ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review & Install

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Intro

The old saying goes "you get what you pay for" but NOT in the case of this 11 - 40 ZTTO 9 speed cassette. I purchased mine for around £15 on eBay, and I am very impressed with it.

I sued a Short Cage Rear Mech, and an extender for the gear hanger. All good. 

I also made a video review, if you are too lazy to read this one!

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Building Quality 

I compared the quality of this ZTTO 9 speed cassette with the shimano cassette that it was replacing. The shimano one was used of course, but you can still compare the finish of un worn parts.

Comparison between Shimano HG 400 11 - 34

I should imagine that the sprockets are "pressed" in manufacturing rather than cast of machined, the finish is very good. The sprockets are steel: "high tensile steel" apparently.

I mean to the untrained eye this look OK right?

One thing I was very impressed with was the weight saving measures, the sporkets had been designed on the ZTTO 9 speed cassette had been design to incorporate a lot less steele (proportionally) compared to the shimano cassette.

Rear view showing the construction. 

If I had just one improvement comment it would be for a steel lockring. Alloy threads, cringe. 

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Installation / Install

I "few" years ago I vested in a short cage shimano saint rear mech. Which is a great piece of gear. I had read that you can use a 11 - 40 cassette with a short cage rear mech, and it works OK. It does work.

On the bike. Works great. 

I had a slight complication in that (unknown to me) my front chain ring was worn, and this was cause a dropped chain when I shifted on the the largest rear sprocket. Of course initially I suspected the lack of chain cacapcity in my rear mech, but no.

Size Difference 11-40 vs 11-34

I did use a sunrace hanger extender, I am not sure if this was required, but I fitted it anyway. For the record I should point out that I do not think my rear mech would take a larger rear sprocket, it may just about stretch to a 42 tooth. But I very very much doubt it would be OK with 46, 50 or 52.

When on 40 tooth sprocket, the chain has just enough slack to operate, but not much.

In summary the install would have been very easy, if it weren't for the worn chain ring.

ZTTO 9 Speed Cassette Review - Extra Photos and Conclusions 

All in all this is a well made product that enables 9 speed drive chain uses to add extra gear range to their machines without breaking the bank. If your old chain and cassette are worn out, then it is a no brainer to upgrade, more range, same price and weight penalty is minimal. 

In use this provide a similar amount of range to my alfine 11 hub gear. It certainly makes a 1 x 9 drivetrain more realistic in hilly parts of the world. 

Close up showing quality of pressings. I think it looks fine. 

Each sprocket is labelled with tooth number. I nice touch. 

Not sure what these bales mean. 

Close up of rear, showing structure. Second largest sprocket shares spider with largest. 

My only complaint: alloy lock ring. Probably fine, bit alloy threads make be nervous. 

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6 Ways to Get an Upright Riding Position on a Bike

6 Ways to Get an Upright Riding Position on a Bike

There are numerous reason why you might want a more upright riding position on you bike. They range from comfort to fashion, and all are 100% worthy. Upright is where it all started, both for road bikes, and mountain bikes.

The Whippet Safety Bicycle - Very Upright

Early Mountain Bike - Upright (For California)

In this post I will go through a few methods that can be used to obtain a more upright riding position, I have ordered suggestion from lowest cost and ease of implementation, to highest cost and effort.

This post assumes that you have a bikes that you want to adjust, or customise to give an upright riding position.

If you are buying new new bike, then the world is your oyster. I suggest googling for "dutch bikes", however modding a mountain bike with a fork from surly (disc trucker) or Thorn Cycles (Mt Tura) would give all of the robustness of a MTB, lots of gears and a very usable bike. If you pursue comfort and little else then just buy a "dutch" bike, like the "batavus quip" below.

1 - Squash Your Cockpit (1cm)

By moving you saddle forward, and rotating you handle bars to provide maximum rise / minimum reach, you will achieve a slightly more upright ride.

However, you will likely only get a tiny extra bit of uprightness using this method, and adjusting you saddle too far forward may cause other problems.

2 - Stem Extender (5cm to 10cm)

For under £10 you can buy a stem extender. They are very easy to fit, as you do not need to remove your handle bars, or brake levers or anything like that. In the below video a 7 year child fits one, so it is very easy.

Just be sure to get the right size, you will need a 1" or a 1 1/8" inch size.  As well as the above fixed offering you can get adjustable stem risers:

3 - Riser Stem (5cm to 10cm)

There are many many stems that can be used on there own, or in combination with other methods on this page, to give an upright ride. A good brand to pursue is Ergotec (Humpert) who make some very high rise fixed stems. Below is the "charisma" model.

Or why not try the "Humpert Comfi High Rise"  beow which gives about 10cm extra height. 

4 - Riser Bars (5cm to 20cm)

There are many handlebars that will give a "rise" and thus give an upright riding position. But my advise would be to opt for bars that provide an extreme rise, such as BMX handle bars. You may think this ia going a bit too far, but as you will see, uprightness just keeps getting better and better. So don't mess about, with small riser bars, get some with a serious amount of rise.

BMX bars again, used below to make a upright commuter bike. The below image is from Calories per Pence Blog. 

5- New Forks (upto 30cm)

Many forks, when bought new, come with very long steerer tubes. Some can be as long at 400mm with most being around 250mm.

Perhaps the most upright V-Brake fork you can get is the Thorn Mt Tura Fork. Which is huge. Pictured on my bike below.

Now you may think that a 4000m long steerer tube, would be as upright as you would ever want to go, but I have recent added a riser stem to this set up:

6 - Welding 

Now if you were to combine a 400mm steerer tune fork, with a BMX handle bar you would end up with you handle bars around 1.2 meters above ground level. That is pretty high.

But if you want straight bars that are very high, to get an upright riding position, then extending you steel steerer tube, by welding on an extra length would be one of the few options available. If you are thinking this is dangerous, then please don't after all you whole bike is welded together! The below video shows the proper procedure.

A very tall person might have a torso length of 60cm, add on 15cm for their ass. A saddle might extend 20cm above the top tube. So a maximum handle bar height but be around 80cm above the top of the head tube. If you are very tall, and want a very upright ride.

A Word on Saddles

Something quite important to consider is that as you move to a more upright riding position, you will put more weight on your buttocks. Consider getting a wider saddle, to help spread the load!

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