These are both 9speeders, made by Microshift, famous for being the maker of the SILVER OM-1 rear derailer. As cassettes go, they are as good as they need to be, for any purpose and any rider. Microshift’s best.
The 11x36 is a stock Microshift cassette, so we can sell it for $30. You don’t get a box with multi-language 5pt type instructions for that. Don’t buy if you require anything more than a cassette.
The 11x38’er is a stock Microshift ratio, and we like it because the OM-1 derailer, officially rated to 34t. The stock Microshift 11x38 is all black. To get the six silver cogs cost more, we had to buy 500 at a whack, so this one costs $40. Also boxless.
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Shimano and SRAM both have cassettes that cost $500 (SRAM) to $600 (Shimano).
These Microshift cassettes are essentially as good as cassettes need to be, and they cost less than one-tenth as much as the most expensive cassettes. (You can buy near or exact cassettes for “our price,” though.) True, the outrageous models are a hair lighter and have twelve to thirteen cogs. But cogs are cheap, “a hair lighter” is unimpressive and unimportant in the real world. The cost per cog is too high, and nobody actually needs a 12- or 13-cog cassette. The fact that they exist is somewhere on the spectrum between baffling and embarrassing.
The 11-36 is 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32-36
The 11-38 is 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32-38
Check out our gear inch calculator if you really want to fine tune your gearing.
The 11-36 weighs 483 grams, and the 11-38 weighs 485 grams. We don't care much about weights, but we thought it was interesting that the 11-38 is only two grams more.
