Can i upgrade my cassette from 8 to 9 speed ?

psd123

Hi,

After some advice on my Sepcialized Allez 16 2010 wanted to change the cassette to a 9 speed but after looking around on line was not sure this was possible without changing everything else as well. Currently has the standard cassette 12-25 and Shimano 2300 gear set which has been fine for the last year, but have not been able to find anything online to tell me. Anybody upgraded a similar bike or offer an advice?

Cheers Paul

keef66

It's the internals of the shifter that determines how many speeds you have and what cassette you can run. At the very least you'd need to get a 9 speed rear shifter and a 9 speed chain to go with it. And some new bar tape since you'd have to remove it when fitting the new shifter. You'll also need a cassette lockring tool and a chainwhip to remove the old cassette and fit the new one.

TBH you'd probably want to replace both shifters so they match.

Unless you can pick up an Ebay bargain it's quite an expensive way of getting an extra gear.

Wamas

Hi Paul,

In order to upgrade your bike to 9 speed, you would need the following:

New STI shifters (9speed) - approx £100
new 9-speed rear mech - approx £20
New 9 speed chain - £20 approx
New 9 speed cassette - £20 approx.

So to change you are looking at over £150.

To explain, the chain for a narrower 9 speed has to be narrower to match the narrower spacing of the 9 speed cassette.
The STI shifter and rear mech need to match this spacing, the movement per click is less. It will also have an additional click.

If you are serious about changing, it is worth looking on the forum here, and on ebay to see if other people are selling nearly new 9 speed parts, as many people are now upgrading to 10 speed from 9 speed.

Mister W

You won't need to change the rear mech. The 8 speed mech will work fine with a 9 speed cassette.

It's still an expensive way to gain a couple of extra gears though. I'd stick with 8 until the shifters break or wear out.

psd123

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, will maybe go for a different 8 speed cassette will try a 11-28 instead of the 12-25 then and put the extra money into a new set of wheels.

Cheers Paul

keef66

Is the correct answer!

unixnerd

An 11-28 8 speed has annoyingly large gaps between some of the gears. I had that on my tourer and in particular the gap between 4th and 5th was annoying. Oddly I have the same thing on my mtb and find it's OK there.

I've just upgraded my "nice" bike so put it's old crankset on the tourer which has a 52t outer ring, old one was 48t. I also decided I that as it's a triple I didn't need such low rear ratios any more so I've gone with a 12-25t. If it ever stops snowing I'll find out how big a difference it's made! Top gear ratio should be identical.

If you don't use the bottom gear much I'd try something with a smaller granny ring to reduce the gap in ratios.

keef66

I love my 12-25 cassette with a 50-39-30 triple. Loadsa gears with tiddly jumps between sprockets. Spintastic!

jejv

unixnerd wrote:

An 11-28 8 speed has annoyingly large gaps between some of the gears. I had that on my tourer and in particular the gap between 4th and 5th was annoying. Oddly I have the same thing on my mtb and find it's OK there.

That'll likely be because your "normal" gear is in a different place on the cassette, between closer gears. I guess that smaller wheels & chainrings on your MTB mean that for the same overall gear, the cog at the back has about 80% of the teeth on the MTB compared to your tourer. Perhaps the normal gear on the MTB is between the 16 and the 18 (12.5%), and betwen the 18 and the 21 ( 16.7%) on the tourer.

Which cogs do you mean by 4th & fifth ? How many teeth ?

unixnerd wrote:

I've just upgraded my "nice" bike so put it's old crankset on the tourer which has a 52t outer ring, old one was 48t. I also decided I that as it's a triple I didn't need such low rear ratios any more so I've gone with a 12-25t. If it ever stops snowing I'll find out how big a difference it's made! Top gear ratio should be identical.

This is confuusing. You had a double with a 48T, and now you have a standard triple with a 52 ?
If the big ring changed, but not the cassette, top gear changed.

unixnerd wrote:

If you don't use the bottom gear much I'd try something with a smaller granny ring to reduce the gap in ratios.

This doesn't make sense either. I guess that you mean: if you have a smaller small chainring, you can use a smaller, cassette, with smaller/fewer gaps ?

jejv

keef66 wrote:

Is the correct answer!

No.

Seems like the bike has a 52-38 double. If the OP can pull 52-11, then the coach that his sponsors pay for can advise him on gearing, and he doesn't need to bother "Road Beginners". 52-12 would be quite awesome.

Might as well have 7-speed. A 7-speed 14-28 freewheel would be better. 14-16-18-20-22-24-28.

But the OP's original question was about how to change the cassette to 9-speed.

The correct response is to ask (since he didn't say): " Why do you want to change to 9-speed ? What are you trying to achieve ?"

The thread assumes that he wants a lower low gear There's a sticky for that.

If that's the problem, the problem with the bike is that the chainrings are way too big.

Staying on (Robust) 8-speed shimano, he could have 12-28, or maybe 13-30 (better), depending on the length of the derailleur hanger.
12-13-15-17-19-21-24-28
Or:
13-15-17-19-21-23-26-30

Mike Sherman's Gear Calculator
Sheldon Brown's Gear Calculator

An alternative to shimano 9-speed might be Campy 10-speed, with an Ambrosio 12-28 cassette, that fits on Shimano splines. Campy brifters are cheaper.

keef66

I never assumed he wanted a lower gear. The original post sounded as if he was just considering an "upgrade" from 8 to 9 speed.

I think in view of the cost / hassle involved, sticking with 8 speed is the correct answer.

psd123

Hi All,

Thanks for all the advice, the reason for the post was to upgrade my 8 speed and to get more gears/speed at both ends not just the lower end. I think for the costs involved i will probably just stick with a new 8 speed cassette a 11-28 will heopfully give me slightly more speed and lower gear range then save up for some better wheels.

Cheers Paul

crankycrank

Just in case you do change to 9sp, save your 8sp cogs. They are interchangeable with the 9sp and can be used as spares as long as you use the 9sp spacers.