Advice and questions.

[Joe_W]

Also note that more speeds do not make you go faster... upgrading is usually not really worth it, however I like justifying it by telling myself that chain, cassette, chain rings (yeah... pointy as sharks' teeth) need to be replaced anyway. Then, I try to find new old stock (basically last year's or earlier) parts for that. The biggest cost will be the rear wheel, the rest can be scraped together from bargain bins (some shops have cheap parts that had been installed on bikes that were upgraded directly, so basically new stuff) and some online shops that dump their outdated parts for small change.
It's still not economical to do so, but I like cheating myself. Also, if you have the tools you do not need to pay anybody for the work. I also like working on my bikes.

I just went to 9 speed on my old Giant trekking bike. I relaced a rear wheel from one of my broken bikes with a wider rim, could salvage the cassette and rear dérailleur from that one, too. Then, I bought a nice Hollotech II crank set (40€ including bearings) plus a new front dérailleur (10€?). I also replaced the straight handle bar with drop bars... but I need to go back to a flat bar and buy new shifters (20€ a pair, I guess), the geometry sucks at the moment.