bike speeds

Wouldn't that be 18 different "speeds", or gear ratios?  Bikes aren't really called "10 speeds" or "21 speeds" anymore.  Gearing options are varied and can be complicated.

Number of chainrings, teeth per ring, etc are more common variances on a bike.  Here is a link that will explain all that much better than I'll ever be able to:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gearing/index.html

'speed' usually refers to the number of cogs on the cassette, which is usually 9 or 10.  This is not the same as the number of gears, which is the number of cogs on the cassette multiplied by the number of chainrings.

So, your's is 9 speed and has18 gears.

Must be one of those elevator/lift things.  Here in the U.S., in the good old days, '10 speed' referred to a bike with two on the front, 5 on the back. 

It's just not the way bikes are referred to anymore. You can have a road bike with a "10-speed" drivetrain that has a double crankset in front and you'll almost never hear it called a 20-speed. Put a triple crankset on and you'll never hear it called a 30-speed.

I think it's still a basic way of describing it if you really want, but serious cyclists (whatever that means) generally don't use that terminology because the gear ratios overlap and you don't have 20 separate speeds.