Originally Posted by
noglider
This is crazy stuff. All this extra care to have a few more gears? I think I'll stick with 8-speed and similar. The new stuff is so cantankerous.
I started riding in the mid-80's with 6-speed downtube friction shifters and, over the years my road bikes gradually progressed through:
7-speed indexing downtube shifters
7-speed brifters
8-speed brifters
9-speed brifters
10-speed brifters
From 7-speed on it was all Shimano and the 10-speed stuff is both Shimano and Campy. Along the way my rain bike saw 8-speed barends, Kelly Take-Offs and the Retroshifts now on it.
The upshot of all of this is that each step "up" was no more difficult to install or adjust then the one before it and no more trouble prone or unreliable. I may never get to 11-speed because of the cost and, as you say, at some point, more gears serve no purpose but 10-speed has been just fine.