Shimano, for example, uses a system it calls Hyperglide, which is engineered to provide smooth shifting. Its latest cassettes have a newer system called Hyperglide+, which Shimano says reduces shifting time by up to a third relative to Hyperglide, and improves shifting performance under power, up and down the cassette. On the mountain bike side, Shimano uses its Microspline freehub standard for its 12-speed Deore, SLX, XT and XTR groupsets.

Where an 11-28 would have been considered an ‘easy’ training cassette a few short years ago, the smallest cassette available for a Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 is an 11-28. That might not sound like much but, when you consider pro riders would typically ride on 11-23 or 11-25 cassettes, it’s a sizeable difference.

Campagnolo 12-speed rear derailleurs can accept up to an 11-32. The only exception is Campagnolo Chorus, which can take up to an 11-34. Shimano’s HG freehub design was the most common option for many years. Felix Smith / Immediate Media If you are specifically using a Shimano HG freehub, you need to consider how wide the cassette you are buying is. Road wheels have slightly wider freehubs than MTB ones – by 1.85mm – and 11-speed Shimano HG road cassettes are slightly wider than 8- or 9-speed ones, again by 1.85mm. Beyond weight, there’s not much difference in performance between a Dura-Ace 11-28 cassette and one from a Shimano Ultegra or a Shimano 105 groupset, so you can save yourself considerable expense by down-speccing.

SRAM introduced its XD freehub standard when it started rolling out cassettes with a 10-tooth smallest cog. It recently ported this design over to the road with XDR, which also allows the use of 10-tooth cogs, but is slightly wider than the road bike standard. SRAM also offers just two cassette sizes in its Eagle lineup – 10-50 and 10-52. The 10-52 is the widest-range cassette made by either manufacturer. Although there are currently two options, it’s likely the 10-50 will be phased out in time because it has been superseded by the 10-52. However, as groupset manufacturers have jumped onto the gravel bandwagon, there are now gravel-specific gearing options available on the market. Some people may wish to use a road bike cassette on a mountain bike or vice versa. Here, we’ll go over why you may (or may not) choose to do so, and look at the compatibility issues both options may present. If you wanted to use an 11-34 cassette, as well as buying the relevant cassette, you would need to buy a compatible rear derailleur. In this example, it would be an Ultegra R8050-GS or 105 R7000-GS rear derailleur. The GS denotes that these are ‘medium cage’ derailleurs. The same rule applies to Shimano Di2 derailleurs.

Shimano M5100 Deore 11 Speed Cassette

For example, at the lower end of the cassette, you can have as little as a one-tooth jump between the early cogs, and still have the range at the easier end. If you were running a 7- or 8-speed system, for example, in the same range, the jumps would be bigger. Unless you’re running a triple crankset, it’s unlikely you’ll want to use a road bike cassette on a mountain bike. Dave Caudery / Immediate Media

You need to ensure you’re using a compatible rear derailleur if you’re using the 10-52 option, because the previous-generation Eagle mechanical rear derailleur’s cage is slightly too short. The cage of a rear derailleur is designed for a certain range of gears. For example, Shimano’s outgoing Dura-Ace R9100-SS rear derailleur is designed for use up to an 11-30 cassette. For mountain bikes, 12-speed cassettes are largely the default for higher-spec groupsets, paired with a single-ring chainset.SRAM eTap AXS rear derailleurs can take up to a 33t for road, and this is denoted by the ‘Max 33t’ written on the inside of the derailleur cage. There is also a ‘Max 36t’ option to pair with the 10-36 cassette, as well as an XPLR rear derailleur, which can take up to a 44t. Although it might seem straightforward, there’s a lot of engineering that goes into a bike cassette. SRAM’s eTap AXS XPLR groupsets are designed specifically for gravel riding. SRAM XPLR cassettes have a range of 10-44 and require their own compatible rear derailleur. It is also possible to mix and match drop bar shifters with mountain bike Eagle eTap AXS components if you want an especially wide-range 1x build. SRAM dubs this a ‘mullet’ setup. Now that 12-speed road bike groupsets exist, cassettes can have a larger range and the jumps between each gear can be relatively small.

These days, it is increasingly common to see higher-spec road bikes with 12-speed gearing, Shimano having joined SRAM and Campagnolo with 12-speed groupsets in 2021 with the release of its Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset. There are new rear derailleurs on the market that are identifiable as being compatible because they have a ‘520% range’ graphic printed on the derailleur cage. SRAM Eagle AXS rear derailleurs are compatible with the new 10-52 cassettes. It would have been uncommon to find a cassette as large as SRAM’s Eagle 10-50 a few years ago. Alex Evans Gravel bikes are best viewed as a crossover between a road and mountain bike. As such, it’s normal to see them specced with either a road or mountain bike cassette. For example, SRAM boasts a 520 per cent range with its 10-52t cassettes. How has SRAM arrived at this figure, and how do you work out your gear range percentage?Finance is subject to application, financial circumstances and borrowing history. Performance Cycling Limited FRN: 720557 trading as Tredz are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are a credit broker not a lender – credit is subject to status and affordability and is provided by Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC. Terms & Conditions Apply. The most common system is the Shimano 11-speed HG-style freehub, which has 9 splines. Most Shimano groupsets up to the 11-speed era used this style of freehub. SRAM groupsets prior to the current generation of 12-speed groupsets also used the same freehub design, although there are a handful of exceptions with the larger cassette ratios on their 1×11 groupsets. You will need a long-cage derailleur if you want to use an 11-34t cassette on a road bike. Simon Bromley / Immediate Media If you are still using a triple crankset, you may have sufficient overall range with a road cassette, but this is a fairly specialist application these days. Where an 11-28 cassette would have once been considered a large training cassette, it now sits at the lower end of the typical range for road. Simon Bromley / Immediate Media