10sp mountain question

[vqdriver]

so i was thinking. shimano seems to have things in place for a 10sp mountain group but why don't they sell it?
how's this: 10sp ultegra long cage, r770 10sp flatbar shifter, any random 10sp cassette and chain. hub spacing shouldn't be an issue.

[Ray]

so i was thinking. shimano seems to have things in place for a 10sp mountain group but why don't they sell it?
how's this: 10sp ultegra long cage, r770 10sp flatbar shifter, any random 10sp cassette and chain. hub spacing shouldn't be an issue.
Ultegra long cage isn't as long as an mtb long cage like the XT or XTR - doesn't wrap as much chain. And they don't have any ten-speed cassettes with cogs larger than 27 teeth do they? So, you're still talking about road ratios except you could probably make it work with a mountain triple crank.

Still, I'm sure they could do it. But why? Super tight ratios aren't as important on mountain bikes as on road bikes. And the stresses mountain biking puts on gear might well be too much for the narrower 10-speed chains and cassettes. I personally never thought 9 speed was all that important for mtb - I always dug my 7 and 8 speed stuff at least as much as the 9-speed stuff I eventually used. 10 just seems to be overkill with no big upside and a pretty big potential downside.

-Ray

[vqdriver]

well that's just it. 27 speeds seems so excessive for most people. the big ring is rarely used, hence the double /bashguard option for the new slx. i figure what's more important than 27 individual ratios is the actual range of that ratio to cover most terrain.
with a ten speed rear, you can simplify the front and reduce to a wide ranging double, which of course, alleviates most of the cross chain issues and still maintain 20 speeds. so by going with ten in the rear, you're actually reducing the number of speeds by 7 but to a more usable range.

[TACSTS]

What Shimano really needs to do for their off-road groups is to bring back 8 speed!

[gdw]

+1
9 speed was more of a marketing more than improvement. 10 speed would be the same.

[caleb]

so i was thinking. shimano seems to have things in place for a 10sp mountain group but why don't they sell it?
how's this: 10sp ultegra long cage, r770 10sp flatbar shifter, any random 10sp cassette and chain. hub spacing shouldn't be an issue.

I've thought that what you're describing might not be a bad setup for mountain biking outside of the mountains.

Here in the Midwest, I've thought about setting a mountain bike up with all road components so that I dont' have two sets of gear. I'd use:

Compact crank with a bashguard on the outside (and a chainkeeper inside) to make a single 34t or 36t ring.
Long cage rear road derailleur.
12-27 cassette.
10spd chain.
10spd flatbar shifter.

Seems like it would work well here in the Midwest. Plus, I already have everything except the flatbar shifter, and I'm pretty sure they're cheap.

Perhaps it isn't the ideal setup, but it would almost certainly work for those of us who don't prioritize riding off road.