on the Roubaix Sport all the product information will pull up. To find details on your cassette you’ll want to scroll down or click on the “Technical Specifications” and it should be listed here. Again looking at this Roubaix I was able to find the Cassette listed in the Drivetrain area within the Technical Specifications.
Specifically it says I have a Shimano 105, 11-speed, 11-34t.
What do the Cassette Numbers Mean?
Now you’re probably wondering what does all this mean? Cassettes can be broken down into 4 main parts, the brand, model, speed, and gear range.
Taking the above example, Shimano 105, 11-speed, 11-34, it can be broken down as follows:
- Shimano = Brand
- 105 = Model
- 11 = Speed
- 11-34t = Gear Range
Brand is simply the manufacturer of the cassette. The most popular brands are Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo. The brand is important because when you shop for upgrades you’ll want to only look at cassettes that specifically support your brand. So in this example, they are either directly from Shimano or explicitly mention Shimano to ensure compatibility.
105, is the specific model within Shimano’s range of cassettes. 105 represents Shimano’s mid tier components offering a good performance to cost balance. Knowing the model you have is important as when you upgrade your cassette you’ll generally want to look at higher level models. For example I’d look at Ultegra or Dura-Ace which are tiers above 105. We’ll explore this more later.
11, is what’s called the cassette speed. When we talk about cassette speed that is the industry way of indicating how many cogs are on your cassette, where a cog is one circular disk of gears. So in this case we have 11 cogs on our cassette so we call it an 11-Speed. Cassettes come in a variety of speeds with most modern bikes ranging from 8 - 13 speeds. When shopping for cassettes you’ll want to mainly consider cassettes that are the same speed or they may not be compatible. There are some exceptions to this however this often requires changing other parts of your Drivetrain to ensure compatibility.
11-34t, is the gear range on the cassette. The gear range is represented by stating the number of teeth (t) on your smallest cog and then the number on your largest cog. So in this case the smallest cog has 11 teeth and the largest has 34. Changing your gear range will affect how your bike performs on the flats and climbs. On a very basic level a smaller gear range will mean the differences between gears will be less dramatic and tends to optimize for speed. A wider range will mean there are larger gaps between gears as you shift, however the extra range will give you a bit more assistance on climbs. This will of course largely depend on the gearing you have up front as well.
Looking at another Specialized example, if we were looking at the same bike they have a model called the Roubaix Comp which comes with SRAM components. The tech specs list a cassette of SRAM Rival, 12-speed, 10-36t, which breaks down to:
- SRAM = Brand
- Rival = Model
- 12 = Speed
- 10-36t = Gear Range
As you can see a single bike model is often offered with a variety of groupset options and price tiers.
Groupset Tiers
Groupsets are arranged into a variety of performance tiers.
These higher level tiers distinguish themselves with features such as electronic shifting and will often have parts that are made with more exotic materials which make them lighter, however at an additional cost.
For this guide we’re going to focus on road and gravel groupsets but for mountain bikes and lifestyle focused groupsets you’ll often find they have their own tiered systems.
Below are the tiers offered for each road and gravel groupset and their speed based on early 2023 components.
From highest to lowest:
Shimano Road
- Dura-Ace R9200 (12-Speed)
- Ultegra R8100 (12-Speed)
- Shimano 105 R7100 (12-Speed)
- Tiagra R4700 (10-Speed)
- Sora R3000 (9-Speed)
- Claris R2000 (8-Speed)
Shimano Gravel (GRX)
- GRX Di2 (11-Speed)
- GRX 800 (11-Speed)
- GRX 600 (11-Speed)
- GRX 400 (10-Speed)
SRAM Road
- Red (12-Speed)
- Force (12-Speed)
- Rival (12-Speed)
SRAM Gravel
- XPLR (12-Speed)
Campagnolo Road
- Super Record (12-Speed)
- Record (12-Speed)
- Chorus (12-Speed)
- Centaur (11-Speed)
Campagnolo Gravel
- Ekar (13-Speed)
Many of these groupset tiers have been around for a long time. However components from a groupset in 2023 may be drastically different from the same tier that existed 5 years ago or even just one year ago. Advances such as the move to electronic shifting, disc brakes, and bigger speeds are just some of the changes that have been made over time.
Each tier above as you can see is followed by a model number. For example, Ultegra 8100, represents Shimano’s latest Ultegra model. Before this model there was the Ultegra 8000, and so on. You can browse these prior models on Shimano’s site by pulling up the existing groupset and clicking on “Previous Series” or by doing a direct site search.
Going back to that Specialized example, by looking at the specs of your bike you’ll be able to identify what model you have by checking the details of the other drivetrain components such as the Rear Derailleur.
In this case the bike lists a Shimano 105 R7000, so I have the R7000 series/model. Based on the above groupset hierarchy this bike is using a series of components that are slightly older then the current model from Shimano, the R7100.
Brand Upgrade Methodology
Finally it’s helpful to know how each of the main groupset manufacturers approaches groupset compatibility.
Shimano:
For Shimano Road their mid to high tiers generally have some cross compatibility with each other. Therefore 105, Ultegra, and Dura Ace will often share similar DNA and thus provide you with an upgrade path from 105 and up. However, note that there will be differences between the mechanical and electronic components from the same tiers.
The tiers below 105, Tiagra, Sora, and Claris, focus on different speeds which does limit your ability to leverage high tier components as upgrades. However there may be some standardization here in the future as Shimano appears to be trying to create more groupset compatibility with their lower tier groupsets. This can been seen with their recent introduction of their CUES system, for their lifestyle brands, which will allow more compatibility between the lifestyle tiers.
Finally Shimano has a dedicated Gravel focused groupset knows as GRX. The performance tiers here are the 600, 800, and Di2. The 600 and 800 series are mechanical while Di2 is electronic. There is also the 400 series which represents the starter gravel groupset but due to its difference in speed it will not be compatible with most of the components in the performance tiers.
SRAM:
Similar to Shimano, SRAM has their performance road tiers in the form of Rival, Force, and Red which often have some cross compatibility between each other.
SRAM used to have the Apex line which was a lower road tier below Rival, but this has largely been simplified with the move to full electronic shifting throughout their groupset range.
For gravel, SRAM has introduced the XPLR line which offers a larger range of gearing than the road groupsets. SRAM calls this their “all-round” groupset and can handle steep hills and speed on the road. The XPLR line is also offered with the tiers of Rival, Force, and Red.
One cool thing about SRAM is if you need even more capability for off road riding you can move to their mountain bike derailleur line, Eagle, which will unlock their line of mountain bike cassettes which have even wider gearing than the XPLR line. Because SRAM uses all electronics systems now you can mix and match components more easily so you can use an Eagle derailleur with XPLR shifters etc.
SRAM does a nice breakdown of their lineup on their YouTube channel with helpful videos such as the one below.
Evaluating Your Cassette Options
I wish figuring out which upgrade options are available for your cassette was straight forward.
As a general rule it’s easiest to look at cassettes upgrades that are:
- the same speed
- from the same model year as your groupset
- compatible with your derailleur
The Same Speed:
If you’ve been reading up to this point you understand that cassettes come in a variety of speeds such as 10, 11, or 12 speed. Your drivetrain has been designed around a speed so when you look at a comparable cassette it’s safest to stay within the same speed to ensure compatibility with the rest of your components.
The Same Model Year:
As noted earlier groupsets have model numbers which change each time a new version is added. There may be significant differences between model years of the same tier groupset which could make parts from one year incompatible with parts from the other.
Your groupset model number should be listed with your drivetrain information that you were able to pull up from your bike manufacturer. Looking at the example we had before, if you look at the derailleur details you’ll see that it lists a Shimano 105 R7000, which is your model.
Derailleur Compatibility:
Finally the derailleur, the component which moves your chain up and down your cassette, will generally have a specific range of cassettes that it’s compatible with.
This is because a cassette can come in a variety of gear ranges and speeds and your derailleur may or may not be to support that speed or range of gears.
Some manufacturers will provide a clear compatibility chart such as SRAM which is helpful as you’ll be able to see what cassettes and gearing ranges are supported by your derailleur.
You can also pull up your derailleurs information on the manufacturers website to view speed and range of gearing it supports.
In conclusion, by leveraging the speed, model, and cassettes that are compatible with your derailleur, you’ll have a good starting point to finding a compatible cassette upgrade.
Pulling this all Together
Based on the above tips I should look at cassettes from the same speed, model year, and that’s compatible with my derailleur.
Let’s put this into practice looking at Shimano and SRAM components. We'll first look at how you can do this manually yourself and then we'll dive into how we've tried to simplify this process by leveraging our Compare Tool.
Shimano
Circling back to the Specialized Roubaix we looked at previously, we identified it as having a Shimano 105 R7000 and I could see the cassette is listed as Shimano 105, 11-Speed, 11-34t.
If I were doing this manually a good starting place is Shiimanos site. I could find a cassette that meets these specs (11-Speed and 11-34t) but from a higher tier such as Ultegra or Dura-Ace from the same year. Since Shimano series go up by 1000 between tiers of the same year I could search for Ultegra R8000.
From the first link I can see the Ultegra R8000 groupset come up. Clicking on this I’ll get to that groupsets component page. Scrolling down I can view which cassette options are available for this groupset.
Looking at these two options I can see that the cassette on the right closely matches my current cassettes specs of 11-Speed and 11-34t. This could be a possible upgrade, and if I were looking at the specs the Ultegra version is 44g lighter than the 105 version I have.
SRAM
If I had a SRAM component the process is a little more straight forward in trying to find out what cassettes are my upgrade options.
For example, let’s say I pulled up my bike specs and saw that I had a SRAM Force eTap AXS Real Derailleur with model RD-FRC-E-D1. I’d take this information and pull up the derailleur details on SRAM’s site. At the end of the product details is the “Service” section will lead to the their service and compatibility documents.
Clicking on this link will you will have access to a variety of documents related to your derailleur. You’ll see a section for “Compatibility Map” and from here you can click on the link for AXS Compatibility Map which will pull up this pdf.
Using this guide I can look for my derailleur, RD-FRC-E-D1, and now I can see what cassette gearing ranges work for my derailleur.
I also see that there is a Red Derailleur that also supports the same range of gearing so if I was to look for an upgrade I’d look at those cassettes but in the Red version.
If I had a Force 10-28 cassette I see there is an equivalent RED version with the same range and speed and would net about a 50g weight savings as seen when pulling this up in our Compare tool.
Evaluating Cassette Upgrades with the Cyclegrade Compare Tool
Now that we’ve gone through the manual process above for researching possible upgrades using SRAM and Shimano components we can now look at how our comparison tool can help to streamline your upgrade process.
You’ll still need to know what cassette you have in order to look at possible upgrade options.
Shimano
So starting off with the same details as before let’s say we have a Shimano 105, 11-Speed, 11-34t. Within the comparison tool I’d first use the filters on the left hand side to filter for Cassettes and set the Brand to Shimano.
This will now narrow down the options available on the right hand side of the page. The tool is broken up into two product windows.
We’ve set this tool up so that you can first locate your exact product or the closest approximation in the top product window labeled Component A. As you scroll through each cassette, we've labeled them with the Product Number, Tier, Range, and Speed to make it easier to identify products. As you swipe or scroll through the products you will notice that the speed and gearing range go up. So you’ll see 10 speed cassettes before the 11 speed ones etc.
Using the tool I’ve found my cassette as it has the same model, speed, and range. I’ll set this as my Component A for now.
Now that Component A is set we can use the lower product window, Component B, to browse for my potential upgrade. Scrolling through I see that there is an Ultegra Cassette that’s 11-Speed and 11-34t. This now matches the gearing range of the Component A but in a tier above. So this would be a potentially upgrade option I could look into.
In addition, looking at the metrics on the page I can see that there is a 44g difference if I were to upgrade to this component, so you have an idea directly on the type of weight savings you may see.
With some cassettes and brands I may be able to swipe further and check if they have a few upgrade options above my current cassette tier. For example, the tier above Ultegra in the Shimano range is Dura-Ace, so I may be able to locate a Dura-Ace option. In this specific case a Dura-Ace cassette does not exist for this gearing range but it may in others.
Now that I’ve found my potential upgrade I could click on the “Shop Now” to learn more about the product and potentially purchase it.
Please note that this tool is there to help you explore possible options but you’ll always want to check with your local bike shop or the online retailer for compatibility to be safe.
SRAM
If I was shopping for a SRAM cassette upgrade I would follow similar steps to those in the Shimano example. For example, if I knew my cassette was the Force 10-26t, 12-Speed I would first filter for Cassettes and Select SRAM as the brand.
I would then swipe through the cassettes in the Component A box to find the exact product or closest approximation. In this case I was able to find the exact product.
I would then swipe to this product in Component B. If I now swipe to the next product our tool will list the next closest product. In this case I see the SRAM RED with the same range and speed.
Looking at the data metrics displayed on the page I could see that this upgrade would save me about 47g.
From here I could decide to look further into this part by clicking “Shop Now” or if I was interested in looking at other options I could browse similar products with different gearing ranges as well.
Please note that this is tool is there to help you explore possible options but you’ll always want to check with your local bike shop or the online retailer for compatibility to be safe.
Alternative Cassette Brands
Our database also features some 3rd party cassette brands that may offer a compelling alternative in cost and/or weight compared to cassettes directly from SRAM and Shimano.
Two brands we currently list are E.Dubied+Co and Garbaruk.
Garbaruk tends to focus on gravel and mountain bike cassettes and could be a good alternative for a SRAM Eagle Cassette. For example, a SRAM Eagle XG-1295 in the 10-50t range would run about $415 and weights 355g. The comparable Garbaruk would weight slightly less at 343g but costs significantly less at $286.
If you wanted to save the most weight you could go with the top of the line Eagle XG-1299 which would save you 43g over the Garbaruk but would cost you almost $200 more.
If you are looking for compact cassettes than EDubied+Co offers a wide range of cassettes covering gearing ranges from road to gravel and supports Shimano and SRAM drivetrains. For example a Dura-Ace alternative in the 11-25t range EDubied+Co offers a cassette with the same gearing that’s slightly lighter (4g) than the Dura-Ace but cheaper at $189 compared to $269
A Note About Our Cassette Database
There are many gearing options out there however manufacturers do not often list out the weight for each gearing range. Because of this we’ve had to limit which cassettes we list in our database as comparing products between weight and cost is an important part of our product comparison tool.
However we’ve worked hard to standardize our products to give you as close to an apple to apples comparison as possible. We’ve done this by ensuring that the gearing and speed we do list match as closely as possible to each other across speed and gearing range.
From the above example from SRAM and Shimano you can see that the cassettes do match across speed and gearing range. So even if you had a slightly different range you can get an idea on the relative weight savings between moving from 105 to Ultegra or Force to RED.
Lastly, the weights we have found are based on what was listed on the manufacturer's site or found online from sources such as a reputable cycling blog or reviewer.
Eventually we’d like to weight these parts ourselves, but as this site is still small we have to rely on outside data. As our data may not be 100% accurate we do ask that you take any additional steps you feel necessary to research the products further before making any purchasing decision.
We hope this site provides you with a good starting point and you find some great ways to drop the weight of your bike and go faster!
