Interloc 9-Speed Elite

Price Paid:  $0.00

Bike Setup:
9-speed DA shifters and rear derailleur. IRD CD front der. SRAM chain. FSA compact crankset. Velomax/Easton Ascent II wheels. Litespeed Siena frame and fork.

Summary:
IRD hates do-it-yourselfers. If you have all your bike work done at an LBS, consider IRD's parts - they're probably OK for you. But if you do your own bike work, as I do, avoid IRD unconditionally - they consistently do not support do-it-yourself cyclist.

My first IRD experience was with one of their 9-speed Elite road cassettes. It's a nice enough looking piece of gear. From the moment I started installing and riding it though, it was trouble.

First, one of the spacers was mis-manufactured. The inner diameter of the spacer prevented it from fitting onto the freehub body of either of the wheels I tried to put it on. Every other cassette I use on these wheels fits on - Shimano, SRAM; you name it.

So I machined the interior of the spacer and fit the cassette on the wheel, and then adjusted the derailleur. I took it out for a ride and found that I could get the der to index all but one cog. If I adjusted the indexing to shift smoothly to that cog, indexing was messed up for the rest of the cassette.

I tried to contact the company via their website. No response. I used the cassette for a while, then gave up on it and go a competing product (SRAM) which worked fine from the moment I put it on.

I recently took the IRD Elite cassette out of the box, just to give it one more chance. Same problem - no surprise. I contacted IRD "Support". As they did when I requested help recently with one of their compact double front derailleurs, they attempted to steer me to the wrench at my LBS, and suggested that the problem was most likely an issue with a different portion of my drive train.

You'll never get any meaningful assistance from this company, and they won't suggest you send the part back. If you do your own work, you'll probably want to buy your parts from a different manufacturer.

Strengths:
Shifts eight of the nine cogs well.

Weaknesses:
Shifts one cog poorly, always, both up-and down-shifting.

Similar Products Used:
You name it.

Price Paid:  $60.00 at CBO

Favorite Ride:
New Zealand

Bike Setup:
Interloc Crossfire, Shimano 105 drive train and wheels.

Summary:
Love the big cogs. Upgraded to 9 speed and my 8 had 12-28 so I thought I would do the same for the 9. Rode one month and the gear changes weren't as snappy as the Shimano cassette. There is some delay as opposed to that udder brand. Had I known I would have stayed with the big S.

Strengths:
Shimano compatibility and the cogs are shiney.

Weaknesses:
Doesn't compare to the big S-dawg when it comes to performance.

Similar Products Used:
Shimano cassettes