I ordered two 9 speed road cassettes from nashbar. they are 12-23. Upon close inspection, I noticed that the spacing between the 12 and the 13 toothed sprockets is slighlty wider that then spacing between all the other sprockets. Both cassettes came in properly sealed wrappings in sealed boxes.
Is this normal? I doubt it since all my other cassettes seem to have equal spacing. Anybody had a similar experience?
FWIW, I also had this problem with two separate Nashbar cassettes; I found them unusable, as the 12 cog extended past the axel locknut.
I just talked to the tech dept at nashbar. they say that this is normal and it should work fine. The cassette fits my hub ok. I am still hesitant to install it. Does anyone else have a comment? I'll give it a try and see how it shifts. I am thinking that this being the last sproket, it might work going down. going up I'll have to shift twice and skip the 13 and then go down again? I could also grind the extra spacing or use a 12 teeth sproket from another cassette.