What speed?

[TobyM]

What speed do I want? It seems to me that 9 speed groupsets are cheaper than others, is it more difficult to ride with a 9 speed set?

 

[2Loose]

The more gears you have, the smaller the gearing change between cogs.

This helps keep your legs spinning at the speed you like, rather than go from whizzy spinning legs to a slow grind on each upward gear change, there are less extreme jumps between each gear.

Whatever you choose your legs will compensate, but I would advise going for 10 speed if you can afford it as upgrading to the increasingly popular 10 speed systems is quite pricey - levers, cassette and chain all need changing when moving from 9 speed to 10.

 

[HLaB]

You can only be in one gear at at time Two of my bikes have 8sp groupsets and two 10sp, I wouldn't say it makes them any easier to ride, the range of the cassette is more important to me.

 

[TobyM]

The more gears you have, the smaller the gearing change between cogs.

This helps keep your legs spinning at the speed you like, rather than go from whizzy spinning legs to a slow grind on each upward gear change, there are less extreme jumps between each gear.

Whatever you choose your legs will compensate, but I would advise going for 10 speed if you can afford it as upgrading to the increasingly popular 10 speed systems is quite pricey - levers, cassette and chain all need changing when moving from 9 speed to 10.

Thanks Shame I can't actually afford a groupset, and will have to pick up all the parts separately second hand!

You can only be in one gear at at time Two of my bikes have 8sp groupsets and two 10sp, I wouldn't say it makes them any easier to ride, the range of the cassette is more important to me.

Thanks for the info