The 1x7/8/9 is all the rage. You're gonna love it.
As for the shifter/brake setup, I can't recommend this enough:
Spend some time to get the thumb shifter position dialed in and it's almost as natural feeling as brifters.
excellent! basically that is what i want on this build! (well, with nitto 021s but close enough)
just curious, what shifter is that, what kind of derailleur is it attached to, and what cassette and hub?
;p
and might as well ask....how important is it to have matching components? IE shimano shifter with shimano derail......obviously cassette needs to fit the hub.....but.....possible to do campy derail on shimano cassette with shimano shifters? or should i just go all campy everything or all shimano (probably all shimano for availibility/price)