Mystery cassettes

[LG]

I've picked up a bundle of bike parts that includes a small box of loose cassette cogs, all separated and mixed up that I've been trying to sort out. Many of them appear to be unused. There's a few lockrings in there, including Shimano, Chris King and Ultimate Machine Co.

2 cassettes that stand out are a 7 speed 12-21 tooth aluminium cassette with splines for Shimano uniglide (without the larger spline, but with mount for a lockring), weighs in at 87g, also a set of titanium cogs (I think it may be 9 speed, one missing from the pics) with a 32 tooth large. All cogs are individual without a carrier body for groups and none of them have any stamping on them.

Out of curiosity I'm trying to ID the brands and hope to match to lockrings. The attached pics show both cassettes and any advice is appreciated. I'm leaning towards the titanium cogs being Ultimate Machine Co, but not basing that on much.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gYJfXikPn22KZgYk7

[elantra]

Fascinating, but sorry I don’t have an answer.
The 9-speed cassette has a Shimano like appearance, with ramps on the cogs etc.

The 7-speed is no doubt from an earlier era, good simple honest cogs without fussy ramps etc.
And a very different structural appearance.

I’m thinking perhaps Mavic, or Miche, or even the last generation of SunTour gear systems ???
Neither looks like Campagnolo, which would be extremely unlikely because as you report that they have Shimano- compatible splines.
Cheers

[LG]

You are correct that the Ti cogs have Shimano appearance, but I haven't been able to identify any Shimano that don't have a 'carrier body' among their better quality units or tooth number/date code stamped on them, so am ruling out until other info comes to light.

Thanks for the thought around Miche for the aluminium set, hadn't thought of them previously but can't find similar via Google, I'm not aware mavic made cassettes, can't find reference to them? I have looked at suntour cassette body cogs, but they have a different spline pattern and don't fit. The aluminium set are very very light, not sure if there'd be much longevity with use, but certainly no ramps, twists, etc to aid shifting.

My google skills must be pretty ordinary, I haven't been able to determine whether Chris King actually made cassettes rather than single speed cogs and lockrings. Have so far not been able to find any pics of them.

I've also added a pic of the Ultimate Machine Co locking, it's got a couple of astronauts engraved, quite neat.

[find_bruce]

I’m of no help, but my reaction to the aluminium cassette was that it had to be high end because durability would be awful

[elantra]

……
but can't find similar via Google, I'm not aware mavic made cassettes, can't find reference to them?
….

Don’t know much about Mavic Cassettes, except that a friend of mine (who used to be a bike mechanic) was having a clean out and gave me a number of loose cogs a few yrs ago.
They had Shimano spline pattern, no brand ID, but he told me that they were Mavic.
But they had an unusual, rather “open” cutout appearance, not like yours pictured. And they were light.
I would love to get my hands on more of them!

I like the concept of being able to “assemble” a custom made cassette. Which you can’t easily do with the modern style cogs which are often connected on spiders and have weird ramps that cause disaster if you get them out of “sequence”

I recently acquired (on a garage sale bike) a 30 year old Campagnolo 8-speed cassette.
Quite lovely how it can be easily disassembled into loose cogs, only problem is that it requires a Campagnolo freehub to use it on !!!

That shouldn’t be too hard a problem to solve though

[elantra]

……
but can't find similar via Google, I'm not aware mavic made cassettes, can't find reference to them?
….

Don’t know much about Mavic Cassettes, except that a friend of mine (who used to be a bike mechanic) was having a clean out and gave me a number of loose cogs a few yrs ago.
They had Shimano spline pattern, no brand ID, but he told me that they were Mavic.
But they had an unusual, rather “open” cutout appearance, not like yours pictured. And they were light.
I would love to get my hands on more of them!

I like the concept of being able to “assemble” a custom made cassette. Which you can’t easily do with the modern style cogs which are often connected on spiders and have weird ramps that cause disaster if you get them out of “sequence”

I recently acquired (on a garage sale bike) a 30 year old Campagnolo 8-speed cassette.
Quite lovely how it can be easily disassembled into loose cogs, only problem is that it requires a Campagnolo freehub to use it on !!!

That shouldn’t be too hard a problem to solve though

Finally got round to putting those old Campagnolo sprockets into use.

And I’ve gotta say they work like a charm.
They mustn’t have much wear on them ‘cause they sound very smooth with a new-ish Shimano 9-sp chain. I think that the sprockets are about 30 yr old because they came off a steel frame bike early 90’s running mainly Campag components.

I’m shifting them with a roughly 30 yrs old Suntour Command shifter attached to a Shimano RX 100 rear derailleur.
The only problem so far is that the Suntour shifter is actually the one for the FRONT derailleur so it’s not indexed AND it doesn’t have enough lateral travel (at the rear derailleur) to cope with more than 6 cogs (with the original spacing)

In practical use that hardly matters as the biggest cog is 26 tooth. Plenty for me.
Ironically if there is a hiccup it’s the smallest cog - it’s 14 tooth- I’m used to dealing with 12 and 13 tooth small cogs with Compact cranksets.

The shifting is almost beautiful. The Campagnolo cogs only have “ramps” on the 2 smallest cogs.
The audible landing of chain on cog is just what you need when you’re not indexed !

By comparison I built up a “similar” cassette with various Shimano and other mystery cogs (Shimano spline pattern) and they don’t make the same nice crisp sound when changing so it’s more of a fudge getting the correct lever trim.

[elantra]

……
but can't find similar via Google, I'm not aware mavic made cassettes, can't find reference to them?
….

Don’t know much about Mavic Cassettes, except that a friend of mine (who used to be a bike mechanic) was having a clean out and gave me a number of loose cogs a few yrs ago.
They had Shimano spline pattern, no brand ID, but he told me that they were Mavic.
But they had an unusual, rather “open” cutout appearance, not like yours pictured. And they were light.
I would love to get my hands on more of them!

I like the concept of being able to “assemble” a custom made cassette. Which you can’t easily do with the modern style cogs which are often connected on spiders and have weird ramps that cause disaster if you get them out of “sequence”

I recently acquired (on a garage sale bike) a 30 year old Campagnolo 8-speed cassette.
Quite lovely how it can be easily disassembled into loose cogs, only problem is that it requires a Campagnolo freehub to use it on !!!

That shouldn’t be too hard a problem to solve though

Finally got round to putting those old Campagnolo sprockets into use.

And I’ve gotta say they work like a charm.
They mustn’t have much wear on them ‘cause they sound very smooth with a new-ish Shimano 9-sp chain. I think that the sprockets are about 30 yr old because they came off a steel frame bike early 90’s running mainly Campag components.

I’m shifting them with a roughly 30 yrs old Suntour Command shifter attached to a Shimano RX 100 rear derailleur.
The only problem so far is that the Suntour shifter is actually the one for the FRONT derailleur so it’s not indexed AND it doesn’t have enough lateral travel (at the rear derailleur) to cope with more than 6 cogs (with the original spacing)

In practical use that hardly matters as the biggest cog is 26 tooth. Plenty for me.
Ironically if there is a hiccup it’s the smallest cog - it’s 14 tooth- I’m used to dealing with 12 and 13 tooth small cogs with Compact cranksets.

The shifting is almost beautiful. The Campagnolo cogs only have “ramps” on the 2 smallest cogs.
The audible landing of chain on cog is just what you need when you’re not indexed !

By comparison I built up a “similar” cassette with various Shimano and other mystery cogs (Shimano spline pattern) and they don’t make the same nice crisp sound when changing so it’s more of a frustrating fudge getting the correct lever trim.



Here’s a pic of the complete bike above.
The bike itself is hardly retro but - some of the components are 30 yrs old