A new ten-speed cassette from SRAM with 11 to 28 teeth offers a gear range that has never before been available for Shimano-compatible road bike hubs. The cassette is primarily aimed at riders of compact cranks with a 50/34 tooth chainring combination. They can pedal longer downhill with the 11-tooth sprocket and have a little more clearance uphill than with the most comparable Shimano cassette with 12 to 27 teeth. Disadvantage: The jumps between the light gears are relatively large. The shifting behaviour of the cassette is quite good thanks to SRAM's own OpenGlide technology, in which individual teeth are left out to make it easier for the chain to climb. However, it doesn't quite come close to the Hyperglide sprocket from Shimano. Important for Shimano riders: Installing the cassette is at your own risk; according to the catalogue, Japanese road bike derailleurs are only approved for sprockets with a maximum of 27 teeth; in addition, their total capacity is officially not sufficient to combine the cassette with a compact crank with a 16-tooth difference between the large and small chainrings.
In practice, however, the "illegal" connection usually works without any problems, as was the case on two of the bikes we rode. The 240 gram light sprocket set can be found in the SRAM catalogue under the type designation "OG-1070, 11-28, 10 speed".
PLUS: Broad translation spectrum
MINUS: Relatively large jumps between the gears
Reference/Info: Hartje, phone 04251/81159 Sportimport, phone 04405/92800 www.sram.com
Price: 89 Euro
Photo: Daniel Simon
