Originally Posted by
christo930
What is the disadvantage to a 9 speed cassette? Is the derailleur more finicky? Also, I have read that when you have 9 speed cassette and 3 chain-rings, that you aren't supposed to use 8th, 9th, 18th and 19th gears (the smallest front and smallest rear and the biggest front and biggest rear because of how crooked the chain is), is there any truth to that?
Chris
Both my bikes are 9-speed triples. If you use large-large or small-small combinations you will get cross-chaining which will make a nasty noise and wear everything out faster. So although they've got 27 gears in theory, in practise I only use the largest 4-5 sprockets in the small ring, about the same in the middle ring, and I'll use all the rings at a push in the large ring but only rarely go into the largest two (my FD has a part-shift option that lets you use large-large combinations without too much rattling).
It's not really a big deal, if you're wanting a small sprocket on the small chainring you really need to shift up a chainring, and likewise if you want the largest sprocket on the big ring you should probably shift down to the middle ring.
I haven't found the derailleurs on either of my bikes finicky in the slightest.