S&S models come with 10 speeds, every now and then you will see a non S&S advertised. As far as the gears, hadnt heard of a problem with the plastic gears, some have reported a clutch slippage problem after installing metal tracks, or running on high resistance surface, ( tall grass, carpet etc). You can "back" read some post on when these problems occured, and how they were solved. Mine, ( Bulldog) has the metal gears, but I dont see these things wearing either metal or plastic gears out.