Alivio 8 or 9 speed?

[Blue Hills]

About a year ago I changed the front and rear derailleurs and chainring on my 7-speed hybrid/round-town bike/part-time tourer (I have a separate shiny Hewitt 9 speed tourer) using Alivio bits.

All works well generally (a small problem at the mo I won't go into as it's surely temporary as all was fine for some time) and I intended once it was all hunky dory to change the shifters to 8 speed, being a bit of a perverse sod and quite liking the idea (not entirely sure if it's true) that 8-speed cassettes and chains might be more durable than 9 speed. A shift to 8 speed would also give me access to cassettes with a greater max number of teeth as I'm currently limited to 28 on available 7-speed bits, even though a 22 teeth granny ring at the front helps.

Well then Shimano release this version of Alivio in 9 speed (some have intimated that it's close to the old Deore)


http://www.madison.co.uk/news/28/02/14/dedicated-mountain-bike-and-trekking-groupset-for-alivio

The "trecking stuff" looks nice

So - a puzzle.

If I fit shifters from this 9 speed Alivio and of course a 9 speed cassette and chain will it work OK with my 8-speed Alivio front and rear mechs?

Or should I just quickly buy some 8 speed Alivio changers while they are still around and go with my original 8-speed plan which will I am sure give me all the gears I need?

Advice gratefully received apart from any suggestions to go to 10 speed or electronic changing. This is on a down to earth (but very nice) bike and I intend to keep it that way.

 

[TheDoctor]

Erm...what makes you think you're limited to 28T on 7 speed? I'm running a 12-32T 7 speed setup.

 

[Blue Hills]

sorry thedoctor, I should have said.

Yes I know you can get that cassette but I need an 11T small cog on the back because of an oddity of the bike's frame - I seem to get a slight clash of chain and frame when the smallest cog is 12T - not deadly serious but I'd rather avoid. So if I go for 11T small cog the biggest cog I can get is I think 28.

good to see someone else still on 7 speed though - I'd be happy to stay there if the range of cassettes was better.

back to the question.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

So - a puzzle.

If I fit shifters from this 9 speed Alivio and of course a 9 speed cassette and chain will it work OK with my 8-speed Alivio front and rear mechs?

Or should I just quickly buy some 8 speed Alivio changers while they are still around and go with my original 8-speed plan which will I am sure give me all the gears I need?

Advice gratefully received apart from any suggestions to go to 10 speed or electronic changing. This is on a down to earth (but very nice) bike and I intend to keep it that way.

Given there is no indication that Shimano have gone for Dyna-sys cable pull (as in their 10 speed mtb components) with these chance is they will be compatible with your 7/8 speed components, however I can't guarantee it since as usual Shimano is slow to issue tech docs for their new components. I think you already know all the pros and cons of different speed, and only you can know what you like best!

One thing you might want to check is if your rear wheel is 8/9/10 speed cassette compatible. Many 7 speed wheels have freewheel, and many 7 speed cassette wheels have 7 speed freehub. Neither can be made to be 7+ speed without some interesting surgery.

 

[e-rider]

the days are numbered for both 8 and 9 speed. However, 9 speed was about for a very long time (1999-2011) so you should be able to run this for many years to come. Better still to go 10 speed though.

 

[Blue Hills]

Thanks for the considered reply recordace
The wheel is actually a pretty newish 8/9/10 speed - there's a spacer (or two?) on it at the moment to accommodate the 7 speed cassette.

 

[mcshroom]

If you put the spacer outside of the last cog on the cassette, would that get rid of your 12t/frame interface problem?

As for the 8-9 speed have had their day. Many bikes are still made with 7sp components, and many more with 8sp. Especially as 9sp mechs are perfectly happy with 8sp stuff (I have sora front mechs on two 8sp bikes and a sora rear mech on one of them (Alivo on the other), there is no danger of being unable to get hold of 8sp stuff any time soon.

I'd expect the mechs to work with 9sp. Potential problems may be that the front change is slugglish (unlikely, I've heard of people fitting 9sp chains to 8sp setups for less trimming), and the rear jockey wheels may be a little wide for the chain (also unlikely, see previous brackets).

I do know that 9sp rear mechs are happy with anything from 8-10speed (so this should mean 5-7 as well)

 

[Blue Hills]

If you put the spacer outside of the last cog on the cassette, would that get rid of your 12t/frame interface problem?

Thanks for your reply mcshroom.

Not sure how I'd do that to tell the truth.

What about the lockring?

The spacer goes between the big cog (ie outside the full cassette assembly) and the hub.

Agree totally with you about continued availability of 9 speed and very probably 8 - I have no intention of going beyond 9 speed probably for the rest of my life unless I damaged some mechs. Bits for 8 and 9 will be available for a long time I'm sure on the web (where many folks buy their flashy 11 speed) and from practical cycling nations like Germany.

 

[mcshroom]

I was thinking about putting the spacer between the lockring and the 12t on the cassette. I haven't tried it but as long as everything is tight then the exact order of the compnents shouldn't make that much difference I would have thought. It may lead to some interesting chainlines at the bottom end, but I can't see how they would be any different to just having a normal 8sp cassete on there.

Also there is a 0.2mm varience between 8sp and 7sp sprocket pitch (4.8mm vs 5.0mm), so you may be able to get your 7sp shifters to work reasonably well with 7 out of 8 rings on an 8sp cassette