Ordered my new bike!

[Triskeliongirl]

Just so you understand, I am sure you could pair a 48/36/24 with an11/34 as well as with a 12/34 which would give you all the gears you have now plus one higher which you may want on your lighter bike. What is key is that now they make an 11/34 10 spd casette. Before you could only get 11/34 or 12/34 casettes in 9 spd. I only bring this up, cuz while I also like my 9 spd, sometimes when buying wheels and other stuff you can only get 10 spd, so you may have more options for replacement parts w 10 spd. But if you already have 9 spd stuff that you want to use, that is different.

Will your new bike have 26"/650 or 700 wheels. If the wheels are smaller, they you have to consider that when choosing your gearing (i.e.the gear ratio calculation considers wheel diameter so if you have smaller wheels you'll want larger chain rings in front and smaller in back to get same gearing).

The Terry Isis Sport has 11/34 (10 speed) cassette, and front rings 48/38/26.
My bike will have a 12/34 (9 speed) cassette and a front 48/36/24. That 24 really gets me up some major hills. I don't have a problem with keeping to a 9 speed....I just love my current setup, the gearing is perfect for me and where we ride, and we already have some of the parts anyway...so we are sticking with that.

My current bike is a very bright electric medium blue. So I want a softer earthier color. It's almost like our living room beeswax-y color, which I love. I tend to like lighter bikes than darker bikes, and dirt doesn't bother me too much.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Just so you understand, I am sure you could pair a 48/36/24 with an11/34 as well as with a 12/34 which would give you all the gears you have now plus one higher which you may want on your lighter bike. What is key is that now they make an 11/34 10 spd casette. Before you could only get 11/34 or 12/34 casettes in 9 spd. I only bring this up, cuz while I also like my 9 spd, sometimes when buying wheels and other stuff you can only get 10 spd, so you may have more options for replacement parts w 10 spd. But if you already have 9 spd stuff that you want to use, that is different.

Will your new bike have 26"/650 or 700 wheels. If the wheels are smaller, they you have to consider that when choosing your gearing (i.e.the gear ratio calculation considers wheel diameter so if you have smaller wheels you'll want larger chain rings in front and smaller in back to get same gearing).

Yes, I do understand all that about the new gearing availablity on the 10 speed- thanks though for pointing it out.
I actually tend to change gears about two at a time, and so going to 10 speed would simply be annoying to me and I'd have to change gears sometimes 3 at a time instead. As to the range- I seldom get to go into my high gear now, but expect to use it more on my new bike...but don't really think I'll be needing any higher- we have lots of hills here also and I'm not into racing at all. I mostly want to go faster when climbing (which involves low gears and weight issues, aside from muscle strength of course), going fast on flats and downhills hasn't been a problem- I can go 40mph and routinely hit 36-38 or so . No pedaling at all there! Again, it's those massive long downhills after the climbs...
Thus, I don't feel I need more gears or wider range gears than I have now. Plus, I have a beautiful Shimano 9 speed DuraAce level cassette with titanium large gears- it will work beautifully in this situation, and is lighter, more durable, and better quality than that Terry cassette. Since i love my current gearing setup, I might as well use this spare cassette on the new bike! It would be easy enough to swithc to 10 speed some day if I wanted to- just change the brifters and cassette.

My new wheels are 700 like my old wheels, so no recalculating issues there.
Thanks everyone for your input!

I love my color that I picked, and today I am working on the tiny honeybee decal that I am having put on each side of the top tube. Bees have always been a theme in my life.