Im currently building up a trail bike, I have a few parts but need some advice before I continue.
OK, I’m looking at a 9 or 10 speed and want to get the components that work well together.
I have a 1.1 truvativ holzfeller 38t crankset and want to know what the best setup for that is?
Have not bought the rear mech, cassette or chain.
What should I be looking for and is 9 or 10 speed the best way to go.
Ta

What are your priorities, cheap as chips or good longer term value? I’d suggest there’s no reason durability wise not to go 10 speed, but I haven’t check out 9 speed prices to see if there really too cheap to ignore. Shimano gears tend to get a better reviews for reliability , than sram (I’ve not tried 10 speed sram but always used to buy 9 speed sram..). If you go 10 speed you also have the choice of using an “cassette range extender” from any number of manufacturers to get an almost 11 speed range of gears. Personally I see your 38T being on the large side, and would suggest replaceing it with deore steel 34 or 36T (104BCD) ring to make it more useable. Nowt wrong with the deore range of cassette & chains though I’d want an SLX rear mech and changer but again deore will fuunction fine

EDIT: as below, I’d recommend a SLX shadow + mech (don’t think you get deore ones do you?), I think there brilliant, no more chainsuck!

I’ve found my 10sp Shimano stuff better than the 9sp, it seems to keep working better for longer.

I’d go 10speed just because you’ll get a better choice of spares for longer and in my experience the performance is better. I recently had an old bike with 8speed, you could still get spares but the choice was very limited and only mid to low end stuff. 9sp will go the same way.

Chainset will be fine whether 9 or 10 speed.

Would be looking at SLX Shadow plus rear mech, SLX 11/36 cassette, if your fussy XT or XTR shifters, if your going 1X then perhaps a smaller chainring (depends on fitness).

No reason not go 10 speed.

crankset doesn’t really matter, you can use anything on that.

First thing is to choose 9 or 10. 9 speed might be cheaper, 10 speed will give you better options for using clutched rear mechs – handy if you’re going with a single chainring.

After that, you just need to make sure the chain is the right speed – they’re pretty much all interchangeable, small number of complaints about KMC not working with something or other.

After that, you can choose SRAM or Shimano for the mech and shifter (some people prefer one or the other) then choose a price point, then make sure the shifter and mech are compatible. They use different amounts of cable shift to move the gears. This changes company to company, and sometimes companies change standards eg SRAM – check that if the shifter’s “Type 2”, the mech is as well.

Half an hour reading around and you’ll be grand!