7 Speed vs 9 speed?

tomsmoto · May 18, 2009

its spillover technology from roadies.. cadence stuff, all though even the 10 speed cassette on my roadbike feels excessive. its nice on long, flat, boring roads to dial in cadence. thats useless on the trail though.

Dirt Bringer · May 19, 2009

I still miss my 8 speed. Ran that for a four years with a deore rear and an alivio shifter. And I loved it. Now I run xt low normal rear and 9 speed lx dual control shifters. While I do prefer the new system, that is mostly due to the low normal spring and dual control shifters (yes, I do like them). However, Ive considered more than once switching back to 8 speed, and might do it if shimano made an 8 speed dual control shifter. Parts availability is really a pain, cuz honestly, for a mountain bike, 8 speed works better. It misses shifts less easily, has more room for play and error, and takes longer to fall out of adjustment. With all the banging around we do on our bikes, that is very much a good thing. Whats not to love? I fear the day 10 speed becomes standard on mountain bikes (and by the looks of next years xtr and sram xx systems, that looks to be very soon)...

gsomtb · May 19, 2009

Funny this thread popped up now....I just removed the smallest 2 cogs on my bike and replaced them with spacers. I never used them and they were just dead weight I was hauling around (Yes, I know the savings is very small but it's more about principle than anything).
I'd love to see high quality/lower weight 7 speed cassettes....
Enough is enough SRAM/Shimano.

bad mechanic · May 19, 2009

To the OP's original question, in my experience, the only advantage to 9 speed is parts availability.

7/8 speed (the spacing is the same, so the parts are interchangeable) is more durable and more tolerant of mud, wear, and maladjustment. The downside are parts are getting harder to find.

I still run 8 speed (on my bikes with gears) and have horded away shifters and cassettes. Fortunately, SRAM still produces their excellent PC-58 and PC-68 (now renamed) 8 speed chains. Aside from chains, cassettes, and shifters, 8 speed and 9 speed parts are compatible.

tomsmoto · May 20, 2009

bad mechanic said:
To the OP's original question, in my experience, the only advantage to 9 speed is parts availability.

unfortunately thats a pretty big advantage. if you want quality mtb gear, these days you're pretty much stuck with 9spd.

bad mechanic · May 20, 2009

tomsmoto said:
unfortunately thats a pretty big advantage. if you want quality mtb gear, these days you're pretty much stuck with 9spd.

I disagree with the "quality mtb gear" part. You can still find XT and XTR 8 speed shifters which are equal to anything on the market today. The 8 speed XT and XTR cassettes are also excellent components. The downside is you sometimes have to wait a little bit for it to show up on eBay.

noodletips · May 20, 2009

LyNx said:
I'd say you're being very modest if those are the gears you push.

I've misled you somehow. I've tailored the drivetrain to my riding conditions here in N. Cal. I don't see any sustained climbs of the sort you'd see in Colorado, etc. I ride in the Granite Bay area and at Annadel park when I ride off-road these days.

In this setting, these gears are just right for a 57-year-old low-cadence geezer like me. It's the tortoise versus the hare scenario. Proudly, I never suffer the walk of shame unless I break something.

jeff

tomsmoto · May 20, 2009

bad mechanic said:
I disagree with the "quality mtb gear" part. You can still find XT and XTR 8 speed shifters which are equal to anything on the market today. The 8 speed XT and XTR cassettes are also excellent components. The downside is you sometimes have to wait a little bit for it to show up on eBay.

i can walk into any bike store in any city and order up the full xt/xtr or x9/x0 lineup.. thats all i meant. the older quality 8spd gear is still out there, its just really not readily available and you gotta do some hunting. if you bust something trailside and need a quick fix, the local store more than likely wont be able to help you with any higher end 8spd.

bad mechanic · May 20, 2009

tomsmoto said:
i can walk into any bike store in any city and order up the full xt/xtr or x9/x0 lineup.. thats all i meant. the older quality 8spd gear is still out there, its just really not readily available and you gotta do some hunting. if you bust something trailside and need a quick fix, the local store more than likely wont be able to help you with any higher end 8spd.

Yeah, this I agree with 100%, and it's not an insignificant thing.

Personally, I'll take extra shifters with me when I travel someplace overnight.

AmoryPaz · May 28, 2009

neutral 30% higher and 30% lower

dundundata · May 29, 2009

i just switched from 8-9 and find it rather unnecessary. There wasn't anything I couldn't do with the 8 speed. Unfortunately all the 8 speed stuff was low end.

J. Random Psycho · May 30, 2009

+1 for putting good 8 speed stuff back in production! And 7 speed, too.

At the very least, Shimano Saint and SLX groups clearly need 8 speed shifters, chains and cassettes.

petriedav · Jun 6, 2009

noodletips said:
IMO, 9-speed (as well as anything over 6-speed) drivetrains exist simply to sell merchandise. I'm still riding my 1985 Ritchey, which is 7 speed, and have the gears I need. How do you sell new bike stuff? You make something "new and improved". It's easy to convince customers that more gears are better. With the exception of single chainring drivetrains, it's probably not so.

Unfortunately, if you like 7-speed drivetrains, you have to deal with the waning availability of parts support. Hold onto those spacers in your 7-speed cluster. With them, you can buy 9-speed (non-carrier) cassettes and use 7 cogs to make a new cassette. (That's another related story..)

9-sp chain efficiency improvement is trivial.

For any given dropout spacing, a wheel with less dish will be stronger, so the wheel on my 7-speed Ritchey is theoretically stronger than that of my 9-speed Epic (both have 135mm dropout spacing). Neither wheel has failed, however.

I've found 7-sp shifting to be less finicky than 9-sp, and this makes sense to me.

I actually use 4 (rarely, 5) of the 9 cogs on my Epic. I'd prefer that it was 6-speed, but there's no practical reason to retrofit it. IMO, this continuing increase in cog count is all marketing. Just ask any SS rider.

jeff

AFAIK, the size of the cassette is the size regardless of whether it's a 7,8 or 9 speed. It's just the spaces between the sprockets that differ, That's the reason the spacers are different sizes(ie bigger on the 7-speed)

perttime · Jun 6, 2009

Now there's possibilities to go for 5 or 6 speeds, on singlespeed cassette hubs. That should give a wheel without much dish.

boomn · Jun 6, 2009

petriedav said:
AFAIK, the size of the cassette is the size regardless of whether it's a 7,8 or 9 speed. It's just the spaces between the sprockets that differ, That's the reason the spacers are different sizes(ie bigger on the 7-speed)

8 and 9 speed are the same width cassette but 7 speed cassettes are narrower.

J. Random Psycho · Jun 7, 2009

perttime said:
Now there's possibilities to go for 5 or 6 speeds, on singlespeed cassette hubs. That should give a wheel without much dish.

Sure, and I would still prefer doing that with 8 speed equipment, not 9 speed. )

However, there are issues with fitting the sixth (smallest) 8-speed sprocket on such a freehub.

petriedav · Jun 7, 2009

boomn said:
8 and 9 speed are the same width cassette but 7 speed cassettes are narrower.

I stand corrected

7 Speed vs 9 speed?

tomsmoto

Dirt Bringer

gsomtb

bad mechanic

tomsmoto

bad mechanic

noodletips

tomsmoto

bad mechanic

AmoryPaz

dundundata

J. Random Psycho

petriedav

perttime

boomn

J. Random Psycho

petriedav

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