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EB18: Edco creates better carbon spokes, machines 138g road cassette & more

ultralight one-piece edco monoblock machined alloy road bike cassette
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We’ve seen the Edco Monoblock cassettes before, but these latest “Advanced” versions were always kept away from our cameras. Until now. The Monoblock cassette has always been machined from a solid brick of aluminum, which might sound bad at first. We’ve not had great luck with lightweight alloy cassettes in the past. But these are a special chrome-molybdenum enriched alloy that’s light like aluminum, but durable like steel. They say their top riders are getting 15,000km out of them, changing the chain 3x before they changed the cassette.

ultralight one-piece edco monoblock machined alloy road bike cassette

So, what’s new? The advanced version machines additional material out of the space between the lower five cogs. The originals didn’t have any open space between the cogs, but it was something they’d been testing for a while. It’s finally ready and shipping, and it saves up to 16g depending on size.

ultralight one-piece edco monoblock machined alloy road bike cassette

They’re available in 10- and 11-speed options only for now…with the standard version also available in Junior gear ratios.

ultralight one-piece edco monoblock machined alloy road bike cassette

The gold and black finishes are optional and purely cosmetic.

what are the lightest road bike cassette - it might be these one piece machined alloy monoblock cassettes from Edco

Weights in the left column are for the standard Monoblock cassette, the right column is the new Advanced version…which has the same €199 retail price, so, I think we all know which one we want.

A titanium version is coming in August, pricing is TBD. It’ll be 20g lighter, and will have a slightly tweaked tooth profile to make the shifting very smooth.

The Chronosports series is Edco’s higher end wheel line, using 8K woven carbon for the body and a higher weave on the brake track (for rim brake models). The latest is the Chronosports Simplon, a new 105mm deep aero wheel. It’s intended to replace the full rear disc wheel with something nearly as aero, but far more comfortable. So, you make up in efficiency what little you might lose in aerodynamics.

The Chronosports series wheels are also available in 85, 65, 45 and 28 mm depths. Mix and match as you like, they all run €2,299 for the pair. All are tubeless ready, and soon they’ll start shipping with tubeless tape preinstalled.

It’s the little things…

All depths except the new Simplon are also available in disc brake and tubular rim options.

Look for 23mm and 25mm inside widths coming soon to make them more relevant in the gravel and all-road market. Testing on those should begin early this winter, possibly with new rim profiles and depths, too.

edco carbon fiber bicycle spokes for road bike wheels

Edco first showed wheels with the then-new Sapim carbon fiber spokes in 2015. Since then, they’ve tweaked the design and now use bonded metal inserts at both ends of the spoke.

carbon fiber bicycle spokes from edco

They’re bladed to improve aerodynamics and can be trued just like normal. Look for them on the Julier, their shallowest rim profile.

Shop.Edco.ch

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Tom
Tom
6 years ago

Edco cassettes are a hard pass – had an 11-29 and the shifting was absolutely horrendous with Shimano and KMC chains. And the ratio selection is absolutely daft – check the tooth gaps at the upper end of the cluster. Spend the money on Shimano or Sram. Only reason i would ever use this cassette is if I needed to fit 11 speeds on a 10 speed freehub.

therealgreenplease
6 years ago

Hopefully they improve their cassettes. I wonder why the Simplon isn’t available in a disc brake version?

Brad Comis (@BradComis)

So much marketing diversion in this statement: “But these are a special chrome-molybdenum enriched alloy that’s light like aluminum, but durable like steel.” First off, light like aluminum and durable like steel is the most vague statement possible. Seems to me they are made of chomoly steel, which is not exactly rare or exclusive, nor is it light like aluminum, in fact it is literally heavy like steel. It is light because it is heavily machined. Chomoly is a great material for a cassette, but gosh, why do people have to use such ridiculous descriptions for material properties? Anyway…sorry to rag on you guys Tyler…I’ll still be reading the blog everyday regardless.

Morgan
Morgan
6 years ago

@BradComis It’s because Paul Lew works for Edco now. I would say he is 25% engineer and 75% salesman.

Jay
Jay
6 years ago
Reply to  Morgan

Not true. Paul Lew doesn’t work for Edco anymore and hasn’t for a while

Clay
Clay
6 years ago
Reply to  Morgan

@Morgan…. He hasn’t worked for Edco for a while now.

Greg
Greg
6 years ago
Reply to  Morgan

This. Reminiscent of the Zero Gravity brakes guy…

Richard
Richard
6 years ago
Reply to  Greg

I’m still sporting my Zero Gravity brakes… Love them:)

shmumeal
shmumeal
6 years ago

Brad! You’re the best!

Shenandoah
Shenandoah
6 years ago

Tyler, unless I am wrong Edco never made Aluminium Cassettes, they have always been “steel”. confusion may come from the overall weight that is close from some aluminium productions.
What would have been interesting is to understand why those new cassettes do not have the “new” tooth profile they claim on the future Ti cassette cause previous reports do not list shifting quality as the main quality of their products (not bad… but not comparable with shimano – campagnolo – sram original products).

Christian
Christian
6 years ago

some facts from edco

edcos Monoblock (standard version) is CrMo Steel,
new versions are available now on request (from Eurobike onwards):
edco Monoblock in Alloy,
edco Monoblock in Titanium.
The new Monoblock (standard) has improved weights for 2018.

The cassettes are available with different teeth specs – starting with 11/12T going up now to 29/32/34 or even 40T for endurance/gravel or cross bike use.

If you have a shifting issue with our cassettes let us know we help you to solve the situation – we have so many happy customers using them.

edco Chronosports Simplon 105 – we see no need to have this high aeroprofil wheel with disc brake yet.
If you want to get it with disc – we set it up for you on customer specific request.

Rob is not any longer working for edco.
If you want to become a partner or if you want to know something more in detail contact edco. info@edco.ch

Tom
Tom
6 years ago
Reply to  Christian

a nice offer, but there’s no getting around the lack of tooth profiling/ramping. I changed out to a Shimano Ultegra cassette, and the shifting was perfect, with a KMC chain. I used to be a mechanic, and have a high degree of mechanical aptitude, and I just couldn’t make the Edco work. And I can’t recall the last time I wore out another cluster on one chain.

Dave
Dave
6 years ago

High Strength Steel ranges from 700 (110 ksi) to 1300 MPa in yield, alu, no matter what you do with it never reaches 500 MPa (70 ksi). 700 MPa equals 260 HB hardness, 1300 roughly 500 HB. The rest is rubbish

RobertW
RobertW
6 years ago

This article was confusing. I had the transitory impression these were new cassettes made out of aluminum, but glad to see they are still steel.

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