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ZTTO 10/11/12 speed cassettes

19K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  William P  
#1 ·
At least 19 different variations under multiple names online. Two main types: light and heavier. They also make 8- and 9- speed ones but I don't think there is any advantage over the now cheap Shimano / SRAM OEM ones. The big advantage once you get to 10/11/12 speed is that the lighter ones really are lighter than average and sell between $100-150; the heavier ones are a lot cheaper than normal, usually range from $50-65. I'll talk about the longevity of them later.

Heavier 10-speed is 11 to 36, 40, 42, 46, 50t; weight is 355-590g
Lighter 10-speed is 11-46 or 11-50t; weight 340-380g

Heavier 11-speed is 11 to 40, 42, 46, 50, 52t; weight is 530-705g
Lighter 11-speed is 11-46, 11-50, or 11-52t; weight is again 340-380g as with 10 speed, not bad!

Heavier 12-speed is 11-50 or 11-52t; weight is 615-710g
Lighter 12-speed is again 11-50 or 11-52t; weight is 480-500g


I've bought a few of the 11-52t's and weighed them, they are fairly correct as above, within 10-20g. The heavier one was just for light-duty stuff, pavement, gravel, some relatively flat singletrack, it lasted 920 miles before I changed the chain and it fell apart and had to be trashed. For $65, it lasted a pretty decent amount of time. Shifting was OK, not quite as good as the lighter more expensive ones but it worked. For $65 I cannot complain at all. The cheaper ones are a 9-speed steel 11-40t cassette merged with two aluminum 46t and 52t cogs.

For the three lighter ones that were also 11-52t, two of them are worn and the third is just getting broken in; I have a fourth on the way. The light ones are a steel 7-speed 11-30t cassette merged with a CNC-machined group of cogs 1-4 that are 52, 46, 40, 34t. The aluminum is good; maybe one of the cassettes had cog 4 wear out a bit early, the rest all slowly wore the steel down somewhere between cogs 8-11.

Longevity? OK...before I get to that with the lighter ones, let me explain that for the two that are worn, one of them was used more for pavement, gravel, and some singletrack with a more XC-oriented rear tire (similar to the heavier cassette discussed above). The other had a DH tire on the back and obviously I tried to ride singletrack as much as possible with that one, so harder pedaling. The one paired with the DH tire lasted pretty much exactly 1000 miles (and is still probably salvageable for a while after a new chain breaks in). The one paired with lighter-duty riding in general lasted 1980 miles and now is slipping between cogs 8-9. So longevity is basically somewhere between 1000-2000 miles. For the money, for the weight, that is really not bad at all. If an extender is not needed, the shifting is more or less perfect. Seriously. Really recommend you to try these out, you don't have too much to lose!
 
#4 ·
The heavier one was just for light-duty stuff, pavement, gravel, some relatively flat singletrack, it lasted 920 miles before I changed the chain and it fell apart and had to be trashed. For $65, it lasted a pretty decent amount of time. Shifting was OK, not quite as good as the lighter more expensive ones but it worked. For $65 I cannot complain at all. The one paired with lighter-duty riding in general lasted 1980 miles and now is slipping between cogs 8-9. So longevity is basically somewhere between 1000-2000 miles. For the money, for the weight, that is really not bad at all.
Good info overall, but the longevity is definitely bad for the money.
I have read other experiences on Ztto cassettes that the smallest steel cogs don't hold out long, but they can be replaced with Shimano/Sunrace spares.

How did you took care of your drivetrain/chain on those Ztto cassettes?

Personally I do hunt for higher end Sram cassettes on the used market.
So far got 3 XX1 cassettes ( 11 speed) 100€ each and a brand-new 1175 and 1185 for 70/100€

I don't look for eagle cassettes as the x01/xx1 stuff holds like forever. My 4 year old cassette still got some life to squeeze out 😛

Or like @Reaperactual mentioned, Sunrace cassettes offer great performance/weight for the money.

So my interest in chinese cassettes is very low.
 
#7 ·
I've been running a 11-46 11s for the whole season and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Tho it is the "gabaruk" style of cassette where cogs 40-11 are machined from one block of steel and riveted to a spider and the biggest cog which can be steel or alloy depending on the version. Shifting is ok but for the price/weight I can live with it which is why I got another one 9/46 XD for my GF and a 11/50 for my next build. The current one has done 2000km, nearly 100,000m of vertical pf which 3 enduro races, 1Dh race, 3 weeks of Bikepark in the Alps.
If your wheels are XD you could go for GX, maybe second hand to match the price. But if your current wheelset is HG freewheel you only have heavy options and for this reason alone those are great.
 
#8 ·
got another one 9/46 XD
I testet the cheap 9-42 11 speed cassette ( full steel )
Shifting was very good and it was very quite.
Sadly the whole cassette startet creaking like crazy on all gears after 300 miles.
The culprit was the XD shell. Sram cassettes have claws to hold the xd shell in place. But the ZTTO XD shells are just pressed in.
Mine got lose, so no matter how tight I bolt the cassette on, the whole cassette has play and can move a little in all directions which causes that loud creaking.
I planning to get the XD shell out of this cassette and replace it with a Sram one from a death XX1 cassette. If that fails than the whole cassette is for the trash bin.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I bought the ZTTO 11-46t lightweight cassette to replace the godawful heavy (1lb. 6oz.) Deore 11-51t. This bike is rarely ridden, but it's a lightweight vintage XC Softtail bike with 2" street slicks. A spare for the rare times my Ebike is down or a guest bike. I saw some reviews about chains coming off backpedaling, chain not fitting down in the big cog, and an SLR2 version with Wide/ Narrow machining on the big cog, which didn't make a lot of sense. When I got the part I saw the problem. There was no finish cut on the back of the largest cog. this left a shoulder even with he bottom of the roller cutouts. No room for the chain plates to sit all the way down. That's why the wide narrow helped, it was at least some type of finished cut there. I mixed up the stack on a bare rim (big alloy cluster in the middle), and put it on my upside Ebike in walk mode and fixed it with a Dremel tool.
I'm running Effetto Mariposa chain wax. Zero Friction Cycling has tested it and is very big on it. Especially for reduced component wear. Their Caffelatex tire sealant is getting similar reviews at Bikeradar.
I'm not being paid by anybody to promote anything. This thing will probably last forever on this bike.
 
#13 ·
Old thread but relevant. My new trail bike came with Deore shifter and derailleur, but Sunrace 11/51 cassette and it works fine. After about 320 miles, the shifting needs a bit of tightening, but no more than expected. At some point, I will be looking for a lighter cassette than the M5100 for the new wheelset, but won’t look to those Chinese jobs in the OP.
 
#15 ·
I owned one, the 10 speed ultralight and here is the cassette watch the video above 👆. Lasted over 3k km and still going. I don't have any issues with it like the others report to say to have back pedaling issue and small cogs wear fastest, so far the I only replaced the 2 cogs which is 6th and 7th gear which were broken but that's an user error, my RD stacked with grass causes it to snapped in place and broke one tooth on each cogs and RD was a shimano M6000 10 speed. To my surprised the aluminium cogs holds very well, I climbed a lot like regularly and used those cogs and surprisingly they held up. I've rode it on any terrain with my inexpensive xc bike and I also rode on rainy days or sunny days. My average ride a week is between 400 to 600km some were long rainy rides and some were short trail chill rides. I think the corrosion occurs due to how abusive I am on my cassette. The corrosion started appearing around 2.6k km. For the price I'd say it's worth it. It's not expensive nor cheap but definitely did not waste money on this on. Also.. I've also experienced missed shifts/ poor shifting when using other chain brands even with shimano, the one that works best for me is the KMC'S tho it might be different for all of us.
 
#20 ·
I bought this ZTTO 10 speed 11 to 46 Ultra-light cassette. at 324g. the 3 big sprockets are aluminum. It has the drops gear while backpedaling issue. Otherwise it works just fine. My racer kid didn't like the gear drops so I put it on my trail bike. No issues, around 100 miles so far. I don't backpedal, learned to ride on a coaster brake :)
 
#27 ·
The Prestacycle part is very nice. It has a Chromo monoblock top 9 gears, and an alloy 2 lower gear block. There are a couple thin shims between the 2 parts. Both shims in seems to work just fine. ASFAIK it's a US made part. Universal Cycles has hefty discount on some sizes. Glad to get the Shimano M5100 discus off the bike.