Well, it was bound to happen eventually. My failure to keep up with technical details of modern components finally bit me. I didn't mention it in my earlier posts, but I was having trouble with the rear shifting. The 10-speed Microshift thumb shifter was only properly indexing over about half the cassette. They were advertised as Shimano compatible. I have used a lot of 10-speed Shimano stuff -- 5600 and 5700 105, 6600 and 6700 Ultegra, even 4600 Tiagra -- and I knew that the derailleurs were compatible with basically all earlier Shimano rear derailleurs, including 9-speed and earlier mountain groups, so I felt confident using the Deore LX derailleur previously pictured. I thought maybe I just did a sloppy job setting it up and would fix it later.

Back in the garage, I couldn't get it any better. I double checked the hanger alignment. I made sure my wheel was in straight. I checked the tightness of the cassette. Nothing helped. I looked up the compatibility chart to verify that this derailleur matched what I thought it did. Finally, I went to the Microshift site to make sure what the Universal Cycles site told me was correct. The Microshift site told me these shifters are designed to be compatible with Tiagra 4700 components. This is something I knew at one time but had completely forgotten. The 4700 series followed the pull ratio of Shimano's 11-speed groups and is therefore incompatible with any other Shimano 10-speed group (except possibly GRX).

The good news is that Tiagra 4700 rear derailleurs are cheap and capable of handling a 34-tooth cog. They don't have quite the chain wrap of the LX, so I had to replace my 50T chainring with a 45, but that would still get me up to 30 mph (on a sufficiently steep downhill), so no worries.



I have also installed the Velo Orange Porteur front rack and Acorn saddle bag since my last post.
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The rack was delivered to me without the removable rail. That's being corrected, but I dug out my Erector Set and made this rail to use while I wait.



The double straps are probably overkill, but I don't want to have to worry about my laptop bouncing into traffic if I hit a pothole.