9sp wheel vs 10sp

s7334

Now that I've been riding for a year with a PT on my 9sp road bike, I'm starting to eye a new tri bike.  All of the new bikes are 10sp which doesn't really work well with my 9sp PT wheel.  Since I plan on continuing wiht my existing road bike I'm thinking of creative ways to be able to use the same wheel on both bikes.

Question : Is the difference in wheel between the 9sp and 10sp simply the cassette?  I can change cassettes myself and hope it's that simple, if not what other options have people considered that work?

Any info you can provide is appreciated

Steve

 

Cary Blanco

I was in the same boat as you for a while. 9-sp road bike 10-sp tri bike. I swapped cassettes, it's easy and you get to use the chain whip tool. To see how easy it is just go to YouTube and search for "change bike cassette". You'll need a chain whip tool a wrench and cassette lock ring tool - search ebay for "chain whip".

After doing that for six months you'll probably do what I did and convert your road bike to a 10-sp. This involves getting and installing new right hand shifter, chain and of course 10-sp cassette on you road bike. Everything else can stay the same, you'll probably want to change cables as well though.

good luck.

Al Truscott

This is actually a complicated question, with a number of branching decision points!

1. Do you want to keep using the wheel you have now as your ONE wheel for training on the TT bike and road bike, and for racing? Or do you want to get a new ONE wheel, and build the PT you have now into it?

2. Do you mind buying a few new components for your road bike? Getting a 10 speed rear derailleur and rear shifter, along with putting a 10 speed cassette on your current wheel would do the trick, assuming the TT bike you get is set up with 10 speed components from the same manufacturer.

Etc.

The possibilities, you'll find, are numerous and confusing.

It's probably a good idea to talk it thru here before you get into the clutches of a bike shop salesman.

s7334

Thanks for the quick replies, much appreciated.

I have many cassettes and have changed them frequently so no problem there.  If it's as simple as a cassette change between the two bikes then I'm ok for now and will look into converting road bike to 10sp when I find a deal.

Appreciate it guys - will take that route for the time being.

Steve

Cary Blanco

I hate to disagree with Al, but to the best of my knowledge, you will not need a new rear derailleur, just a shifter, chain and cassette when going from a 9-speed to 10-speed drivetrain.

I've posted a very handy guide that explains what needs to be changed when converting to my shared dropbox (it seems to not be available at wheelworks.co.nz anymore) :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/74924/PDF/Upgrading_Shimano_9_Speed_to_Shimano_10_Speed.pdf

[Deleted User]

Good info here.  I am looking to do the exact same thing.  I have a PT on my 9 speed road bike, and am about to start looking for a tri bike (will post seperately for advice on that).  The tri bike will be 10 speed, and I am planning on upgrading the road bike so I can just swap the PT wheel back and forth among the two.

Chris M.

I need to do this so I can use my PT wheel on my road bike.  Unfortunately I already bought a derailleur which I will likely use since the one on my road bike is from 2005.  I also already have a cassette so I just need to find a used shifter and new chain.  Thanks for the info Cary.  

mgraffeo

Used 105 10 speed shifters are going for around 70-80 bucks on eBay right now. I picked one up a few weeks ago and made the switch. What an awesome upgrade. The shifting is soooo much better.