Treefox

I've been looking around at options for upgrading/repairing my old skool down-tube shifting RX-100 groupset, and a Tiagra setup (keeping the RX-100 front derailleur + brakes and the 105 chainrings I've got) seems to be a logical thing to do based on my meagre grad-student budget (and even this project may be a way off yet).

But the really curious thing is that the Tiagra RD, for which the best price I can find is £16.99, is cheaper than an appropriate chain - usually in the £20 range for something half-decent. Yeah, I know the STI levers do most of the work, and that work would run me £104.99 for the pair, but still; it's odd that something so fancy-looking as a derailleur would cost less than something so seemingly basic as a chain.

I'd need a new rear wheel as well, of course, as the current freewheel is a 7-speed, but that's sort of the point; the cones are all pitted and it's a vain quest to keep the thing true - - and I'd never find a decent 7-speed road wheel, so to get a new wheel I pretty much have to take it all up to 9-speed.