…gear?

Being a retrogrouch I built up my El Mariachi as a 9 speed with a 34T biggest cassette sprocket. When I’ve been bike packing I’ve felt my lowest gear even with a triple is still too tall for my ageing legs.

If I went to ten speed with a 36t biggest sprocket, how much lower would my lowest gear feel by comparison. I’m happy spinning small gears, but I never seem to get on top of the 34 and wonder if the investment ton10 speed would be worthwhile for an extra couple of teeth.

Why not just stay 9 spd and fit an expander sprocket? There are a few 38t ones around. Not tried it but might work. Would obviously have to lose a sprocket somewhere else.

You could fit a 12-36 9speed casette that would give you the 36 tooth low gear but you would lose the 11 sprocket at the other end . I think I saw somewhere that Suntour make an 11-36 9 speed casette which would give you the same high and low ratios without the expense of changing to a 10 speed set up .

There’s a Deore 9-sp 12-36T cassette. Given you have a triple, I’m sure you’ll not miss the 11t ring.

(PS – it weighs around the same as an anchor)

Could also use those ^ 12:36 and replace the 12t with 11t from your current cassette (provided it isn’t too worn).

Oh – and if I was changing away from 9-speed, I’d go straight to 11.

There’s a Deore 12-36T?!? If I’d known that I wouldn’t have gone 1×10 myself!

Anyway, I went 32T/11-34T to 32T 11-40T with an expander and it’s great for everything. Oval chainring too, makes a huge difference.

There’s also an Alivio 12-36 that you could pick up for less than £15 in places. No idea on weight etc but might be worth a punt?

Alivio 11-34 & 12-36 from CRC at a tenner each, swap the 11t around to give you an 11-36, flog the other cassette for a fiver on eBay, job done. Works grand for me, slightly clunky drop down to the 11T cause of the ratio jump but otherwise great

(PS – it weighs around the same as an anchor)

FWIW it weighs almost exactly the same as the 11 speed XT 11-40 everyone’s excited about, and less than the 11-42.

I had no idea there was a nine speed 36t cassette. I don’t think I’ve ever used the 11t sprocket so I wouldn’t miss it.

I’ll do a bit of googling, thanks for the tip.

Have a play, and compare ratios…

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Going to 10 speed from 9, often the benefit is in dropping to 2x instead of 3x but still keeping largely the same available ratios with less redundant overlap. Though a downside in my opinion of a bigger jump between chainrings and shifting hassle that goes with it.