Originally Posted by MadProphet

OK, so I bought a DS 8.3. Not the greatest of component sets. I find that, after riding for two months, I like road riding a bit more than trail riding and so I'm getting a second set of wheels with road tires mounted. My question is: the stock setup is an 8 speed rear end. Could I use any 8-speed cassette?

And the larger question: If I decide to switch to say a 9 or 10 speed, I know I'll need to swap out at least the rear-D and gear shift. But will I need cables, etc? Or can I just replace the three pieces: cassette, rearD and shifter?

And one more question: If I use one set of wheels for road and one for 'trail', could they have different cassettes? Maybe a 12-25 for road and an 11-36 for trail? And would the rearD need fixin' to do that?

I don't want to spend a ton on the bike as I belatedly recognize that it's really a starter. But I've been quoted less than $100/ea for the wheels (stock for the model) and I could buy new cassettes and a shifter and rearD of say, Deore XT quality and still keep cost down. I'm just so new to this, I don't know what's what and what I'll need to do with this idea of mix-n-match.