What's next?

kdelong said:

Has the additional gear in the 10 speed made any significant difference over the 9 speed?

I don't know. I haven't bothered trying it yet. Excuse me for not rushing, but I think I'll wait until my shifters wear out. 10spd might end up like 8spd for me - never had it and now never will.

kdelong said:

Has the additional gear in the 10 speed made any significant difference over the 9 speed?

Dunno really.......I started with 8 then got 10. I imagine for those who had a swag of 9 speed stuff it was difficult to justify going 10. 10 appears to be widely accepted now but there is basically no choice when you buy a new bike.
All the cries of 10 will wear out faster & you won't be able to keep it tuned seems to have died out 🙂

kdelong said:

What do you think is going to be Shimano's next gearing change? Are they going to go for an 11 speed, or do you think that they will pass 11 and go straight to 12, or 15? How high do you think that they will try to go before it becomes ludicrous? Or is it already past this stage?

I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks. Has the additional gear in the 10 speed made any significant difference over the 9 speed?

Well, at the NHMBS in Portland they were talking about 7900 DA, which is still 10s.

I don't think there will be an increase in the number of cogs. I think advances from this point will be the mechanisms... i.e. electronig shifting etc. or rigidity and weight.

kdelong said:

What do you think is going to be Shimano's next gearing change? Are they going to go for an 11 speed, or do you think that they will pass 11 and go straight to 12, or 15? How high do you think that they will try to go before it becomes ludicrous? Or is it already past this stage?

I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks. Has the additional gear in the 10 speed made any significant difference over the 9 speed?

Well, for what is worth: one of the mechanics at my LBS said that "most manufactures will phasing out 8 and 9 speed parts; if you want long range flexibility stay with 10 speed"

rparedes said:

Well, for what is worth: one of the mechanics at my LBS said that "most manufactures will phasing out 8 and 9 speed parts; if you want long range flexibility stay with 10 speed"

Shimano would certainly like us to believe that anything less than 10 speeds is "obsolete", but I think you'll see Shimano and aftermarket support for 8&9 speed for decades to come. Considering that 7 speed cassettes are still available widely, I'd say your LBS guy is just being a good salesman 🙂

dhk2 said:

Shimano would certainly like us to believe that anything less than 10 speeds is "obsolete", but I think you'll see Shimano and aftermarket support for 8&9 speed for decades to come. Considering that 7 speed cassettes are still available widely, I'd say your LBS guy is just being a good salesman 🙂

I wouldn't say decades. More probably 5 -10 years, or about the time that it takes to wear out all of the 8 and 9 speeds in the field, and the owners replace them with 10 speeds.

i notice alot of shimano square taper cranks and bottom brackets are no longer being made, heck even some sizes of octalink are getting hard to find or have been discontinued. I bet shimano will try to phase out all that stuff... cassettes and chains will be around tho.

Good, that means 8/9/10 speed setups will be hitting the tip-shop/recycling centre in the near future. Meanwhile I am still figuring out if a 5 speed is better than a 7 speed for my use as a commuter. Same range, just more clicks if using an indexed shifter, or go to a friction shifter with 7 speeds? The main benefit of indexed shifters is that no trimming is needed.

Road racers will see things differently with good reason.

Any more than 10 speed and the wheel will run out of dishing space or the chain will have to get even thinner. I rekon the next big step will be a bottom bracket gearbox. Won't bet on it though, marketing philosophy works in strange ways!

rparedes said:

Well, for what is worth: one of the mechanics at my LBS said that "most manufactures will phasing out 8 and 9 speed parts; if you want long range flexibility stay with 10 speed"

Really? Well Campag left the 8s world in 2001 but 8s cogsets are still made. shimano still has many 8 and 9s groups in their 2008 lineup. The only thing 'speed specific' to groups is cogsets and chains(and levers in the case of shimano, Campag's are convertible with a shift disc) so saying that 10s is the 'way to go now' because of phasing out is premature, IMHO.

dhk2 said:

Shimano would certainly like us to believe that anything less than 10 speeds is "obsolete", but I think you'll see Shimano and aftermarket support for 8&9 speed for decades to come. Considering that 7 speed cassettes are still available widely, I'd say your LBS guy is just being a good salesman 🙂

+1.

rparedes said:

Well, for what is worth: one of the mechanics at my LBS said that "most manufactures will phasing out 8 and 9 speed parts; if you want long range flexibility stay with 10 speed"

While the MTB world remains 9spd, chains will always be available. RD, FD and crankset don't care how many speeds you have. So, it just comes down to cassettes and shifters.
Given that 7spd cassettes are now available, I'm not too worried about 9spd. And shifters - when mine go, I might just give this 10spd a try.

artemidorus said:

While the MTB world remains 9spd, chains will always be available. RD, FD and crankset don't care how many speeds you have. So, it just comes down to cassettes and shifters.
Given that 7spd cassettes are now available, I'm not too worried about 9spd. And shifters - when mine go, I might just give this 10spd a try.

I gotta 10s bike...2 in the front, 5 in the rear. Good enough for Eddy, good enough for me.