[Closed] Why is 9 speed so expensive?

Cause they're antiques now grandad.

Stick a wanted add on here, there will be people with boxes of 9 speed stuff lying araund

Cause they're antiques now grandad.

😮

Because the manufacturers dont want to support so many product lines, so they kill off the selection of older stuff and bumps its price up to drive you to upgrade.

Meanwhile they're on a mad dash to make 12, 13, 14 speed....

I can understand them killing old product lines off, but the trickle down thing just means that the lower group sets are now 8/9 speed, so they're still current lines, just the cheaper groupsets.

Its just odd that the price of the shifters for the cheap groupsets isn't far off SLX / Zee stuff.

Right http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-alivio-m4000-9-speed-trigger-shifter/rp-prod119994

And

left http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-deore-m530-9-speed-tripletrigger-shifter/rp-prod87287

£23 before Topcashback, or 10% BC discount if you can make a basket of at least £99.

I've got a pair of 3x9 xt shifters here that you can have for £25 posted. Was about to list them on the classifieds, but seeing as you are in need....
Email in profile if interested.

I'm sure I can dig out a set of 9 speed LX if you can wait a few days, yours for postage if I can find them...

I'm sure I've also got some XT 3x9 stuff lurking about if you get stuck. I don't think it'll ever get used again...

I've been waiting for deore 9 speed chainrings to get cheap so I can stock up for my tourer,its not gonna happen.

YHM amedias.

Eeeeh, 3x9 LX, it'll be like the good old days! 8)

I had a similar problem looking for 7 speed. Apparently that's out of date too now. Ridiculous.

Was tempted by some unbranded Shimano/Microshift rip offs here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MTB-Bicycle-Bike-3-x-7-8-9-10-Speed-Shift-Shifter-Lever-Set-Fit-Shimano-System/131680101537

Anyone used them??

I had a similar problem looking for 7 speed.

And I got called a grandad for asking about 9sp!

7 speed.

I have a stash of decent 7 and 8 speed road STI's as I still use 7/8 speed on the Audax bikes and (non IGH) commuter as I can't get modern 9 or 10 speed chains or cassettes to last anywhere near as long, not to mention they cost peanuts too 🙂

The Microshift stuff isn't bad, it's not brilliant but easily as good as mid and low range Shimano stuff, although the rear mechs do seem to have a habit of going sloppy a bit too quickly.

Have a look at my classifieds ad, shifters, derailleur and cassette (although only 2x I think) if that is any good for £32

I looked recently at the cost of a rear XT mecha after finding one still packaged in the shed from several years ago.

I wanted to see if it was worth selling or just keep it for a raining day.
£50+ quid is what they wanted!! Crazy money 😮

Theres no way i paid anywher close to that at the time.

I had a similar problem looking for 7 speed.

I think they were all destroyed in the blitz

Its just odd that the price of the shifters for the cheap groupsets isn't far off SLX / Zee stuff.

why would they be? eventually you get to a point where parts commonality and materials are probably essentially similar. If you've got a machine that makes the inner bits of SLX for pennies, it makes no sense to try to spend X thousands of dollars trying to make then cheaper still for parts that you no longer make in quantities that will return your investment. 7-9 speed parts are probably made in teeny batches to provide parts for folk such as yourself, and probably use parts that are left over from last production runs and still attract the same shipping and handling costs to get to dealers. Shimano and SRAM don't want to make 7-9 speed bits and if you can get newer parts for the same price, it makes no sense to try to keep them going.

There's a few 8 speed bits here, including a couple of rear mechs and some shifters...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322603131033

Do you want woofers and tweeters in your 9 speed shifters grandad ?

Why? Because there's two of them. All the 1x stuff only needs one shifter....

Chains, cassettes and chainrings are buttons though, where 1x cassettes are silly prices. 9sp is still cheaper all in.

If anyone wants 7 speed I'm pretty sure I've an as-new Avivo or whatever it is 7 speed trigger shifter in the garage. Used once before the new wheels arrived and the boy's bike went 9-speed. Just message me.

New Sora is 9 speed and specced on lots of 2018 models.

Personally, I think the ease of compatability between road/MTB groups make it immensely valuable to a lot of people.

I reckon it's the pick of the bunch for touring.

Alivio shifters from CRC as replacements on one of my lad's bikes - I think better quality than the (supposedly higher spec but older) Deores they replaced….trickle down does work!
😀

Is £30 expensive for a pair of shifters? Sounds like a bargain to me.

The raw materials still have to be mined/ extracted, processed, shipped half way round the world, manufactured, packaged, shipped half way round the world again and shipped out to the stores. £30 isn't too bad.

And Brexit, Shimano stuff cost buttons before we decided to jump ship.

I have a pair of 3x9 speed Deore shifters and a rear mech, all brand new sitting here if anyone is desperate to pay lots of ££ for them, otherwise theyte just spares for when my existing stuff wears out. Feel free to make offers #least-stealthy-stealth-ad-ever

Rusty Spanner - Member
Personally, I think the ease of compatability between road/MTB groups make it immensely valuable to a lot of people.

If they'd made a 9-speed clutch mech they could make it pretty much non stop forever or at least a very long time because of this. 9 speed was a very sweet spot for many reasons but it's not progress is it.

I've some m770 XT shifters aboit to be for sale, as well as XT cranks...(and Fox f120, Sanderson breath, some Hope hubs and more...)

9 speed was a very sweet spot for many reasons but it's not progress is it.

I think getting rid of the road/mtb compatibility was a huge step backward.

I've 10 speed on the tourer, indexed bar end shifters with a 9 speed rear mech.
Once I can't get 9 speed mechs anymore I'll just buy the cheapest mech that will fit and turn the indexing off.

Dispite what some in this thread say 7-9 speed is still a massive market. I expect bigger than 10 and 11 speed and will continue to be so for some time. Just about all touring bike and non single speed commuting bikes. Load of people who have not "upgraded" to 10/11 speed. Even many keen cyclist are not on 10/11 especially across all there bikes.

I was so what shocked when looking to put a wider ratio on an 11 sp road bike that the equivalent mtb setup is not compatible.

Can't say that 11 speed is noticeable any better than 9 but hey I guess it's progress innit

Nope, I honestly don't think it is.

So I'm sitting on a gold mine with my 9-spd Shand plus spares...
(I'm still suspicious of 10 and 11 speed cassettes and chains, for no good reason.)

It's totally about product cycles.

'Economies of scale' are a thing. Whatever range of parts are being fitted to a bazillion bike right now are cheap to produce because the lines can just run. This means they're cheap to the OEM and bike industry, not quite so cheap to dealer/shop and slightly less cheap to you.

As a manufacturing company you want to make what sells, so you make most of what everyone is buying right now. hence the above situation. Excluding outliers like shops with huge stock that they don't reprice, the further away from current 'standard cooking' parts you get, the bigger PITA for the mfr as they have to either changeover a line for a short run once in a while or start up a disused line for a short run once in a while. This is expensive. So, the 'old' part is expensive into the dealer network and hurts you even more.

It really doesn't matter what people have in the garage. What matters is what the manufacturers are fitting, now, and how far away from that you are.

It's not a unique situation to the bike industry, you see the same in the Computer world just to name one. Pick the type of memory your machine ten years ago used and look up a price for it. Then look up the price for memory for the latest and greatest. It's probably a quarter of the price for the new, super fast part.

All part of our disposable, throwaway society... :/

9 speed mtb rear mechs work with road sti's making them well handy for gravel builds.

just an FYI for anyone else still using 8 and 9 speed, SunRace do a decent range of 8 and 9 speed cassettes, some of them in ratio combinations that you can't get from SRAM or Shimano, AND including some interesting wide ratio ones (like 11-40 8 and 9 speed options), they're not the lightest and cassettes can be a bit 'gappy' if that bothers you, but they are easily comparable to mid range shimano in shifting and durability.

They can make for some interesting options for touring bikes and durable 1x setups for commuting and winter use, 8 speed especially IME lasts a lot longer and is a lot cheaper if you do a lot of miles in poor conditions.

9 speed mtb rear mechs work with road sti's making them well handy for gravel builds

After a while using my [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-shift-warning-cx-bodging-pic-heavy ]"Ghetto shift"[/url] bodge, I have started mulling over the idea of modding it further to use as a friction shifter (there's a couple of 'how to' for the Sunrace index thumbies about)...

Just to achieve the broadest possible compatibility, in theory I could throw anything from a 7 to 10 speed (possibly even an 11?) and it would be usable... The trouble is I have become used to indexing and while a big spread cassette would be nice, I don't really belive my aging 9 speed SLX could stretch beyond 36t... Once you get into goat links and other stuff to make it all work you're getting on towards the cost of just buying ynew drivetrain...

I don't really belive my aging 9 speed SLX could stretch beyond 36t...

Shimano mechs are quite tolerant of going bigger than listed spec, most (all?) of the more recent 9 speed mechs have a listed max of 36 but will do 40 without bother, and 42 at a push depending on dropout...