9 speed shifter and front derailleur, 10 speed cassette

[erudite]

Hi,


I am about to set off on a tour from Santander to Roscoff in a couple of weeks and have a problem with my gearing. My shifters and front derailleur are 9 speed and my rear cassette is 10 speed. Would it be possible to adjust the gearing so that only 9 speeds are used on the rear cassette? As at the moment, when changing gear, the rear derailleur is missing out gears and i am also having trouble aligning the front derailleur with the chain (at the moment it is grinding against the chain when on the top ring).

Also, there is a slight play in the bottom bracket (probably about 1-2mm of play), should i replace this now? I was thinking of taking a spare with me and if things did get worse, I could replace it on the road.

Any advice appreciated

 

[HLaB]

I'm no expert but if its indexing/ changing all right other than skipping a couple of gears at the start you could narrow the range by adjusting the limit screws but get better advice before you do anything.

 

[TheDoctor]

Simple answer? No, it's not. There's 10 sprockets crammed into much the same space as 9, so you can't just 'pick any 9 from 10', it doesn't work that way. You'll never get the indexing to work.
Stick a 9 speed cassette on, job done. How did you come to be in this situation?
And yes, change the BB first. Do you really want to be fixing the bike beside the road in the dark?

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Agree with everything The Doctor said - 9 speed shifters pull too much cable for 10 speed cassettes. The cheapest, best cure is to replace the 10 speed cassette with a corresponding 9 speed one - assuming your set up is not also mixing incompatible drivetrain components from different brands or models!

What do you save by not fixing the bb problem now?

 

[erudite]

Ok, I will go ahead with bottom bracket replacement, I was holding back on it as there is no real movement in it at the minute (probably less than a millimetre being accurate), however, to save the worry of it I will go ahead and change it.

I bought the bike second hand and at the time of buying it seemed to run ok, however time and distance have lead to me noticing it skipping gears etc., at the time as now, I wasn't too clued up on bike mechanics etc. so didn't notice the 10 speed cassette.

Thanks for the replies.

p.s. any advice on a new cassette?

the rear derailleur is a deore xt and the crankset is deore if that is of any help

 

[TheDoctor]

No worries. If you're going touring, best get the widest range cassette that will fit - so 12-32 or so.
You can never have too low a bottom gear.
I like SRAM cassettes, but any 9-speed one should be OK.
And have a great time!!
We shall, of course, await a write-up, photos, souvenir donkeys etc