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Home | Product Reviews | Cassette | Real Cassette | ||||
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Submitted by
Karl
a Cross Country Rider
from Massachussetts
Date Reviewed: 5/12/2003 5:37:38 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Leominster State Forest |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $20 |
| Purchased At: | Cambria Bike |
| Strengths: | none |
| Weaknesses: | Doesn't shift, poor design |
| Similar Products Tried: | XT cassette, LX cassette, Sram 7.0 Cassette |
| Bike Setup: | Schwinn Moab (pre Pacific) |
| Bottom Line: | Save yourself the 20 bucks. Buy a 30 dollar LX or Sram 7.0 cassette if your looking to go cheap. The ramps aren't cut deep enough to assist the chain, and there are no special profile teeth to help the downshift. The end result is a set-up that no amount of tuning and tweaking will ever make right. Both the Shimano, and Sram set-ups work well, for not much more money. The only thing I still use it for is my spare set of junk wheels for my trainer. I don't need to shift as much on it. |
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Submitted by
Allen
a Cross Country Rider
from Maine
Date Reviewed: 9/4/2001 3:36:22 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $16 |
| Purchased At: | Supergo |
| Strengths: | Cheap, lighter than LX, shifts well |
| Weaknesses: | Heavier than XT |
| Similar Products Tried: | XT, LX, SRAM 7.0 |
| Bottom Line: | The new steel cassettes from Real are a good deal. They shift well, and are tad lighter than LX at a great price. I had great service from Supergo, they have really turned around. I'd give it 5 chilis, but if you are a weight freak, the XT is still lighter. |
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Submitted by
John Woodington
a Cross Country Rider
from Hopkins, SC
Date Reviewed: 7/6/2001 6:48:23 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | downhill singletrack |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $20 |
| Purchased At: | supergo |
| Strengths: | I originally bought it for price because it was on closeout and really cheap. It shifts amazingly accurate with my ESP stuff in all 9 gears. |
| Similar Products Tried: | I've had a total of 5 other cassettes on road and mountain bikes. This is the best so far. |
| Bottom Line: | This is the best cassette I've owned so far. For all of you people that complain about teeth breaking...I pedal very large gears with a cadence about half of most people. My chain usually needs replacing after 40-50 miles too. When I'm going downhill or accelerating I run through the gears like I'm trying to destroy it but it's held out so far. Tune everything up right and it's hard to break things. |
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Submitted by
James
a Weekend Warrior
from Connecticut
Date Reviewed: 3/28/2000 4:13:46 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Gore Mountain, NY |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | It was a good in theory. |
| Weaknesses: | It was good in theory. The idea of the design is cool, but the combo of steel and aluminum just doesn't work. I especially had trouble with the transitional area. (3rd and 4th rings.) |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano 7 spd. |
| Bike Setup: | Caad 2, XTR RD, XT FD , Sachs Chain, Mavic Wheelsets, Coda 44/22 expert crankset, Shimano Bracket, DXT Hubs. |
| Bottom Line: | Well, I finally got my bike back together after doing a complete upgrade over the course of the winter, and I chose to pop a REAL 11/32 cassette on the rear. WHAT A JOKE!!!! After 30 seconds into my 1st ride of the season, the rear started skipping. Since the entire drive train had been replaced, I figured I just needed to fine tune everything. I took the bike back down to my local bike dealer and had them tune it up, after hours of trying to do it myself. After I got the bike back (today) I took it back on the trail. Damn it...first hill it started skipping and jumping gears like crazy. I couln'd adjust it out, no matter what i tried. Luckily my local bike shop is awesome, and will exchange it for a Shimano XTR. My old cheapo 7 speed Shimano cassette worked flawlessly, but I wanted to save on weight. I would rather ride the cheapo shimano. P.O.S.!!!! |
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Submitted by
mike taylor a hardcore non-norba racer
a Cross Country Rider
from dallas
Date Reviewed: 3/20/2000 10:39:38 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | no pansy kiddy trails |
| Duration Product Used: | Tested or demo'ed only |
| Strengths: | i'm sorry shimano! Maybe i dissed them for 9speed but at least their s@# works! lol revenge on the weight nerds. lol. Hopefully my 8speed lx will |
| Weaknesses: | last long enough to outlast the shmano 10speed 2001 system and they will go back to 8 where it was best. (7 was cool, but cassettes beat freewheels.) But somebody please tell me why the they would make individual replaceable cogs you can only buy in sets? I have had the same lx steel 8spd cassette since 98 with no probs. but save your cogs and send them to me. I'll make mix/match sets or sell each by pice to poor college studnets who need replacements. |
| Similar Products Tried: | none |
| Bike Setup: | dbr jap made hardtail that looks pretty d@#4 good |
| Bottom Line: | stick with the shimano. i usually don't worry much by review, but after these i wouldn't even think of the Real! |
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Submitted by
will sherer
a Cross-Country Rider
from friendswood texas
Date Reviewed: 10/5/1999 |
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| FavoriteTrail: | all of them |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Strengths: | weight and looks |
| Weaknesses: | none |
| Similar Products Tried: | shimano |
| Bike Setup: | cannondale caad3 fattySL |
| Bottom Line: | works great, have about 170 miles on it with no problems |
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Submitted by
Sho
a Cross-Country Rider
from Santa Monica, CA
Date Reviewed: 8/30/1999 |
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| FavoriteTrail: | hmmm... |
| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | Some weight loss for the price. The fun of spending money on aftermarket goods |
| Weaknesses: | Waiting for evil to happen - nothing yet. |
| Similar Products Tried: | shimano xt, xtr - 11/28, 11/30, 11/32 cassettes. |
| Bike Setup: | DeKerf ltd, Prec. Billet rr. der., Kooka std. cranks, xtr shifters, blah blah blah... |
| Bottom Line: | I bought this _because_ of all the negative reviews - I was curious what could be so wrong or what would go wrong. I took a chance at the same time coupling the Real 11-32 cassette with a Precision Billet rear der. I was half expecting evil.I've hammered up various inclines, of various lengths, in and out of the saddle, shifting as I would any other XTR cassette and...I've had nothing but quick, crisp, clean, shifts (partially due to the derailleur too). I can't vouch for quality control from cassette to cassette, but mine's running quite excellently.I'll post more as it happens... if it happens. As a side note, Real is including the warning that you need to run an 11t lockring with the 11t cog - seems fairly straight forward. |
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Submitted by
Peter P. Show
a Weekend Warrior
from Changwhai
Date Reviewed: 8/24/1999 |
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| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | none |
| Weaknesses: | design & Strength |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano XT |
| Bottom Line: | I used to work for one of the venders for Real Design in Taiwan. I have no idea how much they sell the cogset in the States, but I know the price is very high. Wanna know why there are so many problems with the cogset? The cost for the cogset is unbelievely low. With this kind of price, do not expect too much on the quality.Think about it for more times before you want to spend so much money on it. |
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Submitted by
Jason Lee
a Weekend Warrior
from Taichung
Date Reviewed: 8/20/1999 |
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| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | none |
| Weaknesses: | aaaaaaaaaaaa lot |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano XT 9 speed |
| Bike Setup: | Trek 8000 |
| Bottom Line: | Real Design----Real Sucks. I got a defective one and tried to claim to Real, but no one was willing to help. People who have the same problem with me should call and ask for pay back. It does not worth paying so much and get a piece of garbage. |
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Submitted by
Joe Fekete
a Racer
from Cincinnati OH
Date Reviewed: 6/20/1999 |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Tsali |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Strengths: | super light, |
| Weaknesses: | none |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano XTR |
| Bike Setup: | Litespeed obed |
| Bottom Line: | this product rocks you people who are having shifting problems are using non compact lockrings that is why you are having shifting problems and because the non compact lockrings cause the cassette to play your larger cogs are breaking, get compact lockrings and you will find this product rocks. |
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Submitted by
Neil
a Racer
from g'ville, NY
Date Reviewed: 5/16/1999 |
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| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | Light weight |
| Weaknesses: | Very easily broken |
| Similar Products Tried: | shimano cassetes(better) |
| Bike Setup: | used on a cannondale frame with spinergy spox wheels and a head shok |
| Bottom Line: | I rode and raced this cassette 2 times and in the middle of a race the second time I used it one of the teeth on the aluminum part of the cassette bent in and made me drop out of a race. When you spend this amount of money on something you dont expect it to last 30 miles. |
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Submitted by
erkk
a Downhiller
from berkeley
Date Reviewed: 5/11/1999 |
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| FavoriteTrail: | side-o |
| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | NONE |
| Weaknesses: | TERRIBLE DESIGN |
| Similar Products Tried: | SHIT'MINO I MEAN 'SHIMANO' |
| Bike Setup: | GT XCR 2000 |
| Bottom Line: | I READ THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE WERE SAYING HOW THE SACHS CHAINS THAT THAY USED WERE THE BEST CHAINS... WELL ON THE SUBJECT OF CASSETTES AND CHAINS , THE BEST CHAIN IN THE WORLD IS THE ROHLOFF SLT 99 AND IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT THAT IS THEN YOU HAVENT RIDDEN THE BEST CHAIN |
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Submitted by
Doug Taylor
a Cross-Country Rider
from Syracuse, NY
Date Reviewed: 4/18/1999 |
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| Duration Product Used: | less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | looks good |
| Weaknesses: | doesn't work! |
| Similar Products Tried: | Shimano XT |
| Bike Setup: | XTR Rapid Fire Shifters; XTR rear derailleur |
| Bottom Line: | Don't waste your money like I did! I should have read the reviews on mtbr.com before pissing away a lot of cash on this product. I thought an 11-32 cogset made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, this cassette is a complete failure. Like other reviewers, I thought the constant skipping and dropping of the chain off the bigger cogs might be a problem with the chain or the derailleur cable adjustment. Putting on my other wheel with an XT 11-30 cogset proved that the Real cassette was the cause. Although Shimano XT doesn't have a 32 tooth cog, it shifts perfectly. The Real cassette is a complete piece of crap: frustrating to use, potentially dangerous on steep climbs. A Hall of Shame contender. |
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Submitted by
cheech
a cross-country rider
from cheech
Date Reviewed: 3/13/1999 |
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| Bottom Line: | this product sux i mena it is terrible. If you have the misfortune of buying one sell it to a sucka. If i could give it 0 flaming turns i would it cost me a race |
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Submitted by
Dave K.
a weekend warrior
from Torrance, CA
Date Reviewed: 3/4/1999 |
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| Bottom Line: | I was first excited about this being lighter then the XTR's. But what I didn't know is how badly this cassette works. At first I thought that I my chain streched and that was causing the slipping. But after buying both the Sachs PC-91 and the IG-90. It was still slipping. I agree with the others, in that it's a great way to bust your nuts. Piece of crap. |
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Submitted by
Dave
a weekend warrior
from California
Date Reviewed: 2/19/1999 |
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| Bottom Line: | I recently purchase this cassette and experienced similiar problems to the later reviewers. I swapped new chains between Shimano and Sachs and it still slipped cogs. So I gave up and had my ace mechanic at the local shop give it a go with similiar results. After swapping this with a Shimano unit everything was back to normal. Real has fabricated a beautifully crafted unit but needs to reevaluate their geometery on the ramp and tooth profiles. Their chainrings work great and last but they've go some more homework to do on this unit before it's ready for prime time. I find it odd earlier reviewer's were quite satisfied with this cassette. Wonder if they still feel that way? I wouldn't recommend it, not even for racing. |
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Submitted by
James Tien
a racer
from Taiwan
Date Reviewed: 1/20/1999 |
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| Bottom Line: |
We have many problems with this cogset. There is something wrong with the design. We rode with this cogset in Taiwan, and the chain injuried the cog easily. It did not fit Shimano RD. We contact the maker and the agent in Taiwan. They admitted that there was something wrong with the design and the material. They did not help to solve the problem and just left us behind.We had to change it back to Shimano and change all the defective parts caused by the cog. We highly recommanded NOT TO USE THIS COG. It is bad.Look your back when you ride and pay more attention to your cog if you are using Real design's cogset.Take care!!! |
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Submitted by
Todd McIntsoh
a racer
from Palm Desert, CA
Date Reviewed: 12/3/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | If you have heard enough problems with this cassette, think again. I was excited about a new American product lighter than the Shimano. Excitement turned into pain and despair. I paired it with a new Sachs 91 chain and from the get go it didn't work. It was so bad I ended up breaking and destroying what is otherwise the best chain made, but only after I folded the cassette's aluminum section under power. I couldn't believe my eyes. Fortunately, it was only raining a little and I was only 10 miles from civilization, usually I'm 20 miles out in the middle of nowhere. I am a technical rider, but I only weigh 150 pounds. I sent the thing back and it took four months to get a replacement. Meanwhile, I remembered why I should have never left Shimano cassettes. They are the best. I hate to buy Japanese, but the cassette is the one part a good rider cant sacrifice, no mattter how much weight you save. Anybody want to buy a new Real cassette for cheap (make an offer). |
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Submitted by
chad
a cross-country rider
from socal
Date Reviewed: 11/29/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | I have to agree with every other reveiw on the page- GARBAGE!!!! If you want to bust your nuts on the top tube cause your chain skips every downstroke- get a REAL cassette. If you want to transmit any of your power to the ground- get shimano or anything else. These things are crap. |
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Submitted by
kevin
a racer
from Knoxville, TN
Date Reviewed: 10/26/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | This thing is AWFUL! I bought two of them; one skipped so bad I couldn't ride it, and the other skipped sporadically. I am currently sending them back because the rep said I got defective ones. I think they are all defective. True, they are very light, BUT THEY DON'T WORK! Don't get them, stick with shimano. slightly heavier, but they work. |
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Submitted by
Chris
a racer
from Missouri
Date Reviewed: 10/22/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | I have had this cassette for 5 months. It worked fine until a couple of months after I bought it and decided to get a new chain. All it did was just slip on the Aluminum gears. I noticed that the aluminum gears had started to disintegrate. So, I put my old chain back on and a few months later it started slipping too. Aluminum is not a hard enough material to withstand the stress that the gears on a rear cassette receive. The less teeth there is on a gear, the more stress it will receive. This is why small front chainring is steel while the bigger two are aluminum. Conclusion, aluminum cassettes are trash. So, I am now replacing it with a steel xt cassette. I do have to say that it was lighter than air, while it lasted. Real will not waranty these, even though I have had them only 6 months. They call it normal wear. I have never had any problems with wearing from any of the other cassettes that I have owned. This sucks. Buy Shimano. |
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Submitted by
Greenos
a cross-country rider
from Ames, IA 50012
Date Reviewed: 10/15/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | Um, gee, does REAL mean real junk or real messed up? You choose. It only took one spin around the parking lot to make me understand the physics of a real cassette. They blow from the very beginning. From the price to the preformance. Sure, the thing's light, but a few more grams for XTR Ti is well worth it. I tried this thing for one reason: building s superlight TREK Y pro issue. But when it didn't shift no matter how much tweaking I tried, I threw on an XTR Ti and the problem was gone. Don't waste your money on these things, you'll just end up sending them back. I give it one star because it's pretty damn light if you just wanted to build a light bike to sit around the livingroom to show to people. The thing's fine...if you don't ride. REAL, get real. |
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Submitted by
DUKE
a weekend warrior
from KNOXVILLE,tn
Date Reviewed: 8/1/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | I am going to put my stock 11-28 back on !The R>E>A>L cassette isn't worth the weight savings or the money. Most noticeable is 4'th biggest cog.When you power it up a hill or do a wheelie it will slip or jump teeth.....IT SUCKS go and get a steel cassette without teeth missing in it like on the r.e.a.l one.Other than that don't buy it !!! |
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Submitted by
Todd
a cross-country rider
from USA
Date Reviewed: 7/29/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | Ya know I picked one of these up for a light bike I'm working on. I knew it would not get a LOT of miles so I went for it and I got a deal on one.WHAT A HUNK OF GARBAGEI was having all kinds of downshifting problems under load, while climbing and such, in one of the steel cogs and two of the AL cogs. Adjusted the der., had a shop adjust it, still bad. So I remembered reading that someone had bad shifting problems and sent it back to real and they had told him the 97's were iffy, send it back we'll send you the new revamp'd 98' Anyway I fired off a email describing my problem and I was not sure if it was a 97 or a 98' but it sure had shifitng problems. I was amazed at what Real replied.....From Jim Hinman:The shifting quality with the aluminum section as compared to a comparable steel cogset will never be quite the automatic transmission that steel cogs will be, what I mean by that is that with an IG or HG cogset all of the profiling of the teeth gives a push button or automatic feel but with the aluminum cogs it is more like a manual transmission where you have to back out of the gas so to speak for the smootest / fastest shift.Let me understand this right....you designed a cassette for racing that you have to let up on your effort (while you get PASSED) so you can make a smooth shift? Yeah that sounds like a solid racing product to me. Later in the email he stated this:You mentioned difficulty in upshifting (my bad here, I meant downshifting), this is going from an easier gear to a harder gear, is this what you meant? if so try reducing the tension on the shifting cable. If what you meant was downshifting ( going from harder to an easier gear, try lighting your pedal pressure ie: backing out of the gas a little and a slight overshift, this should smooth things a bit.So now not only do I have to worry about coming off the gas and getting passed to make a downshift I have to worry about twisting or pushing the shifter just a little past normal to get a smooth shift? That's pretty sad in my opinion. You sure don't see this stated on Real's www page or in any of their ads. This isn't a racing cassette if it won't perform. It's a cassette for posers that need to take a extra 2-3 oz off their bike and don't care if it shift like crap to get the weight loss. A acerX cassette will shift better than this thing, what good is saving a couple ounces if you can't shift smoothly in a race, IMO if your going to make a light racing product great, but you better make sure it performs too.I give it 1 star for weight, negative stars for shifting quality/cost for performance/and Real honestly thinking that people won't mind if they have to back off the gas and overshift during a race to get smooth shifting.Todd |
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Submitted by
MIKE BLADE
a cross-country rider
from Knoxvill,TN
Date Reviewed: 6/28/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | I recently purchased this 12-32 cassette.After finally getting it i rode hard and encountered no noticable problems.It has been 2 weeks and when i stand up and hammer a little it skips a tooth or something?I am wondering how long it will last ! It's light though,and i paid around $80.00 for it.You have a50-50 chance if you buy it probably...... |
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Submitted by
Jose Martinez
a cross-country rider
from San Juan, Puerto Rico
Date Reviewed: 6/21/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: |
The product is light and nice looking. Upshifting could be compare to my XTR but when it was time to downshift for those hills, OOUUUCH!!! After long hours trying to make it work it was hard to make it shift from 8th to 7th and from 4th to 3rd. The problem was always downshifting. The last day it jumped the chain between the wheel and the cassette and bent the number 1 and 2 rings. Almost didn't make it the same day back to my house.I use a brand new 1998 XTR rear Der. (reverse spring), XTR front der. and top of the line shimano chain.I put back my XTR Ti and all the problems where gone and I can concentrate on going up the hills instead of worrying my shifting. Lucky for me that my local Byke store is #1 on service and took the cassette back. If they fix the shifting problem I would try it again. Jose Martinez office phone: (787)728-3000 |
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Submitted by
Jason
a racer
from NY
Date Reviewed: 6/2/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | This is the wost cassett ever. I work at a shop and ordered it to replace my xt. took forever to get. once installed it didn't shift righ because the aluminum cogs (3 biggest ones) were designed a little meatier for wear reasons. I rode it for a while and when the conditions got muddy it started skipping. I was running a shimano chain. I cleaned it up and it was fine till it was muddy again. Went to a race after about a month of riding it, it poured that morning not even 5 minutes into the race it was skipping like crazy. It got so bad I couldn't even pedal downhill. Walked the rest of the lap. DNF'd!!! Called real they said to send it back and as soon as the 98 revamped? models come in one will be on the way. I can't wait! HA! yeah ok.. I replaced it with another xt my baby is running awesome once again. Don't buy this!!!!! |
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Submitted by
Woody
a cross-country rider
from WA.
Date Reviewed: 4/28/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | Maybe it's just me ....? I couldn't get the Real to shift right with my Xray 800 . It either makes noise and requires an extra squeeze to go from the steel to the alloy cogs or wont downshift at all . There is no right adjustment . Did I get a bad one ? For the money I expected better |
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Submitted by
Mr. Fabulous
a downhiller
from NY
Date Reviewed: 1/29/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | This cassette is one of the best I have ever ridden. The first time I picked iot up to install it, I knew this was a keeper. I have been riding it for approx. six months, and I love it. At a little less than 200g the weight makes all the difference on my wheels. The hard coating provides extra durability. |
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Submitted by
george
a weekend warrior
from us
Date Reviewed: 1/2/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: |
i thought this was the best cassette i had ever used i ride a long way each day and it hasn't skipped at all yet. If you want a cassette bye a real cassette they are great. My friend also uses it and he thinks it is good aswell. bye one now they great |
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Submitted by
Sven
a cross-country rider
from swedon
Date Reviewed: 1/2/1998 |
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| Bottom Line: | This geat Casset Iss all i have ever used. I am in my third year of ownership of it and think that it is geat. it is a good all over gear. Top is hard but bottom is easy. i think every one should have theese. Buy this casset, its good. |
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