Which Groupset 9/10-speed for Upgrade

[Roberto]

Hello folks,
thanks for reading.

I bought a ribble audax winter bike in 2008 with Campagnolo Mirage/Xenon groupset components. It has a mix of those components, built by Ribble, but is a viable setup. Alas it's very old now and wear and tear means it could do with being replaced. It's a commuter bike and has not even had the chain replaced once. To the surprise of cyclists in my workplace the chainset and cassette are actually in good condition! The chain is, of course, slack now. It's not been used much but with the summer approaching I've dug it out the garage and looking to repair/upgrade it as a commuter bike again. I've used another bike for cycling the past couple of years.

I'm actually loathed to go to 10 or 11 speed, as it seems to me, from an engineering viewpoint, that more can potentially go wrong. For the avoidance of doubt this is the bike I bought, reviewed by bikeradar:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/categ...eview-ribble-7005-winter-trainer-audax-11764/

I have no preference for Campagnolo or Shimano, but will say that I've found Shimano stuff in the past on cheaper bikes to be 'cheap', but surely I should have expected that!

Parts of the bike have clearly had their day and although I was going to buy a new bike I feel inside that I shouldn't 'waste' a bike and should instead change the groupset, shifters, probably even the drop bars and just customise it as I see fit.

Budget: 'medium' - I don't want Shimano Sora or to replace everything with 9-speed Xenon/Mirage stuff from ebay/wiggle/ribble, but simultaneously I don't want horrendously expensive stuff on what is a daily commuter bike.

Any recommendations for what the latest word-on-the-street is for reliable groupset (etc) components?

Thanks in advance!
Roberto.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

You can still get 9sp Tiagra if you look around and of course ebay, I have just upgraded my 8sp to 9sp with a 13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25 cassette on a triple 30-42-52, I cant not believe the difference one gear has made, previously 13-15-17-19-21-23-25-28, I just drop down on to the 30th where i might have been 42x28, They are the older Sora shifters but only cost £40 (and being poor ect ect....) The close grouping from 13-17 has made a huge difference to how I ride and can keep a higher cadence, according to the data over on bryton today my uphill cad was almost the same as my downhill http://www.brytonsport.com/mapTrackView/2?id=5472984.
I haven't yet missed the 30x28 as there isn't much around here that needs it., but its only been two weeks or so. A 10sp really would only add the 28 or a 12 or possibly 18 in the middle, I only go over 30mph down hill so a 12th would really add much, the 28 well if I know i am going to be doing something tricky I can drop the 14 or 16 and put a 28th on.