I'm doing some drivetrain work on my Cannondale T1. I'm presently running a 3 X 10 setup with a 46 to 24 trekking crankset married to a 13 - 32 cassette. Shifting duties are done with friction shifters moving a 105 FD and an Ultegra RD. The crankset is a 9 speed. The whole drivetrain works very well.

I presently pull a trailer with the bike and am looking for more low end gearing. I'm planning to swap out the 10 speed cassette for a nine speed 12-36T unit. I've been thinking about using a Microshift RD M55L mech to shift the cassette. It specs a max of 22T for the crankset and has a total capacity of 45T (one short for my proposed setup). It should work.

Do any of you have any experience with Microshift derailers? The price is right and the folks at Rivendell seem to like them. Al

The road ten-speed Microshift derailleurs are perfect; shifting is exact each and every time and precisely Shimano compatible.

Thanks, I figured it would probably be OK. They're pretty cheap on Ebay. Worth the experiment in any event. Friction shifters can be a pain at times but they tend to take out all the compatibility issues when mixing and matching drivetrain components. Al