Cool!!!

[Derek]

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=29843936&cat=645&lpid=10&search=&ad_cid=8

http://backboneracing.blogspot.com/2007/09/avid-rollamajig-death-of-classic.html

[neo_pop_71]

Right on Derek... a total blast from the past, thanks for jarring the memory!

That little doodad did an awesome job! I ran them on all my racebikes, maybe it seems to simple to actually work but I always ran new cables for every race and my rear shifting with a Rollamajig and a XTR rear derailleur was flawless! I had an original one on my Smorgasbord... damn, I miss that bike, 22 pounds of racing joy! The very least I should have saved my Cook Brothers bars... you can get the cranks but no one ever had the handlebars!!!

As far as pricing goes of the Rollamajig, the red plastic in your link is one of the original ones, and the $25.00 asking price is about 10 bucks more than they cost 15-20 years ago. Avid later came out with an anodized aluminum body Rollamajig, a quick peek at Ebay has a NOS silver one for $35.00 and a scratched used on. Before I buy anything on Ebay, especially when it come to components, I always check out the selection on bikepro.com website. Sure enough...

http://www.bikepro.com/ad_copy/der_f_rr.html
(scroll down to rear derailleur)
AVID ROLLAMAJIG Blue-Black-Purple-Red-Silver-Green $15.99 (same price as the late 1990's)

Here is a link to bikepro.com aka Pedal Pusher bike shop, in Santa Rosa, CA online ordering info:

http://www.bikepro.com/ad_copy/order_info.shtml

I'm going to be ordering a few small parts for some upcoming builds, I love the selection of anodized parts, and the pricing is pretty good... it's almost like opening a 15 year old copy of Mountain Bike Action and wishing you could still order stuff and thanks to their site you can!!!

[vpc66]

SRAM...less weight, faster shifting..BETTER !!! Yeah I know, no doubt the only Sram Fan on here. Hey " D " what cassette is that, I had a old Shimano 7 spd cassette that look close to that one that I gave away years ago...don't recall it having the small holes in it but the cut outs were large like that one has...wish I had of kept that thing it was kinda cool looking and lite for what it was .

I look closer and it looks like that one has curves at the center and the one I had was straight ...but the cut outs look large like the one I had...have never seen another one like the one I had again..

[neo_pop_71]

Good eye Big V., curved cutaways and fully drilled out, you are looking at the last generation chromed XT 8 speed cassette. I never cared about the slight weight hit from chromed cogs, they look great and clean off beautifully. Think back to the long gone days of 8 speed, the XT stuff was very good and XTR was "race" which meant lighter but almost twice the price, plus the light weight "thin" cogs meant shorter life with less durability. Shortly there after Mega 9 speed stuff had blown up but not with me, I was a die hard 8 speed guy, I still am with my Dura Ace group on my road bike (though I have 9 speed brifters on hand for when the 8 speed stuff dies... but then there is always Shimergo... tempting). I give Sram all the credit, their XO shifters are still the nicest and best design I've ever owned plus Sram pioneered redesigning the rear derailleur "parallelogram" and in doing so unlocked mega 36+ tooth cassettes. Heck, 36T 10 speed is the standard on all Santa Cruz bikes at my LBS, right along with double cranks instead of triples. Isn't 20 wide range gears enough... do you really need a triple with 11 speed cassette, just imagine the gear overlap, worth it? Shimano played catch up Sram for a few years on the rear derailleur, forever Shimano cassettes max'd out with 34 teeth solely based on the traditional rear derailleur design that hadn't been improved upon in 20 years aside from figuring out a long cage meant more range.

[vpc66]

I laugh when I read the part about the chromed XT cassette because I did the same thing. When I bought parts for the Cuda I went after the parts that had less weight but folks claim were good, yes my buddies called me a weight weenie ..don't care..but with the cassette I turn away from a TI 9 spd cassette for the chrome one because they look great all clean on the bike before you ride the trail.
By chance do you have a clue as to what 7 spd cassette I had...as I said it had the large cut outs like yours but the small blades that ran out from the center to the gear part did not have a curve at the center like yours..they ran straight all the way. I always felt that it was a higher end cassette because cheap cassettes have the cut outs shape like yours but way smaller giving more metal to each gear...I should have kept that thing just because,as said have never seen another one like it..it came on a shimano parallax hub...so was it a cheapie that look cool or good I don't know.
With Sram and you know I love em..I heard 2013 was not good for them and Shimano made a comeback on them...As you know from the era I built my Cuda I have the 9.0 but I put pre 13' X9 on my Son's Trek and have to say they are sweet..I would love to get the pre 13' X0 in ti and carbon for my Cuda and leave the 9.0 shifters...I don't feel the shifters have improve over the years but the derailleur is SWEET !

[vpc66]

Duh, went on line for pictures...guess there was small curves at the center

[neo_pop_71]

Duh, went on line for pictures...guess there was small curves at the center

Hey Big V.,

That cassette you're asking about looks like a a Shimano "AJ-AM" cassette, the same I'm running on my A2L, plus I have a few spares in the spare part bins. The AJ-AM was Shimano's attempt to improve oh their long time "HG" workhorse platform. Here is a link to Sheldon Brown's write up on "Interactive Glide" aka AJ-AM:

http://sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#interactive

In a nutshell, it was the beginnings of Shimano's attempt to go to a wider range cassette, think of a 7 speed with a 12-26T versus a 11-28T, the 12-26T would be "HG" and the 11-28T would be the "IG" aka "AJ-AM" cassette. Whatever way you want to look at it, it was the last creative push before 8 speed hit the market hard and essentially killed previous platforms. With regard to the killing, none was more absurd than the Dura Ace 8 speed group... it worked with nothing other than other 8 speed Dura Ace... NOTHING... no 8 speed Ultregra, no 9 speed Dura Ace, nor any other platform up or down in the Shimano lines.

[vpc66]

Thanks " D " for the info on that....