Old 06-27-20, 05:17 AM
  #6  
Tourist in MSN
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
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Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.

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General comment on 8 vs 9 speed. When I built up my first touring bike in 2004, at that time 9 speed was readily available and there were a lot of parts available for 8 speed too.

While the general philosophy of more is better always seems to make sense, I decided to look a bit more at the details of what a 9 speed would give me if I bought 9 instead of 8. I was looking at the 11/32 cassette size, and for comparison chose Sram cassettes. Both 8 and 9 speed cassettes had the same 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 21, and 32T sprockets. The 8 speed cassette had a 26T while the 9 speed had 24 and 28T sprockets. I concluded that the vast majority of the time I would be riding on the 14, 16, 18 or 21T sprockets, thus it did not matter which I bought, 8 or 9 since both cassettes had the same sprockets that I would be using most of the time.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with a 9 speed, just that in my case I saw minimal advantage to it over the 8. In the 16 years since I built up that bike, I have built up 4 more bikes with the same 8 speed 11/32 cassette, chain, derailleur, etc. I currently have four bikes that share that same 8 speed drive train with 11/32 cassette, two touring bikes, a rando bike and a folder. That keeps my inventory of spares simpler to manage.

If you want to change to 9, go ahead, but if your 8 speed system functions well there is no reason to replace the shifter, cassette and chain. Just get a new crankset and likely a new bottom bracket to give you lower gears. I assume your front shifter and derailleur would work with whatever crankset you get.

If you are doing the work yourself, keeping square taper on the new crank means that you would need fewer tools than if you went with external bottom bracket bearings on the new crank. If you are not doing the work yourself, then cost of tools does not matter.
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