Miele Man

Back when I first thought about getting 9-cogs instead of 7 cogs I thought that I'd set up my cassette like a regular 7 cog system I normally use and add two bailout cogs. that has worked quite nicely for those times I've done unexpected shopping and then had to ride up a steep hill with a strong headwind.

I also like that I can if I want to have a 9-speed cassette with a high gear of 14 or 13 and my regular low gear I'd have on my 7 speed but like Clifford K said have closer space gears between that high and low gear.

I remember back in the early 1980s riding from Toronto Canada to Lindsay Canada and using a 15-gears MTB with 2.25 knobby tires to do that. I'd be going up a hill and shift into a lower gear and then spin out until i slowed down to that gear because the jumps between gears on that bike were so big. I really like it when I got the 7 speed cog set.

I can see having more gears in order to have smaller jumps between gears. I know a lot of bicyclists don't need a 52 x 13 or smaller gear combination. Heck a lot of them would be far better served with Junior gearing.

What is nice is that now there are so many choices in gearing.

Cheers