Choosing between an 8, 9, or 10 speed drivetrain

I am building a new bike. It will be a bike for long-distance weekend rides. The drive train will be all new parts.

 

I am trying to figure out what drive train I need. The retro-grouch in me says 8 or 9 sped, but it appears that today’s standard is 10 speed.

Any thoughts on why I should go 8, 9, or 10 speed. Durability, weight, cost implications? Impact on chain selection?

Whatever the decision, I will likely go with bar-end shifters.

 

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Drewbacca on December 11, 2013 at 1:07pm


I'm OK with being ridiculous, since I don't like Shimano levers and want more widely available hub/wheel choices and longer RD cages. Shifts great, and I'm happy. That's all that matters. Beyond that, I'm just putting the info out there since someone else brought it up.

That said, it's always better to use parts together designed to work together... so I won't challenge your choice in the word "ridiculous."


notoriousDUG said:

I'm sorry but mixing Campy and Shimano drive train like that is just ridiculous.

Permalink Reply by Michael A on December 11, 2013 at 3:58pm

Campy Athena 11 speed groups can be had for $800( In shiny silver) or so an nice upgrade would chorus shifters, it lets you change gears 3-6 times per swipe. They also make a triple front if you want that. All 11 speed groups are compatable between campy/shimano and sram. So you can swap wheels between any of the 3.

Permalink Reply by mark stetson on December 11, 2013 at 8:47pm

I like bar end shifters, especially for winter riding.  The Shimano STI upshift lever can be hard to operate with heavy gloves on.  Not so much of a problem with Campagnolo (or Sora) as they have a thumb button for upshifting.  Still a little tight getting to the downshift lever on Campagnolo, but at least you don't have the mechanism locking problem of STI when gloves are contacting both levers at once.   

Note new style Shimano STI have both cables routed under the tape, so wouldn't get in the way of a bag.  Same applies to all models of Campagnolo Ergos.

You can still find Shimano indexed bar ends that will work from 6 to 9 speed, although it's getting harder to find the 6/7 speed ones, especially new.   Just be careful not to buy the Dura-Ace 8 speed model (SL-BS50-8) unless you're going to use a 7400 series rear derailleur.   All of them have a friction mode, which is nice if you bend something on a trip.

Campagnolo bar ends are dead simple mechanically and very unlikely to fail, but they lack a friction mode.  Only real drawback for me would be that other drivetrain parts are harder to find (than Shimano or SRAM) in most locations when touring. 

SRAM 10 speed bar ends work fine.  You can use them with road or "Exact Actuation" 10 speed MTB rear derailleurs, which allow cogs up to 36.  I'm running a TT500/X-7/12-36 cassette setup on my gravel bike.  This can get you a normal touring low gear ratio without using a triple crank.  Would make a nice 1 x 10 for a commuter too.  You can do the same thing with Shimano, but you need to stay away from the 10 speed MTB RDs as they are not compatible with road shifters.

As far as number of speeds:  You might consider the gear range you need and whether wide spaces between shifts bother you.  The more cogs you have the closer the ratios will be from one cog to the next.   Some folks are really bothered by larger changes in ratio from one gear to the next, others don't mind.  Some can't ride without a 16 cog, others don't miss it at all.  You'll probably find there are more choices available for 9 speed cassettes than 8 speed, which if you're particular could eliminate 8 speed from consideration.

If you're buying retail, Shimano 8 speed are the cheapest bar end shifters by around $23 over 9 speed.  All brands of 10 speed shifters will be more money with the exception of Microshifts, which are around the same price as Shimano 9.  On the used market, you can buy most any of the ones I've mentioned for $60 or less if you're patient.  I've even purchased new TT500s for $65.  Sometimes my choice of drivetrain is made by whichever shifter I can find at a good price, and I go from there.

All things considered, it's hard to go wrong with Shimano 9.  That said I really like my SRAM 10 setup, which is on the bike I put the most miles on this year, riding everything from nice pavement to fairly steep hills off road.    

 

Permalink Reply by Duppie on December 12, 2013 at 7:05am

All good comments. I think mixing and matching is intriguing, but for now I'll stick with matching components in Shimano 9 speed.

I went back and re-read the BQ article about shifters. Maybe I will try Shimano 9-speed downtube shifters instead of their bar-end shifters. Cheaper and lighter weight than almost any other solution.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on December 12, 2013 at 8:57am

Aside:

If at all possible, I recommend you find shifters which have a friction mode. There are few things more annoying on a bike (to me, anyway) than an indexed shifting system that gets out of whack enough that the chain starts making out with the cogs. You can tweak things with your barrel adjuster up to a point, but after awhile you run out of room there and have no recourse but to go back to your shop and do a proper adjustment. When things get to that point on a long ride, friction mode can be your mental savior.

Silence is one of the main attractions for me of my fixed gear bike, and one of the reasons I will never buy one of those new freehubs that chatters like a roomful of monkeys. (What brand(s) are they? All I know is it's annoying as hell when you're riding near someone with one of them and they start to coast.)

Permalink Reply by ilter on December 13, 2013 at 6:26am

Wheel dish (dishing?) amount on the drive side is another aspect, though not sure how important.. I recall reading about it, so I thought I would mention. In summary, when you use fewer sprockets (and perhaps consequently a narrower hub?) with the modern 135mm rear dropout spacing, you can have a less dished drive side and more balanced tension between the two sides of the wheel, and that is supposed to a good thing to have. Is it worth it? I don't know. Cost, ease of computing spoke lengths for unconventional setup, availability of parts?  I don't know.  And perhaps more importantly, if you care about Q factor, how much does that push the chainline away from center?  Unfortunately, I don't know, but would like to find out :)

Permalink Reply by Duppie on December 13, 2013 at 6:30am

Food for thought for a future bike.

The frame I am building up has 130mm spacing, and I already have a hub (White Industries T11) for it, so it may not apply to this bike.

ilter said:

Wheel dish (dishing?) amount on the drive side is another aspect, though not sure how important.. I recall reading about it, so I thought I would mention. In summary, when you use fewer sprockets (and perhaps consequently a narrower hub?) with the modern 135mm rear dropout spacing, you can have a less dished drive side and more balanced tension between the two sides of the wheel, and that is supposed to a good thing to have. Is it worth it? I don't know. Cost, ease of computing spoke lengths for unconventional setup, availability of parts?  I don't know.  And perhaps more importantly, if you care about Q factor, how much does that push the chainline away from center?  Unfortunately, I don't know, but would like to find out :)

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on December 13, 2013 at 12:25pm
Get 11 speed

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