Originally Posted by
Iride01
How many sprockets are on the rear of your bike? Today, that is how many speeds we consider your bike as having. Only up until the early to mid 90's did we refer to the speeds of a bike as the number of sprockets on the rear x the sprockets on the crank.
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It's not inappropriate to call old 2×5 bikes "ten speeds", just potentially confusing. The (front)×(back) notation is more precise, but those of us who are older than our 1970s ten speeds may not be acquainted with it. It's pretty easy to tell from what the OP wtote that this is a vintage ten speed, not the newer sort, also obvious from the photo of the chain - or do people use tiny screens to view this forum, and can't see it's an old Renold?