9 speed cassette on a 10 speed freehub

llanelwy_ewok

I'm looking to put the wheels from my 10 speed summer bike onto my 9 speed winter bike.
When putting my 9 speed cassette onto the 10 speed hub will I require a spacer to align it with the chain?

andy_wrx

Shimano, I take it ?

No, quite the reverse...

A Shimano 10sp cassette is *narrower* than 8sp or 9sp and so you should find a spacer (basically big washer 1mm thick) on the freehub inboard the cassette.
Remove it and fit your 9sp cassette.

SRAM 10sp cassettes work without the spacer, so you would simply swap 10sp for 9sp.

It is possible that your 10sp hubs may however be 10sp-only, i.e. will only take 10sp cassettes - these are generally high-end wheels and much less common than most wheels which are 8/9/10sp-fit.

But in this case it'll have the correct spline pattern, but the splines on the freehub will be too big/tall for the spline-grooves in the 9sp cassette and you won't get it on.

llanelwy_ewok

Thanks for the response, I've managed to transfer the 9 sp cassette on to the 10 sp freehub without any problems or the need for a spacer.