KCNC cassette
Super lightweight cassette costs a bomb – is it worth it?
KCNC 11-23 Sc/Al/Ti 10-speed cassette - £131.99
For some people, no price is too high for the lightest weight components. Let’s face it; if you’ve bulked at the price tag up above, you've probably headed straight into the forum to vent your frustration. But now you've gone, we can focus on just how special this cassette is.
Let’s rewind a bit. KCNC is the name for some of the highest performance and lightest weight components available aftermarket. Products range from headsets, skewers, hubs, cranks, brake callipers, in fact, just about any component that will fit in KCNC’s CNC machine. It’s a family run business and their attention to detail and lust for meticulous engineering and high level of finishing is evident to see. It’s all impressive stuff.
The cassette is the most interesting of all its products though. Take a stock 10-speed cassette and you’ll realise there’s quite a heft of weight tied up in those sprockets attached to the wheel, and so it's a prime candidate for sticking on a low fat diet. But we demand a lot from the humble cassette, for it should provide exemplary shifting performance under even the highest of loads.
Tackling the weight front, KCNC have used a combination of exotic materials to drive down the weight. The cassette in the picture, a Shimano/SRAM compatible 11-23 weighs 103g which, when compared to a Dura-Ace of same ratio, is some 60g less. It even compares well to SRAM's Red cassette, which gets under 160g and costs about the same as the KCNC. This has been achieved with machining the 11 and 12 sprockets from 6/4 titanium, Scandium alloy for the 13, 14, 15 and 16, and 7075 hard anodised alloy for the remaining 17, 19, 21 and 23 cogs. The lockring itself, made from aluminium, saves a good few grammes.
On the scales then, the KCNC cassette is just about the lightest available. In use, it’s similarly impressive. A selection of the teeth are ‘shaped’ so as to encourage the chain to move swiftly on its short journey between gears, but I'd hesitate in describing the shifting to be quite as precise or slick as the Shimano Ultegra cassette it replaced on the test bike. Not disappointing, but just ever so slightly less crisp on some gear changes. In the end though, the weight savings far outweigh any discernible lack of performance.
Verdict
Incredible lightweight but the performance doesn’t quite deliver as impressively as it does on the scales.
 Weight, construction, finish, colour!
 Shifting performance, pricey
Find out more at www.kcnc.com.tw. KCNC are distributed in the UK by Clee Cycles. www.clee-cycles.co.uk. They’ll be at the London Cycle Show if you want to check them out.
Discuss this story
I'll be very interested to see how this wears, I recently bought a Cabontec Alloy cassette which is even lighter at 99g and cheaper, however I've managed to shred the thing in a few months. It maybe heavier but I'm sticking with Dura Ace. Certain parts of the bike need to be bullet proof and this is one of those areas. I've managed to shave 100g of my bike weight though by changing the skewers to the KCNC ones from my Dura Ace ones. I would be interested in a test on the KCNC brakes as they also give a significant weight saving over the Dura Ace calipers.
Posted: 11/09/2008 18:10
Exactly, racing! You can almost be 100% sure of getting a Dura-Ace skewer done up correctly each time, which is more than can be said for a lot of other skewer designs! Why shouldn't you be able to get back into the bunch?
Posted: 11/09/2008 21:35
Hello everyone. Why is it everytime,i come on here,it is always the same boring Shima(NO) parts talked about! Get a life,and if i remember rightly,Campagnolo makes a full titanium Record cassette block,which costs from about £200.00,AND IF I REMEMBER RIGHTLY,THEY HAVE WON A FEW RACES OVER THE YEARS TOO! This site never mentions Campagnolo parts,or clothing. I have just got Danilo Di Luca's autograph,which i got in Chard.The LPR team use Campagnolo Record,so does other teams like Agribel,Lampre,Silence-Lotto,Quick-Step. Stop discriminating against Campagnolo!!! I even shouted at Shimano team car,that Campagnolo is better!!!
Posted: 12/09/2008 23:53
"I'm with you Robert, all my Road Bike's are Campag Record, only Off-Road is Shimano XTR.
The trouble is Shimano spend more Money on Marketing than Campag and it's a younger more youthful Brand (Trust me this is very important, look at Apple Ipod V's Sony, the Sound is better on Sony but Apple is "hipper"), If like me you came from MTB to the Road it would be natural to move with Shimano.
Both Brand's have there Fans, I have Italian Road Bike's so for me It was natural that Components should be Italian - 'Proper Order' but I have tried Shimano Dura Ace and it was good, Faultless I should say, However I do not like the Aesthetics. I struggle with this, however If I bought an American Bike I would be tempted by Dura Ace, especially as the Levers are looking at there best for Years (I would ditch the cranks however - damned ugly) - But when I see Bettini on Super Record, my Heart melts.......
Posted: 14/09/2008 14:09
I've got SRAM Red on one of my bikes and I think it's nice to look at. I have Ultegra SL on the other which is just so damn efficient I cannot fault it. Ultegra for me any day. Campagnolo also looks nice, but I don't like the way it shifts. But, why do we need these constant groupset conversations? Your money, your choice. It seems like everybody is that insecure about their purchases they need to slate anything else that isn't in their tunnel vision.
Posted: 15/09/2008 19:24
I have tried Shimano Dura Ace and it was good, Faultless I should say, However I do not like the Aesthetics. I struggle with this, however If I bought an American Bike I would be tempted by Dura Ace, especially as the Levers are looking at there best for Years (I would ditch the cranks however - damned ugly) - But when I see Bettini on Super Record, my Heart melts.......
If there is a common theme to posts in this subject, it is surely that Campagnolo worshippers go with their hearts whereas Shimano users - I differentiate intentionally - buy with their heads. Since both - and SRAM, for that matter - work beautifully, what's the problem?
I agree with you Richard. Tom - top of the class, sir.
Posted: 16/09/2008 10:48
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