Cassette change 13-23 for something more forgiving

As per the title.

My roadbike is running an 8 speed shimano setup (mixture in fact of dura ace, 600, 105). The rear derailleur is shimano 600.

The front chainwheels are 53 and 39.

My current cassette is 13-23 which is fine for most purposes (and I like the fact that the spacing between gears isn't too big) but I'd like to go up to a, say, 28 tooth cog as the lowest gear- for the hills.

I can see 11-28 cassettes out there but in an ideal world I see no reason to have a higher top gear- the existing 13 is fine for me. A 13-28 or 14-28 sounds ideal, but they don't seem to be standard stock. I guess that the rear derailleur is going to struggle with anything much bigger than 28?

Should I just go with an 11-28 or is there anything out there that would do? Whaddya think?

You could do what I've done with Campag cassettes, buy the 11-28 and mix and match with your existing one.

Mark.

I don't think you'll get away with anything bigger than 28, some 600 RDs can only cope with 26. It depends which model derailleur you've got. The specs can be checked out here: http://www.velobase.com/

Thanks for that. It looks to be an RD-6401 which says it can take up to 28.

What are the tell tale signs of a worn cassette? I don't want to mix and match if the old cassettes is too worn although it looks, to my untutored eye, in pretty good condition.

There is a tool for checking cassettes although I've never seen one in the flesh or seen one in use....

It can be very difficult to tell. Personally I'd get the new cassette and combine with your old to get the ideal combo fit a new chain and you'll soon see if the sprockets are worn as the gears will play up, if they're not then they won't.

Miche also make shimano compatible cassette and SRAM are compatible too, although they ranges will probably be similar anyway but worth looking into perhaps

Could shrink the front ring/rings or go triple as an alternative.
Best if both worlds then, nice close ratios and an extra ring for when it gets steeper.