A cassette is a simple thing to shop for once you accept that only three numbers decide whether it can go on your bike: what freehub body it needs, how many sprockets it has, and how big a cog your rear derailleur must be able to reach. Everything else — the feel of the jumps, the weight, the finish — is preference. The archive holds five cassettes right now. Here is how they line up, read straight off the manufacturer sheets we have on file.
One note before the tables. Facts here are derived or verified: derived means one manufacturer or standards sheet states it, verified means two independent publishers agree. No bike in our fleet is fully verified yet. That matters less for cassettes than for brakes or steerers, but it is why some answers below stop short of a yes.
The narrow-range road option
Start with the tightest spread on the shelf. This is the cassette for someone who wants small steps between gears and rides mostly rolling ground, and it asks the least of the derailleur of anything here.
| Brand | SRAM |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer part number | CS-PG-1170-A1 11-32 |
| Requires — Freehub body | Shimano HG, 11-speed road body (+1.85 mm) |
| Requires — Rear speeds | 11 speeds |
| Requires — Rear derailleur max cog | ≥ 32 t |
SRAM PG-1170 cassette 11-32T, 11-speed
Two eleven-speed wide-range choices
The PG-1130 pair is where most upgrade questions land. Both are eleven-speed. They differ in the size of the biggest cog, and — this is the part people miss — in which freehub bodies they will sit on. The wider of the two is listed for either a standard Shimano HG body or the slightly wider road body, which makes it the more flexible of the two on paper.
| Brand | SRAM |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer part number | CS-PG-1130-A1 11-36 |
| Requires — Freehub body | Shimano HG, 11-speed road body (+1.85 mm) |
| Requires — Rear speeds | 11 speeds |
| Requires — Rear derailleur max cog | ≥ 36 t |
| Brand | SRAM |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer part number | CS-PG-1130-A1 11-42 |
| Requires — Freehub body | Shimano HG, 8/9/10-speed body (also 11/12-speed MTB HG cassettes) or Shimano HG, 11-speed road body (+1.85 mm) |
| Requires — Rear speeds | 11 speeds |
| Requires — Rear derailleur max cog | ≥ 42 t |
SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-36T, 11-speed
SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-42T, 11-speed
The nine-speed wide-range outlier
The microSHIFT is the odd and useful one. Fewer sprockets, wide spread, and it lives on the plain Shimano HG freehub body that has been on hardtails and older touring bikes for decades. If you have an ageing nine-speed drivetrain and a derailleur with real capacity, this is the cassette that keeps it in service instead of replacing the whole system.
| Brand | microSHIFT |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer part number | CS-H093 11-46 |
| Requires — Freehub body | Shimano HG, 8/9/10-speed body (also 11/12-speed MTB HG cassettes) |
| Requires — Rear speeds | 9 speeds |
| Requires — Rear derailleur max cog | ≥ 46 t |
microSHIFT ADVENT H-Series 9-speed cassette 11-46T
The widest range, on its own freehub standard
The Shimano SLX is the widest spread here and the least interchangeable. It does not use an HG body at all; it needs Micro Spline, which means the hub or the freehub body has to be built for it. No spacer, no adapter, no shim trick. Either your wheel has that interface or this cassette is not a candidate.
| Brand | Shimano |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer part number | CS-M7100-12 10-51 |
| Requires — Freehub body | Shimano Micro Spline (12-speed MTB) |
| Requires — Rear speeds | 12 speeds |
| Requires — Rear derailleur max cog | ≥ 51 t |
Shimano SLX CS-M7100-12 cassette 10-51T, 12-speed
A cassette that does not match the freehub body is out, full stop. There is no adapter that adds sprocket space you do not have.
Which bikes these fit
Only one bike in the archive has a freehub fact on file against these five, and the answer is the same every time. The Giant Escape 3 (2024) uses a threaded freewheel hub, not a cassette freehub. That is a different mounting system entirely: the sprocket cluster threads onto the hub instead of sliding over splines.
| Freehub body | Threaded freewheel hub (1.37" × 24 tpi) |
|---|---|
| Wheel size (ISO bead seat) | 700c / 29" (ISO 622) |
| Brake actuation | Cable rim brake |
So, plainly: the microSHIFT ADVENT H-Series 9-speed cassette 11-46T does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The Shimano SLX CS-M7100-12 cassette 10-51T, 12-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-36T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-42T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1170 cassette 11-32T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). In each case the freehub body does not match and the rear sprocket count does not match; the bike's derailleur capacity is not on file at all, which would be a second question if the first one had gone the other way.
How to choose
Three checks, in order
- Identify the freehub body Pull the wheel and look at the splines, or find the hub's own sheet. Plain HG, wider road HG, Micro Spline and threaded freewheel are four different worlds. This check eliminates most of the shelf immediately, which is a good thing.
- Match the sprocket count to the shifter The cassette has to have the same number of sprockets as your rear shifter has clicks. Mixing counts gives you shifting that is nearly right, which is worse than obviously wrong.
- Check the derailleur's largest cog Each cassette above lists a minimum capacity. If your derailleur cannot reach that big cog, the chain will not make the last shift and something will get bent. If that number is not on your derailleur's sheet, the honest answer is unknown, and we will not sell into an unknown.
Past those three checks, choose by terrain. Tight spread for flat riding and steady cadence. Middle spread for hills you already climb without walking. Widest spread if you are carrying weight or riding grades that hurt. Range is not free: the bigger the jumps, the more you feel each shift.
- Can I put any of these cassettes on the Giant Escape 3 (2024)?
- No, and the archive says so one pair at a time. The microSHIFT ADVENT H-Series 9-speed cassette 11-46T does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The Shimano SLX CS-M7100-12 cassette 10-51T, 12-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-36T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1130 cassette 11-42T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The SRAM PG-1170 cassette 11-32T, 11-speed does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024). The hub takes a threaded freewheel, and the sprocket counts do not line up either.
- Is there an adapter for the Micro Spline cassette?
- Not one we would sell you. The Shimano SLX CS-M7100-12 cassette 10-51T, 12-speed requires a Micro Spline freehub body. That is a hub-level change, not a spacer.
- Why do two cassettes with the same sprocket count list different freehub bodies?
- Because eleven-speed road and mountain clusters were built to slightly different widths. The wider PG-1130 is listed for both plain HG and the wider road body; the narrower two are listed for the road body only. Read the requirement row, not the sprocket count.
- My derailleur's capacity is not written anywhere. What now?
- Then the fit is unknown, and unknown is an answer rather than a quiet yes. Send us the model and we will look for a manufacturer sheet before anyone spends money.
What to remember
- Freehub body first, sprocket count second, derailleur capacity third. In that order, every time.
- The widest-range Shimano option needs Micro Spline and cannot be adapted onto an HG hub.
- The wider PG-1130 is the most flexible on freehub bodies; the narrower SRAM pair are road-body only.
- The microSHIFT nine-speed is the one that keeps an older HG drivetrain alive.
- Every cassette in this guide does not fit the Giant Escape 3 (2024): it is a threaded freewheel hub.
- No bike in the fleet is fully verified yet, so where a required measurement is missing we say unknown and stop.
That is the shelf as of this printing, in 2026. If your bike is not in the archive yet, tell us the hub and the shifter and we will add the facts before we offer an opinion.