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I'd presumed they'd be rubbish and have bought sunrace 9sp cassettes previously (11..40/42) but saw a guy saying his mates Zitto set up .. 11 to 50 cassette, shifter and mech (9sp) worked better than his Shimano 11 speed and cost only £60 all in .
Anyone else tried out these systems and if so are any of the cheapies better than the others or do they come out of the same factory ? Really only interested in 8/9/10sp as money is tight and I don't need extra gears anyhow.
Thanks
Bill
No direct experience but if you poke about a bit on YouTube there are a few examples of such cassettes jumping when back-pedalling and the like.
Maybe if your mate has a working setup just mirror his components and it'll be 'reet?
No direct experience but if you poke about a bit on YouTube there are a few examples of such cassettes jumping when back-pedalling and the like
Had this on shimano as well , Its all to do with chainline mostly ..
Got a zitto (I think) 11-40 8 speed cassette, on a rigid bike, from SJS.
Fitted an old Deore rear mech, extender for mech, ancient stx shifter, new KS chain.
No problems so far - bike is rigid front & back.
Got a ZTTO 11spd shifter and mech for my turbo bike to replace an old 9 speed set up. It's a bit grumbly, and required a goat link to work with the SRAM 11-42 cassette I used but for £32 I cannot complain.
I think you can probably get any mech and cassette to run pretty smoothly, out of the box and on the stand. The things I'd be concerned about with these cheaper components is firstly; quality and precision of production and finishing, and secondly; quality of materials.
I think you'd find they'd not be fit and forget like even "lower" group-set SRAM and Shimano are these days. I think things like pivot points would wear faster, so the mech would become loose and more difficult to tune after a while, I think any metal parts would start to oxidize more quickly, a couple of wet rides would see parts like springs start to have rust spots, or even proper corrosion. and I think the plastic parts would be lower quality and not robust. I think cassettes would probably wear faster, not be accurately made with all the issues that brings. and of course, I think the whole thing would be heavy and pretty ugly (if that bothers you)
For a winter hack bike, commuter, or something that gets ridden once or twice a month, then yeah, you'd probably get a way with it. For routine proper off road once or twice a week in the UK at this time of year, you'd probably wish you'd have invested the £60.00 in something better after a while, and probably a lot sooner than you'd want.
I use ZTTO slr2 11 speed cassettes. 46-11 on shimano freehub. I’m pretty impressed so far. Change well and are lasting ok. Probably 400 miles on one and 250 on another. No problem with pedalling backwards. Like above said more an issue of chain line I think. £56 for a cassette as light as Xtr. What’s not to like. No experience of rear mech or shifter but the dropper lever gets good press.
I bought a 13 speed one the other week which I'll be testing 😂
Don't have any personal experience but I'm sure there was a similar thread on here (or possibly elsewhere) a while back where the consensus amongst mtb users was that they wear very quickly in comparison to brand name equivalents. If I remember correctly, to the extent that they actually end up costing more over a prolonged period of time
Various Chinese cassettes have been fine including Sunrace. Mate has some SRAM Rival copy shifters which are great apparently.
I have a Chinese 10 speed on the tandem. It works but is no where near as smooth. Will be replacing with shimano /sram/sunrace before next trip.
I bought a ZTTO 10 speed 11-42 cassette, chain, mech and shifter for £53 posted from ali express. Had been impressed by their dropper lever so bought this for my pub / shopping bike. Bike lives outside and I'm on the coast so everything rusts here. Fitted it 6 weeks ago. Shifting is currently lovely. Big sprocket has some rust spots already. Chain however was rubbish: developed 3 or 4 stiff links so I've had to replace with a KMC one for an extra £14. I didn't bother getting back to ZTTO since it was all so cheap. I'm super-impressed so far. Will see what I think in a year's time but I'm optimistic.
I’ve got ZTTO 9-50 12 speed on my hardtail with SRAM mech, very satisfied. I have ZTTO 11-50 on a spare enduro wheelset and I’m happy with that.
I built a super light hardtail for my daughter as a bit of an AliExpress experiment. ZTTO 11 speed cassette was OK with ZTTO chain, but a Shimano 11 speed chain was fractionally too wide, and ran horribly.
I also tried Sensah shifters and rear mech. Mech was cheap and cheerful, but the shifter was useless, and the ratchet would often not engage. I swapped those for Shimano.
Do the chinese shifters let you change from the 46 to the 11 by using your index finger Shimano style or do you have to thumb it like Sram?
ZTTO 10 speed cassette here. Been flawless.
ZTTO 11-42 10 speed cassette on my spare bike. ZTTO 11-28 11 speed cassette, chain and 50T chain ring on my smart trainer/bike. I've also got a Racework crank set on my main mtb which came from ali express along with various chainrings. All are working fine after a few months of usage. I was a bit worried about the chain after seeing reviews but it's not showing any wear yet in about 800km of use but it's never been outside to get even slightly dirty.
ZTTO 10 speed 11-42 isn't really any lighter than the Deore 11-42 unless there's one I've missed?
Do the chinese shifters let you change from the 46 to the 11 by using your index finger Shimano style or do you have to thumb it like Sram?
@zippykona SRAM-like thumbs only on my ztto one.
Wuzei cassette (Shimano MS) 12spd, 10-50t, been absolutely fine. Heavier, one piece construction. Had to adjust the B screw quite a bit from the Deore cassette it replaced (to save for later) Gears shift fine, nice clunks. Chain (KMC X2) didn't overly wear.
Sensah 10spd R/H shifter and rear mech on the GFs bike. Big clunker! One gear at a time. Very slow, stiff action, which I think caused the magic link on the chain to get stressed and part whilst riding down the road on the first long ride, in combination with "someone" pedaling too hard whilst changing gears. I don't like these shifters. They aren't comfortable to use. Wear out your hands, and you get stressed waiting for them to shift fully so you can start pedaling again. They're still working as new with cleaning/care, but they "feel" unlike anything I've used before and wouldn't want to rely on them offroad.
I run a sunrace 11-51t 11spd cassette with Deore mech and XTR shifter used often and extensively offroad with no issues. Shifting under load not quite as good as the Deore 11-51 11spd that went rattly but very good and seem to be wearing well,
On my "dad bike" I run a ZTTO 11-40 8speed cassette and Sensah MX8 shifter and mech bought as a package for £35 with a chain.
The chain was junk, really floppy and kept falling off the chainring.
Once this was replaced with a KMC everything is good. The shifting is not as light action and more clunky than shimano, probably down to the strong spring in the mech which negates the play in its pivots. I'm tempted to swap the mech out for an old shimano but CBA. I can't really comment on wear but the price has to come from somewhere.
In summary if you want a decent hard working long lasting cassette at good price get a sunrace.
If you are not that concerned about durability get a ZTTO.
Don't bother with the cheapo chains, get a KMC.
I put a £20 Chinese cassette on my sons fatbike 11/42...works perfectly, I also put a Chinese crank complete with a 30t chainring on it too...about £25
15 rides in ..both have been problem free
For the money its great value, probably won't last as long as shimano etc
Another fan of the ZTTO 11-46 cassette here. Had one on my Orange for the last year, have just replaced it with another (not due to wear, qr failed while the bike was on the rear rack, whole wheel was missing when I got home from a ride 🙄). Had no issues at all with the old one.
Sunrace and unbranded cassette in 11sp flavour here. Been on the bikes 8 months.
So far no issue.
I'm trying to persuade myself they are wearing out quicker than the shimano ones I usually have.
The sensah mx8 mech snapped while riding along on the b tension screw
It's junk don't buy it
I bought a Goldix 8 speed cassette of Aliexpress. £9.74 including delivery. Ordered 22nd August. Arrived 2nd Sept.
Just curiosity really to see how good a £10 cassette was. Not tried on the bike yet. 11-30 weighs 256g. Compared to the Shimano 8 speed on the bike the teeth are narrower. As close as I can measure they are a match in width to Shimano/Sram 9 speed. So probably not a big issue but will reduce life I would have thought.
Probably just buy Microshift or bottom end Shimano next time. Shimano basic is a couple of quid more and 50g or so heavier but you know what you are getting.
I'm on my second ZTTO 9-50 cassette now. Done more than 3,000 miles on them and they've been faultless. Some people have reported breakages so whether there are QC issues, I don't know. Mine have lasted longer than the original Sram Eagle cassette. They're not exactly cheap though - about £100 posted. The old one was still running well when I took it off, I'll put it back on for winter.
Mmm, China :-/
The 11t cog of my ZTTO cassette somewhat disintegrated. Quite disappointing for an 80 quid thing.
I've just replaced it with a deore cassette as I found another cog with teeth missing.
Here's the 11t cog:
My airbike cassette has been great
8 months on from my previous post, same ZTTO cassette still doing fine
I have a collection of 12spd Wuzei cassettes. 2 on bikes. The oldest one started wobbling. The cassette is in two parts, screwed together with four tiny screws on the rear. I had the correct sized screwdriver and it's all back firm again. Slower shifting than Shimano M6100 class (orange ginally on the bike) and makes a clunk going into gear (not the cymbal-like clash of the Shimano) but it's all good.
Recently bought a Sugek 12spd HG cassette for a 135mm rear frame. It quite resembles the Wuzei brand in looks and feel. I had to put a 1mm Spacer behind the cassette even though my freehub looked like it was modern (Hyperglide-C?) and should work. My chainline is off, sitting in 7th gear, and I keep wanting to cut the chain down further but we will see how it goes. The joy of 12spd chains is they're a darned sight tougher than the KMC 8spd ones I used to run on hardcore bikes.