Originally Posted by
bikemig
Half the fun of BF is a food fight,
. Seriously I think that the two "premium" options, IGH vs a high quality derailleur system have been well discussed and argued.
The problem for tourists is that the existing off the shelf derailleur based systems are becoming somewhat more difficult to piece together. Campy never cared much for touring groups. SRAM is doing a nice job of pushing the envelope on big cassettes and simplified gearing up front but I think that tourists will continue to stick with triples. That leaves Shimano. You can piece together a pretty good system using Shimano stuff but it is not as simple as it used to be when road and mtb stuff was fairly interchangeable.
Good point. There's wiggle room available if you run friction shifters (which many tourists do, myself included, since they're field-serviceable).
I have Dura-Ace bar-end shifters. Don't be impressed; they're all dura-ace. Anyways, the 10-speed Dura Ace shifter, set to friction, works perfectly fine with my 9-speed Shimano XT rear derailleur.
My front derailleur, Shimano Sora, is road-specced and works well with the Shimano 46/34 Sora compact double.
Why Sora?
Because, Shimano now uses an asymmetrical mount for everything 105 and above. That means the traditional 5-hole symmetrical rings can't be used as replacements anymore. Once, all across the land, replacement chainrings were available. Now, they'll have to be special ordered unless you bump down a few gruppos.
So, my drivetrain has:
Road Crankset
Road Front Derailleur
Road Shifters
Road Handlebars
Road Frame
Mountain Rear Derailleur
Mountain Front Hub
Mountain Rear Hub
Mountain Disc Brakes
Mountain Rims
My bottom bracket is a little bit of a bastard child... The Praxis Works 68mm Converter BB lets me use a Hollowtech II crankset in a Pressfit 30 bottom bracket shell, letting me avoid the BS of eccentric bottom brackets or the awful, awful BB30.
