At first glance, I thought this news of a longer lasting Shimano drivetrain was great. However looking closer, I think they’ve missed the mark. They should have offered this new drivetrain with a microspline option.
HG drivers are not robust enough to handle the longevity of the cassettes. Back before 12 speed, I was always having to file down the burrs on HG freehub bodies where the smaller cogs had left gouges. On a few occasions, I had a lot of trouble removing the cassette. If these new cassettes are supposed to last longer, they’re going to leave even larger gouges before they’re eventually removed. I believe many people will have to replace their freehub body at the same time as their cassettes as they’ll essentially be fused together. I haven’t noticed this problem with microspline, likely due to the forces being distributed over more contact points.
Feb. 23, 2023, 9:26 a.m. - HanSolo
At first glance, I thought this news of a longer lasting Shimano drivetrain was great. However looking closer, I think they’ve missed the mark. They should have offered this new drivetrain with a microspline option. HG drivers are not robust enough to handle the longevity of the cassettes. Back before 12 speed, I was always having to file down the burrs on HG freehub bodies where the smaller cogs had left gouges. On a few occasions, I had a lot of trouble removing the cassette. If these new cassettes are supposed to last longer, they’re going to leave even larger gouges before they’re eventually removed. I believe many people will have to replace their freehub body at the same time as their cassettes as they’ll essentially be fused together. I haven’t noticed this problem with microspline, likely due to the forces being distributed over more contact points.