Ti vs Steel cassette life

[PaMtbRider]

What is the typical life span of a Ti cassette? I've heard they wear out faster, and obviously cost a lot more for no advantage other than weight savings. I know there are lots of variables, but if they are ridden in the same conditions and maintained the same does a steel cassette last 50% longer? Twice as long? I have been using Campy Chorus all steel cassettes, but because of multiple bikes and upgrading from 10 -11 speed drive trains the most mileage on any single cassette has been in the 10,000-12,000 mile range. It still shifted fine.

[lhuerta]

IME...SR Ti cassette has about half the service life of Chorus (using either chain rotation or new chain method every 1.5K miles). SR is definitely not worth the 300% mark up for the few grams u save.

[Mark McM]

Full Ti or part Ti cassettes?

As we know, everything else being equal, the middle sprockets of a cassette wear out first, if only because we spend more time in them then the biggest and smallest sprockets. And also, all else being equal, steel sprockets last longer than titanium sprockets.

In my experience, full Ti cassettes last about half as long as all steel cassettes, before the middle sprockets are worn out. As usual YMMV.

However, I haven't found much difference in the life of part Ti cassettes and all steel cassettes. That's likely because the middle sprockets in a part Ti cassette are still steel. The only titanium sprockets in these cassettes are the largest sprockets, and these wear slower than the smaller sprockets to begin with.