A question for the techies on the forum. If I want to put a 10 speed cassette on my bike, what do I have to do?
My bike currently has an all Ultegra 9 speed triple groupset. Can I just swap the cassette or do I need to replace other parts as well such as the shifters, chain etc. For example, are the shifters just indexed for 9 cogs?
As you can see I’m not exactly an expert so all comments would be gratefully received…!
Thanks
You just need to change your shifters, chain and cassette. This can be done for around $150.
If you want the full ten speeds, which you obviously do, you need the 10-speed shifters…then you only need a 10-speed chain. That’s it.
The 10-speed chain is thinner (simply put) and can be used both on 9-speed and 10-speed cassettes.
This means if you have two back wheels, one with a 10-speed cassette and the other with a 9-speed casette you can use them both with the 10-speed chain.
A 9-speed chain should not be used on a 10-speed cassette.
I have used 9-speed rear derailleurs with 10-speed set-ups with no problems whatsoever. So you don’t need a rear derailleur.
Ok thanks (to both of you) - I might pause in that case since I am not sure whether the ratio is worth the cost!
Cheers
How about the derailleur in the rear???
How about the derailleur in the rear???
My understanding is that the 10 speed DA/Ultegra rear deraileurs have been redesigned to improve the designs efficiency in terms of how much force must be applied to the shift levers to effect the shift. In my personal experience, my road bike is a full DA 10 speed bike and my criterium bike is equipped with DA 9 speed and while not scientific, I feel that their is a substantial difference in the amount of force/effort required to shift for each bike. Riding the 10 speed bike, it seems as if I just have to think about shifting and it happens but the 9 speed bike seems to take about 3-times the amount of finger pressure to effect the same shift. I am going to upgrade the criterium bike to DA 10-speed pretty soon but at this point I am still on the fence about whether or not to upgrade the DA 9 speed deraileurs.
Not sure if this helps but everything I have read indicates that in addition to chain and cassette, the best performance obviously will come from replacing shifters and front and rear deraileurs. This is primarily due to the use of the narrower 10 speed chain, but there seems to be a lot of sentiment that 9-speed deraileurs are adequate for the job. In my case I have to ask myself, do I really want only “adequate” shifting performance on a bike that I typically spend the majority of my time riding and shifting at speeds that are rarely below 26-28 mph?
My long term goal for the year is to uprade all remaining road bikes in the garage which includes the crit bike as well as wife and my TT/Tri bikes to 10 speed so I can stop futzing with cassette changes between race/training wheels. The TT bikes will only get cassettes and 10 speed bar end shifters as we typically do not have to shift between the big and little chainrings that often and I doubt new deraileurs are likely to have much of an impact on how much force is required when shifting with bar end shifters.