Originally Posted by
Cyclesafe
It needs to be borne in mind that a "touring crankset" probably requires friction shifters unless one can get ahold of an old set of Ultegra 6510 STI 9 speed shifters and a 6503 front der. A Sora 9 speed STI shifter and an IRC Alpina-d front der might substitute. The 10 speed stuff won't work. If you want STI, the safest thing to do these days is to get a MTB drivetrain and forget about using drop handlebars.
There is zero compatibility issues running Tiagra STI shifters with a touring crank set. For that matter they work fine with 10 speed. Just need a compatible FD like Tiagra. The RD doesn't care what shifters you are running. Run a Tiagra FD and it will work great. No friction required.
I've run XT RD's with Ultegra 10 speed systems for extreme climbing when I wanted to use an 11/32 RD because I needed the wide gear swing that my DA RD can't handle.
What I'm trying to say is that most of this stuff will work and work well together.