I haven't measured the thickness of the teeth on DA 10-speed rings yet (and I think that is the critical dimension), but I would bet that a 9-speed crankset and rings would be fine (in past, 8-speed cranks and rings worked fine on DA 9-speed chains and set-ups even though the 8-speed rings were very, very slightly thicker than the 9-speed rings).

But you will have to use a 10-speed front deraill. to get perfect shifting, though. The 10-speed chain is very narrow and the 10-speed front deraill. is narrower to match it.

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Where would you want to swim ?

Will the 9 speed derail work until I get the 10 speed front derail?

Thanks

See this thread

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...;;page=unread#unread

I haven't noticed any particular problem with using the 9-speed front derailleur.

Simon

Probably it will work ok, but I haven't tested this myself. If you can look at both of them at the same time (the 9 and 10 speed front deraill's) and compare (or, better, measure) their inside width (the inside distance between the inner and outer cages, where the chain should pass through). If both are close to one another in width, the 9-speed should be fine in terms of the shifting, at least for a while.

But there will be some difference in the operation, as the 10-speed front deraill. is designed to manipulate a much narrower chain (the quite narrow 10-speed chain). If you can afford getting the 10-speed front deraill. now, it will be more responsive in the way it shifts (and it is also a few grams lighter).

Another complicating factor: if you use the 9-speed front deraill. and later don't like how it works and go to the 10-speed one later, you will have to break (disassemble) the chain to change front deraill's. I haven't does this with a 10-speed chain, but I have read in a few places that DA chains are expensive, not easy to disassemble, not easy at all to reasemble correctly, and very easy to mess up.

Plan carefully if you don't want the chain to come apart while you ride.

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Where would you want to swim ?

The 10-speed chain connecting pins are 0.6mm shorter than the 9-speed ones, and the difference in chain width is roughly 1 mm at the widest place. Not that "much" in absolute terms.

The 10-speed chains do see to be a tiny bit harder to assemble correctly than the 9-speed ones, but why should they be hard to disassemble (a total non-brainer)? To be on the safe side, I would simply make the chain perhaps one link longer than absolutely necessary (cutting and reassembling the chain costs one link, if you cut it in the same place you assembled it).

All this said, the front derailleur isn't that expensive, so it might make sense to exchange it anyway (but, as I've already said, I've had no problems with the 9-speed). version

Simon

Thanks guys, I will try today!

Does the 10 speed front der. not have the screw at the bottom that allows it to be opened and carefully slipped over the chain?

It does have that disassembley screw, but it is not made for this purpose. You will bend the deraill. cage a bit if you did that to lace the chain through.

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Where would you want to swim ?

But that 1 mm means that the 10-speed chain is almost 20 % narrower than the 9-speed chain (about 6 mm wide). Not that "much" in absolute terms, but quite a bit in relative terms.

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Where would you want to swim ?

But in terms of the width of the front derailleur, it's probaly a lot less than what they are typically bent out of their original shape by years of use :-).

Simon

Excuse my ignorance but then why is the screw there? It certainly would be cheaper to produce if it was just welded versus having threads tapped into one side and a screw holding it together.