Noisy drivechain
 

I have a Devinci 2012 road bike, bought new. I like the bike and it's running fine, but from the start has had a noisy drivechain, which is basically chain rub, I think. Mix of Shimano components (Ultegra rear derailleur, Tiagra front) and microshifting. I find microshifting a bit fussy and thought that might be the problem. Had it tuned a half dozen times. Mechanic where I bought it said things might need to 'settle' (!?) Front derailleur seems to rub in the lowest gear, or when it's been tuned to address the problem, at the other end of the spectrum, the highest gear. Could it be that this mix of components (stock with the bike) just doesn't quite line up right? Could microshifting be part of the problem? Not interfering with the fun of riding, but would be nice to smooth out.

Many reasons exist for your described problems. Miss matching der cage width with ring c-c spacing. Poor cable tension management (sounds like you've explored this). Der alignment WRT the rings. Expectation of cross chaining not rubbing. Cable friction (although ft systems are usually less sensitive to this then rear).

To find out if chain rub is actually the issue remove the ft der and see what happens. No rub then you did identify the problem. Chain rub is pretty easy to discover though. Andy.

I don't know about the other issues, and couldn't without seeing. But what you describe with front cage rub is 100% normal (within limits). The cage has a certain width, and in any one position that won't be enough to allow for the chain to come from both extreme angles. Normally the FD is trimmed so there's no rub in high gear with the chain coming from the outer two thirds of the cassette, and the inner ring with the inner two thirds. So the middle of the cassette should be rub free with either chainring.

On certain bikes it's possible to be pretty much rub free with all but the most crossed combinations, but that's rare. The fix is built into better FD levers which have an extra fine tuning click to move the cage over slightly to prevent rub when riding crossed combinations. Yours may not, so it's a matter of getting the best adjustment possible, and living with the limitations.

All of the Microshift road shifters I have used have a trim function on the front shifter. I tune the front derailleur so there is no rub on the large chainring/large cog combo and use the trim function to shift the cage outward to avoid rub when I get to the smallest cogs in the rear.