New Campag 13 speed

[Jamesh]

I know everyone here loves 9 speed?! so what's the problem with fitting a 9spd dinner plate cassette with a RD extender and ditching the front mech?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402598757473

Cheers James

[Brucey]

mech hanger extenders increase the largest sprocket that can be used with any given mech (which is not the same thing as the total capacity) but they also increase the gap between the guide pulley and the smaller sprockets. Interestingly the design of chains and shift ramps has been improved in 10s and 11s systems such that (when the chain is new, certainly) a larger guide pulley gap (GPG) is tolerated in 11s setups. IME this is less likely to work well using 9s chain and cassette; shift quality seems more sensitive to GPG in these systems.

Component selection is always full of unknowable twists and turns. In the long run 9s systems with super wide range cassettes will also be limited by

a) lack of really good quality 9s compatible RDs (with the correct shift ratio) and
b) gear intervals in a super-wide range 9s cassette

In any wide range cassette the gear intervals are a bit hopeless really; they are very uneven, typically varying from about 12% to about 20% in a current 1x cassette. This arises because practically speaking, intervals between sprockets can only ever be 1T, 2T, 3T, 4T etc, and these fixed increments are never a consistent proportion of the whole.

cheers

[reohn2]

I know everyone here loves 9 speed?! so what's the problem with fitting a 9spd dinner plate cassette with a RD extender and ditching the front mech?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402598757473

Cheers James

That misses the point of 8/9sp,with 2 or 3 chainrings 8/9sp has the potential for more range and closer ratios in the most used ratios whilst maintaining a good efficient chainline.
Whereas 1x9/10/11sp it's either or with a possible bad chainline in the most used ratios,not to mention possible increased maintenance costs due to increased narrower chain wear and cassette costs .

IMO 1x 8/9/10/11/12 can be a valuable asset in the right circumstances ie; lots of muck and mud without mudguards or flatter terrain,but those circumstances are limited,road and touring benefits better from a 2 or 3x drivetrain

[Jamesh]

Agreed to both of you.

I was thinking of a utility / commuter / winter bike it had some versatility.

Cheers James

[Brucey]

any setup can be 'enough gears'; close enough together and enough of them too. Commuting often needs a small subset of the usual range of gears, so why carry more around? If it is not hilly, two or three quite closely spaced gears may be enough, and any more is overkill. More hills etc and you need more gears.

I don't think it is possible to conceive of a set of gears that won't suit anyone at all....? Just fewer and fewer people the weirder it gets...?

cheers

[Stevek76]

Agreed to both of you.

I was thinking of a utility / commuter / winter bike it had some versatility.

Cheers James

Can only really see that working if it's sufficiently cheap to rival 3x 8/9sp setups, if it's not (and presently it isn't if you want it shifting half decently) then it's competing against higher range hub setups and for that sort of use they have numerous other benefits over a x1 derailleur setup. The reason my utility/pub bike is 3x9 is because it of the combination of range & cheap. Not really bothered about close ratios or the slight inefficiency of chainlines being off, I tend to use the full cassette in the middle ring most of the time and only move the front up or down where the additional range is actually needed.