Re: Got a question about a drivetrain upgrade

#120754

They aren’t a match to your existing setup. The 10 speed chain rings are spaced more tightly than the 9 speed set up you currently have so you’d need a new 10 speed front shifter and front derailleur, at the least, to keep shifting working somewhat properly. 10 speed systems and 9 speed systems use slightly different sized chains as well to make things shift smoothly but you could probably get away with using a 10 speed chain on a 9 speed cassette and rear derailleur without having ridiculous results. It still wouldn’t be as smooth as a proper, full 10 speed drivetrain.

Once you got a new front shifter and front derailleur, you’d also need to install BB30 sized external bottom bracket cups (~$30) into your frame to allow you to use the new crankset. This wouldn’t be hard though. Just pull your old crankset off and dump the existing octalink BB. Install the new BB30 cups and put the new crankset on. (Shwim, your setup is probably the same.)

IMO, it’s not worth it to buy the 10 speed crankset unless you really want to change the whole thing over to 10. If you just want to change the crankset that bad, find a 9 speed version. You’d still need to install BB30 cups but would not have to deal with changing out all the other equipment. 9 speed stuff can be found pretty cheap since the onslaught of 10 and now 11 speed systems.