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Bought a cassette - 9 speed 11-34T - from air-bike.co.uk. Before i bought it, i went on t'interweb for reviews. Never found any bad ones, but to be fair i never found many.
Anyway, paid my £15, got the cassette, fitted it with a new PG951 chain. Works well, no issues. Same weight roughly as the shimano deore which came off.
So far so very well. Now this is the training bike so rough and ready really.
The good bikes have XT and XTR. They dont need a new cassette right now, but for a CRC Shimano 11-46T XT unit, its £109 and 450g in weight. The Air-Bike equivalent is £38 and 515g in weight.....
Long winded question, who are they and how they doing it so cheap? Comments please.....
(ive seen reviews for their Forks. Many say good for the price point, and others say dont touch with bargepole)
The guy that owns it is called Stephen Clarke. He used to work in recruitment and set it up last year I think.
I think it works on the basis of pile it high, sell it cheap - with a fair proportion of “compatible” equipment now that OEM stuff is so hard to source.
Ali express, cheap light cassettes.
Cheap, light, strong, pick two
Great video that. Always avoided cheap stuff before but that makes it look interesting
There's a lot of names of gear out there, but I found a newish one. A 12spd Microspline Wuzei cassette (£36.25), went into the basket, aimed to test it out given the projected supply chain issues. It's still on the bike. Had to mess with the mech B screw to get it working right as the sprockets were a bit different sized. The bike came with a Deore cassette that frequently sounds like a cymbal banging. This cassette is more solid, one piece, and now shifts just fine. Not sure about wear yet but nothing catastrophic has occurred.
The email today from this website talks about "buy once..... Or buy cheap". There is some emerging middle ground products for amateurs who don't need the best, lightest, fastest shifting.
Interesting video! Worth thinking about! Given that i change chains and cassettes often anyway as routine bike maintenance, the extra wear wouldnt be much of a factor. Especially if you can buy 3 for the one Shimano/SRAM offering.
It is yes, impressed as no problems and its been on a while. Defo buy again.
Here it is after an afternoon in Pitmedden forest in the snow on Sunday. Snow got into the smaller rings, but thats not the cassettes fault.
So I'm looking at their widerange cassettes fir the kids 8 speed bikes
Anyone else used them?
https://airbike.uk/collections
Yeah, I've had a couple of wide range cassette's off them. I wouldn't expect them to last as long as the expensive ones, but for the weight and price they have been great.
Also had a set of 27.5 air forks from them. A huge improvement from others in the price range (which were all heavy suntour, non-air forks.) Obviously not as adjustable of good as the Rockshoks at 4 times the price, but a huge upgrade on a low-end bike. Going to order a set of 26" air forks for the other half from them too as they will be great for her bike.
K
I did buy a SKU brand cassette (10spd 11-48) off ebay (Total: £33.64!) seemed decent enough quality, but I ended up going 11 spd. I'll probably stick on my son's bike when it next needs a change of cassette
Ok, so I'm in for a ten speed 11-42 to replace the Sunrace on the rigid, so we'll see how we go.
£24
P.s - Does this cassette look worn enough to skip? I've got a new chain on and it's skipping under load.
Cassette looks pretty good I thought, but skipping it is.
I ended up with an 10 speed 11-42 and its been great, a bit clicky at first- this was with a new chain, but runs perfectly after a few rides
Good to know 👍
That's what I just ordered.
Well, postie just came and I have my cassette.
Impressed with the quality. I mean, it's a lump of metal with sticky out bits on it but seems nicely made.
Certainly as good as the Sunrace that it's replacing.
I notice that 'Light' isn't ticked on the box, but it's very similar to what it's replacing.
I had fitted a new chain as I'd allowed my last one to get in a shocking state of 'stretch' and the new chain was slipping badly under load. Scary.
The Airbike one, after a quick razz up and down the road has cured the skipping (although I'll reserve my final judgement until I ride home later) and runs smoothly on the Sram chain and shifts crisply.
Impressed 😊
Might tempt me to switch to 10 or 11 speed on my eeb as frankly 12s is silly on such a bike.
Has anyone tried one of the Air Bike 12-speed cassettes? Specifically an XD compatible version? Any issues to report?.
Not tried the 12 speeds, however the 11 speeds and 9 speeds have been absolutely bob on for the price.
SunRace re-badge for others including Box. I’d be surprised if the Air Bike ones aren’t made by SunRace.
I just bought some of their rigid forks off Amazon, I had a voucher so they only cost me £25 seem OK, standard far Eastern tat...
I wouldn't have paid more for them TBH.
Far Eastern tat? Where are the majority of your bicycle parts made?
Far Eastern tat? Where are the majority of your bicycle parts made?
Alright treacle, I think there was a tacit acknowledgment that I frequently buy far Eastern manufactured tat implicit in the comment.
Do you need a hug?
SunRace re-badge for others including Box. I’d be surprised if the Air Bike ones aren’t made by SunRace.
They look like Sunshines (Chinese parts maker), which TBF is not a terrible thing if the price is right.
I'm going to take a punt on a cassette. It can't be any worse than the worn out GX it's going to replace.
My 10 speed still going strong
Be interesting to see how it copes with winter as I use my hardtail when it's really muddy
I have an 11 speed 11-42 on my gravel bike (well the gravel wheelset for my gravel bike). Shifts fine and has been holding up without issue. I'll be purchasing a 9 speed for my mountain bike build, and will most likely purchase more 11 speed cassettes as mine wear out across my fleet
The only downside I find of off-brand cassettes is the shifting is never that great. I recently re-did the drivetrain on two of my bikes, one got the base spec shimano the other got something with the sort of price point, but 3rd party.
The shimano stuff, there seems to be nothing between Dura Ace and Tiagra apart from the construction and weight, the tooth profiles and shifting ramps are the same.
The cheap one, there's a pause, a clunk, and then it engages. It's like the days of friction shifters, unramped cassettes and 3/32 chains, I'm not convinced the shifting gates actually do anything.
It's functional, but it's not great. If things were in stock I'd rather have low end shimano every time.