Only nine gears? Oh the horror!

[forestbiker]

I am currently lusting over a road-type bike. Meaning, I want skinnier tires than my bomber mountain bike. I want to roll, traveling over paved urban trails or miles of lonely, country roads.
Don't have a big budget, but I've seen bikes, like Specialized Sirrus, Ariel, Vita, but they have 9 gears. Nine gears, that seems so "primitive", like in the Dark Ages when I had my yellow ten-speed as a kid. lol

Yes, I'm saying I want a bike that will roll, something more responsive than my heavy mountain bike with 2 inch tires. Then I'm saying I could get a good bike with less gears. I'm really not going for Lance Armstrong speed. Am I making any sense?

btw, I love my mountain bike. Nobody else in the world would I take on a washed-out, rocky, silty trail with some good blow-downs thrown in.

[indysteel]

Nine is plenty to get, and keep, you moving. With nine cogs in your rear cassette and likely two or three chainrings up front, you will actually have 18 or 27 "gears" from which to choose (keeping in mind that there's a bit of overlap among the gear combinations).

[maillotpois]

The friend I did my super rando series with last year (200, 300, 400 and 600k brevets) did them all on a fixie. So that's a lot more gears (and presumably the ability to coast). Bottom line: Any bike is good.

[Owlie]

What Indy said. The cheapest Sirrus has an 8-speed cassette (all the stuff in the back), and 3 chainrings, so there's 24 gears there. Granted, there's some overlap and you shouldn't use two combinations because of cross-chaining, but it's still plenty.
The 10-speeds from back in the day are a 5-gear rear cassette and 2 chainrings. Quite an upgrade. ;)

FWIW, my road bike is the same sort of thing. 8-speed cassette, triple crankset. It's plenty. I've never complained about the spread of gears (there are some on the low end that I've never used), but what gets me every time is the lack of a "cruising" gear that my legs like. It may not be the same for you--someone seems to like them!

[Wahine]

+1 what everyone else has said. It should be plenty.

ETA - my upcoming bike build will be a mountain bike with a 2 x 10.

[forestbiker]

Ok cool, and I'm really digging the Vita too. I knew there was a way to satisfy my bike lust. Now to hit the LBS and see how the Vita fits.
Long ribbons of country road here I come!

[sarahkonamojo]

Make sure it fits or all that rolling won't happen.
S