gear choices....

bomb_d

can anyone tell me the benefit of using a 2 x 10spd gear set up as opposed to a 3 x 9spd set up... i am a little confused.

is it just as simple as wanting more gears???

supersonic

Depends on the ratios! You may lose the highest and lowest gears (depending on what you chose), and find you switch chainrings more when shifting (as opposed to staying in the middle ring), but will lose some weight and be easier to fit a bash guard.

But really does depend on what the sizes are and what you are used to.

oxocube1

Also with a 2x10 you get full use of all 20 gears, so you can use any of the 10 gears on the cassette in either of the front chainrings. This is unlike 3x9 where you will only use the lower gears of the cassette in your front small ring, and the higher gears in the front biggest ring. So even though you have 27 gears, you will only be using 20 or so anyway!

The Rookie

3x9 gives you about 14 discrete gears (once you've taken out the overlaps), 2x10 gives you about 13 ('abouts' as specific ring and sprocket sizes may affect this by 1 or occasionally 2 (EIther way))

Front shifting is slower and clunkier and more stress on the chain, so the idea is to minimise front shifts by shifting at the rear as much as possible.

I have 1x9 on both my commuter and MTB.