10 speed or 9 speed?

[halfmoonman]

Changing the components on my specialized Tricross for touring.

Would you go 10 speed or 9 speed?

Everything is being changed bar the brakes.

Is it worth going for ten speed, I live in Ireland where your either going up or coming down a hill!
Would the extra gears be worth it?

Also the components I'm looking at (shimano xt,deore mix) are cheaper in 10 speed!

 

[StuartG]

I have toured on a three speed. The major questions is whether you are credit card touring or quadruple panniered and what your bottom gear is. Everything else is luxury unless it is a race.

 

[PpPete]

Changing the components on my specialized Tricross for touring.

Would you go 10 speed or 9 speed?

Everything is being changed bar the brakes.

Is it worth going for ten speed, I live in Ireland where your either going up or coming down a hill!
Would the extra gears be worth it?

Also the components I'm looking at (shimano xt,deore mix) are cheaper in 10 speed!

It's all about the lowest gear you can get to / need. The number of gears is really irrelevant to touring.
Supposedly 8 speed is more robust than 9 speed which is more robust than 10 speed.

Beware of the 10 speed MTB componentry - it has some incompatibilities with the rest of the shimano range.

One of my favorite touring set-ups is:
Campagnolo 10 speed Ultrashift Ergos
Deore (9 speed) rear mech
Deore 8 speed cassette (11-32)
Any Shimano road Front mech (Tiagra or 105 are fine) preferably the triple version to go with one of the many XD-2 clone chainsets (Spa one is cheapest)
Shimano UN 55 BB

 

[jags]

9 speed stronger chain for a start.xt m770 is great .

 

[halfmoonman]

Its actually for a flat bar set up, was just surprised that the prices were about the same if not less on certain components.

 

[Yellow7]

One point easily overlooked but well worth considering is chain strength. Increasing the number of cassette sprockets means a narrowing of the chain, leading to a proportional reduction in strength, irrelevant of what super-dooper sales pitch name the [new] chain will have. This is not too much of an issue on a road bike where the ‘cyclic-loading’ (fatigue term iused n materials technology) period will only be a few hours, unlike on a touring bike where, dependant on ones tour, the bike will be in used 6-7 hours a day for 1-2 weeks & chain-stress therefore increased.

If you’re riding a semi or fully loaded touring bike and enjoy powering up a hill, as I do, the last thing you need is for the chain to break. If I were using a derailleur bike I’d go no more than 8, again, it all depends on how you ride.
The following Sheldon Brown link explains further; http://sheldonbrown.com/speeds.html

 

[MacB]

It's interesting about the prices, almost as if they are trying to tie you in to 10 speed. As you're going with flat bars then I'd actually go 9 or even 8 speed. Plenty of ways to mix and match but I've just done my eldest and middle sons Surly Karate Monkeys as 8 speed triples, as follows:-

£28 - Alivio 8 speed/triple trigger shifters
£25 - Alivio FCM411 square taper triple chainsets 48/38/28
£16 - Shimano UN55 73x122 square taper BBs
£12 - Shimano Alivio FD M412 for up to a 48t big ring
£20 - Shimano Alivio RD M410
£6 - KMC 8 speed chains
£3 - new cable outers as these frames take a full outer cable run
£15 - Shimano or SRAM 8 speed cassettes 11-32 or 11-34

So that's worked out at £125 per bike and you can also whack on a smaller inner ring for another £6 or so if you want to lower the gearing.