AliExpress

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks again, Garth. I just ordered 10X 2.0, 2.18, and 2.35 mm Shimano spacers for total of $30.20 with shipping and tax. AE did well with my clumsily-placed orders of Shimano 10 sp cogs (instead of thinking ahead and making 1 order for 3 different sizes I frenziedly hit "buy" 3 times and paid extra for shipping); far easier than trying to get a LBS to find and order 3 each of 3 cogs, and far cheaper than ordering from Europe, where shipping costs seem to have tripled since COVID.

Curious about AliExpress: search for a 22 t Shimano 10 sp cog and you get 2 dozen offerings many of which give you a price of $0.83 and when you click "yes please" they don't let you buy more than 1, or else the price skyrockets to $2.72 -- still very cheap, of course.

I received my shipments in a bit over a week with shipping for small packages of 3 or 4 cogs under $7,  which leads me to wonder if they don't have warehouses scattered around in their biggest markets, like the US?

At any rate, with spacers of 3 different widths I figure I'm well sorted for any cassette build; as Garth very helpfully pointed out, Miche 10-sp Shimano substitute cogs are 0.2 mm wider in the body (1.8 mm versus 1.6 mm for Shimano cogs) tho' their teeth are 1.6 mm; which means that they take 2 mm instead of 2.35 mm spacers -- the total width is about 36 mm in either case.

But the cassette I built on Saturday with 10 1.6 mm cogs and 9 2 mm spacers shifts just as well and identically to the other 10 sp cassetted made from 10 Miche cogs and 9 2 mm spacers, without any derailleur adjustment; so who knows. I did order 2.18 mm ones to split the difference.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Garth]

I ordered some things on Mar. 27th Patrick and they arrived April 3rd. The USPS label had a NJ address, but it said "not for returns". Then I noticed that label was placed over another label, so I peeled it back as best I could and sure enough, I saw an all Chinese printed label, the only English I saw was my name. So they must send these via air from China to NJ and relabel them with a USPS label. You being in NM they'll likely come from a West coast location upon arrival from China. I didn't pay anything extra for shipping either.

When you make your own cassettes Patrick, what do you use for the small cog next to the lockring ? I see only the 11t and 12t serrated cogs are sold, but I know Miche and Shimano sell cassettes with 13,14 and 15t smallest cogs. Do you just tighten up against a regular cog without the serrations ?

[Patrick Moore]

For the 13-25 (Soma slick wheelset) I bought about 3 cassettes' worth of  Miche cogs with extras for the high-use gears, and the outer/small is a dedicated outer/small with its own spacer. 

For the new 14-25 knobby cassette I bought 3 14-25 9 speeds from Peter White ($28 each, not bad) and disassembled them to replace the spacers and swap the 21 for a 20 and the 23 for a 22 and add a 28 after the 25. So the 14 outer is a proper Shimano outer with its own spacer (I guess that this spacer is 2.5 mm? I used Miche 2 mm spacers for the rest of the cassette; it all shifts perfectly [and the 7402 short cage climbs onto the 28 with no fuss at all, with capacity to spare].

For a some-time-ago Ram I built a 15-25 9 speed cassette out of Miche cogs*, and Miche made 15 and 14 t outers for Shimano with built-in spacers; I think these are used among other places for junior racing.

But I've used all sorts of cogs for the outer position, sometimes just cramming a regular inner-position cog into first place and just squeezing it tightly in place with a lot of torque on the lockring. I've never had one of these skip, but then I rarely use the outer and certainly not under high torque.

*I got a lovely DA 7410 crank and wanted to use it in place of the TA 46/28 13-something, so I swapped out the 53/39 for a very compact 52/38 and built the 15-25 to give me very similar gears with the much bigger rings.

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[ascpgh]

Patrick wrote: "...which leads me to wonder if they don't have warehouses scattered around in their biggest markets, like the US?"

I can't imagine the cost of a physical inventory that would be defined by even what seems a narrow bicycle part search on the internet. Managing that inventory and keeping up with what you have invested in that vast storage would be mind boggling. The simple concept that non-moving stock becomes more expensive as it sits and ages due to interest on the wholesale cost becomes numbing as lines of SKUs increase.

AliExpress, et al seem to have looked at parameters of accounting and management used in old manual inventory systems like rate of use, days of supply, days of restock, FIFO, LIFO to find which variables could be more fixed to save cost of delivered products.. They seem to have control over manufacturing and shipping. It's not just in time, but close. They've reduced the record keeping hassle of varying material costs, age of inventory, cost of inventory (interest on line of credit tied to on-hand stock) this way. The biggest shift of burdens is updating website listings without becoming so fluid that pricing is different every time an item is viewed online.

Andy Cheatham

Pittsburgh

On Friday, April 5, 2024 at 12:57:25 PM UTC-4 Patrick Moore wrote:

[Patrick Moore]

Re: 1.6 mm Shimano cogs spaced with 2.04 mm Miche 10 sp spacers instead of stock Shimano 2.35 mm 10 sp spacers (Miche's 10 sp cogs have a 1.8 mm body -- but not teeth, which are also 1.6 mm -- and thus take the narrower spacers):

Slight change to judgment: while the 11 sp chain does shift and track wonderfully with the skinnier Shimano cogs spaced with the skinnier Miche spacers on 8 of the 10 gears (the 14 t outer cog has a built in Shimano-9-sp spec spacer), it rattles very, very slightly on the remaining cog, requiring finicky trimming to eliminate all sound; and alas this cog is the 18 t, #5 from outermost, which is tje most-used 70" flatland cruising gear.

So, once the Ali Express spacers order arrives I'll bump at least that cog out with 2.35s or perhaps 2.18s.

On Fri, Apr 5, 2024 at 1:45 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

For the new 14-25 knobby cassette I bought 3 14-25 9 speeds from Peter White ($28 each, not bad) and disassembled them to replace the spacers and swap the 21 for a 20 and the 23 for a 22 and add a 28 after the 25. So the 14 outer is a proper Shimano outer with its own spacer (I guess that this spacer is 2.5 mm? I used Miche 2 mm spacers for the rest of the cassette; it all shifts perfectly ...