Worth converting a 9 speed to 10 speed?

aripallaris
aripallaris Posts: 294
edited January 2017 in Road general
A little brain picking if you dont mind!

Recently i bought my trek madone. amazingly fast and smooth. Now that leaves my old trek 1.5 9speed commuter bike feeling rather sluggish in regards to speed. Is it worth upgrade from a 9 to 10speed considering ill be using the same gearing 12-25. or is the power transfer down to the frame itself?

thanks
ari
«1

Comments

  • majormantra
    majormantra Posts: 2,094
    In short, no. It won't make it any faster, you'll just get nicer shifters and whatnot. 9 speed chains are cheap and last a bit longer too, which is good for a commuter.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    No, it's a complete waste of money. My upgrade 2 years ago was going from 10 speed to 9... :shock:
    left the forum March 2023
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    No; your new bike will be faster in all sorts of ways, frame, wheels, etc etc, few of which will be down to it being 10 speed vs 9 speed.

    If you want to upgrade your 1.5 then better wheels would be the first port of call. This would be an easy experiment for you, just put your new wheels on your old bike (swap the cassettes too) and see how much difference it makes.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    It's quite an expensive job since you'd need 10 speed shifters, chain and cassette. All you'd get for your considerable outlay is a thinner chain and an extra sprocket, neither of which will make the bike go any faster.

    I just put a second hand 9 speed groupset on my carbon bike. Cycling in the dark I can't tell it apart from the 10 speed stuff on the other bike, and I have a feeling the 9 speed chain will last longer.

    As has already been suggested, if you want to give the old bike a lift, some lightweight wheels, tyres and tubes would be a better way of spending your money. Or leave it as is, fit some guards and relegate it to winter / bad weather duty in order to keep the Madone in showroom condition.
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    9 speed is all you need and better
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • Stedman
    Stedman Posts: 377
    smidsy wrote:
    9 speed is all you need and better
    For commuter and general use including training, 9 speed is much, much better.

    In fact if we now had a straight choice of 9,10 or 11 speed Campagnolo Record groupsets, it would probably be the 9 speed that I would go for.
  • whoof
    whoof Posts: 756
    Pretty much all you would gain is a 16 tooth sprocket. Don't bother, the money you save can go towards your next bike.
  • bigmat
    bigmat Posts: 5,134
    I did it on my commuter / winter bike so that it was compatible with my best bike - basically so that I could switch the rear wheel without the extra faff of changing cassettes over. It wasn't an expensive job - I waited until the 9 speed chain and cassette needed replacing anyway, only other expense was a right hand shifter (which I picked up on eBay for around £30) and cables. The "9 speed" rear mech has worked flawlessly as a 10 speed set up.

    It won't make your bike any faster though.
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  • stueys
    stueys Posts: 1,332
    Have to say that I run 9spd on my winter bike and do get those moments when I can't quite get the right gear for my cadence. It's not something that fussed me much (I've had the bike for four years) but if I got a great deal on a 10spd group set I would probably bite.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    you could always change the cassette .... do you really need that 11/12 tooth sprocket now?
  • StillGoing
    StillGoing Posts: 5,211
    Well I converted my old Trek 1.5 winter bike from 9 speed Tiagra to 10 speed SRAM Force/Red simply because I had the bits available. It's made a difference simply because I prefer SRAM to Shimano and the spread of gears is a little better distributed. But the Trek is too big so I don't ride it often.
    I ride a bike. Doesn't make me green or a tree hugger. I drive a car too.
  • me-109
    me-109 Posts: 1,915
    I did it to get rid of the nasty Sora shifters and it was well worth it. About eighty quid in bits after I sold the stuff I didn't need. Agreed it won't make you any faster.
  • djsoftware
    djsoftware Posts: 199
    I did exactly the same with my Trek 1.5 - it meant that I had the same setup as the 'best' bike (gear ratios etc) and the hoods were more comfortable. It also meant that as happened this week when a spoke broke in my rear wheel I could easily use one of my other wheels quickly.
  • sherer
    sherer Posts: 2,460
    i'm curious why would 9 speed me better than 10 speed ?

    I ride 8 on my training bike and 10 on my Madone. I did want to change the training bike over to 10 speed but the cost was going to be just as much as a new bike so at the moment left it as it is
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    sherer wrote:
    i'm curious why would 9 speed me better than 10 speed ?

    There is the opinion that because 9 speed has bigger chains and bigger cassettes that it's thusly more reliable and durable.
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    Less is more. I have found this to be the case with bicycle gears.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • buckles
    buckles Posts: 694
    How can you have a 9 speed bike? Nobody makes cassettes with 4 and a half sprockets on them
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  • majormantra
    majormantra Posts: 2,094
    Buckles wrote:
    How can you have a 9 speed bike? Nobody makes cassettes with 4 and a half sprockets on them

    :roll:
  • smidsy
    smidsy Posts: 5,273
    MajorMantra wrote:
    Buckles wrote:
    How can you have a 9 speed bike? Nobody makes cassettes with 4 and a half sprockets on them

    :roll:

    Same way they make the new 11 speed ones.
    Yellow is the new Black.
  • buckles
    buckles Posts: 694
    What, with really thin chains and back wheels with too much dish?
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  • AndrewDeKerf
    AndrewDeKerf Posts: 15
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    No, it's a complete waste of money. My upgrade 2 years ago was going from 10 speed to 9... :shock:

    Still true in 2017. Thanks Ugo.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    AndrewDeKerf wrote:
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    No, it's a complete waste of money. My upgrade 2 years ago was going from 10 speed to 9... :shock:

    Still true in 2017. Thanks Ugo.

    Nicely found thread...

    BTW: I am still on 9 speed and have not changed my mind about it
    left the forum March 2023
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Mainly for reasons of cheapness I'm running secondhand 9 speed Tiagra on the winter bike. I like the ease of gear cable replacement and light shifting from the side exit type shifters, and now I have the front light mounted on the fork crown the cables don't annoy me any more.
    In some way that's hard to describe, the transmission just feels more solid and chunky than the 10 speed stuff on the other bike.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    I converted an 8 speed to 10 speed because it then meant I could swap wheels & cassettes about with the other bikes.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    Slowbike wrote:
    I converted an 8 speed to 10 speed because it then meant I could swap wheels & cassettes about with the other bikes.

    You are forgiven
    left the forum March 2023
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Can I convert 8 to 9 without needing forgiveness?
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,317
    Slowbike wrote:
    Can I convert 8 to 9 without needing forgiveness?

    Not sure....
    left the forum March 2023
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Its a flatbar hybrid?
  • keezx
    keezx Posts: 1,322
    Stedman wrote:
    smidsy wrote:
    9 speed is all you need and better
    For commuter and general use including training, 9 speed is much, much better.

    In fact if we now had a straight choice of 9,10 or 11 speed Campagnolo Record groupsets, it would probably be the 9 speed that I would go for.

    That's the reason I never bothered an upgrade and still use 9 speed (C) as we speak on all 3 bikes.
    Cheap parts, chains last long , many parts second hand available.
    Solid, rebuildable shifters.
    Lots of people do have 11-xx cassettes and have no more usable cogs than me....
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    Slowbike wrote:
    Can I convert 8 to 9 without needing forgiveness?

    My tourer was 7 speed but the touring cassettes are limited in 7. So I decided to narrow the rear axle (on the grounds that cold setting the frame is the act of a charlatan and a rogue) to fit an 8. Then I realised that 8 and 9 are the same width and that 9 speed has many more options. Of course, that was with a proper bike with un-indexed DT shifters so the only difference was the cheaper, better cassettes but the point is, you can go 8 to 9 without shame.
    Keezx wrote:
    Lots of people do have 11-xx cassettes and have no more usable cogs than me....

    A mate of mine lives in Peterborough and has a Bianchi with a semi compact crankset and 11 tooth rear sprocket on 11 speed. I tend to feel he isn't benefitting much from 11 speed.
    Faster than a tent.......

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