thinking of signing up for a middle distance tri in the summer and currently running my road bike ss. However for the race I'll run gears (and for a couple months prior to get used to them) but I've got a set of 10 speed shifters and a 10 speed rear mech but nowt else. They've both seen better days and not used them so assuming they work is it better/cheaper to just stick with 10 speed or worth punting them and getting some 9 speed kit. I have front chainrings and the front mech it won't matter but looking at crc there seems to be quite a difference between 10 speed and 9 speed chain and cassettes
A case of doing the sums I guess - tough to justify going for 9s unless it saves you quite a bit of money IMO.
You could sell what you have and buy a Microshift Arsis gruppo. Sets of shift levers and front and rear mechs can be had pretty cheaply on Ebay. I've read good reviews but not tried it myself. Compatible with Shimano too.
Merlin have cheap SRAM 1070 10spd cassettes at the moment, or they did last time i was on there.
Get a KMC X10 chain for £20 ish, better than the Shimano joining pin nonsense.
Road shifters are a large part of the groupset price so if they work I would be very tempted to keep the 10 speed and pick the other bits up either when you see good brand new deals or scour the classifieds.
+1
STI levers are expensive. You'll almost certainly be better off keeping 10 spd if the shifters work.
Defo as above, the STI is the most expensive bit of the groupset, if they work, then just pick up a cassette and front mech to suit!
9speed roadie stuff is going to be either very low end now, or 8+ years old!
+1
i have 9sp, what is available is not much cheaper than 10sp. certainly not enough to sell some 2nd hand stis and make enough to pick up some 9sp kit.
cheers guys thought that might be the case but good to hear it from someone else