10 speed shifter/ 9 speed cassette
 

I am setting up my gravel bike with a 10 speed indexed bar end shifter and a 9 speed cassette

If you were me, would you set up the extra “click” at the top of the shift pattern (lowest gear, most tension, largest cog) or at the bottom (high gear, lowest tension, small cog)? And why?

That approach won’t work properly as each ‘click’ of the shifter pulls a different amount of cable than a proper 9-speed shifter does. It will work sorta OK but it will grumble and make noises.

If your 10-speed bar end rear shifter has the D-ring on it, you can set your rear shifter to friction so it will shift correctly with virtually any cassette you can hang on your wheel.

If I were you I would get a 10 speed cassette. You are wasting your time otherwise.

ok thanks- the guy at the used bike shop who sold me the shifter said 9 and 10 speed cassettes are spaced the same. Guess not! I only paid $1 for the cassette in a going out of business sale so I wasn’t
married to it.

It doesn’t have the D ring, just a screw 🙄

No problem fitting a 10 sp cassette on my existing Ultegra hub, correct? I have 8 and 9 speeds on there (and a single cog with lots of spacers)

If I had it already, I'd try it and see. There are some definite con's, but you probably already figured most of them.

You probably can put a 10 speed cassette on it. However it'd be better to know the model number of the ultegra.

You must be in a Spokane. Buying from Cool Water?

A 10-speed cassette will fit on your hub. Far better than the 9-speed.

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Yes! Thanks for all the great parts! So happy tobe closing in on riding this awesome machine

For sure, leave the extra "click" at the top of the shift pattern. This will simply slack the cable and adhere to the first rule of bicycle mechanics (do no harm).

Now, cassette cog spacing is different on a Shimano 9-speed (4.35 mm) and Shimano 10-speed (3.95 mm). This may mean that shifting will be imprecise, or sometimes it just works (I used Campagnolo 10-speed shifters/derailleurs with Shimano 9-speed for years, and it shifted fine).

But there is a workaround device that will let you fix the spacing difference problem. It's called the JTek Shiftmate 2, and it modifies the amount of cable pull, installed at the rear derailleur:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fc5d5240ff.jpg
JTek Shiftmate 2

That pic with the wheel in the truing stand made me stop and go "huh". I'm sure it's just the camera perspective.

But yeah, get it going and ride it. Don't be like two of my friends. Both of them started building their own sailboats about the same time. One stalled on worrying about cosmetics. The other didn't worry about it much. Guess which one has been enjoying their boat for 10 years and which one is still on the boat stands.

Haha yep! Dish looks out of whack!

+1 on cosmetics- this bike started life as a Craigslist find, an old cannondale fork and a set of tubular rims I decided I could turn into a gravel bike with mostly parts I had lying around! Look closely and you’ll see it is a frankenbike

Yeah, if you lock out the last cable pull you may jam the shifter mechanism trying to shift against the stop or even damage it if you hare ham-fisted enough. Same deal up front using a triple shifter on a double crankset.