Should I ditch my Frankenshifting on my 26er drop bar conversion?

[NHAero]

I've enjoyed the conversion to drop bars on my Litespeed MTB, but I haven't got the shifting to where I like it - it's finicky. But I'm definitely pushing the frankenbike approach here. I have a 11 sp Microshift bar end shifter, a 11-40 10 sp Sunrace cassette, and an 11 sp Shimano XT rear derailleur. The 11 sp rd is what's needed to clear a 40T cog, and the 11 sp Microshift is made to have the right pull for the 11 sp rd. The cog pitch on the 10 sp cassette is 0.05mm different from the cog pitch on the 11 sp cassettes - so 0.5 mm or 0.020", over the whole cassette. I doubt this is the issue. But I have three components from three manufacturers and trying to get them to play nice.

Meanwhile, what I really wanted was a top of bar thumbshifter set-up, and I have a set of the VO thumbies coming - but the Microshift won't fit those. I have a set of Shimano 10 sp bar end shifters, which fit the VO thumbies, but would need a Wolf Tooth Tanpan to adapt the road shifter cable pull to what the rd needs (Wolf Tooth says this would work with the 11 sp rd, BTW). Before I throw yet another $40 at this project, which started as a parts bin conversion, I'm trying to decide if the smart thing is to bag the 1x10, and go back to a 2x9, which gets back to a 34T big cog and an 9 sp XTR rd I have, with 9 sp barcons I have and which will fit on the VO thumbies.

Last thing is, I have been using a 105 crankset with a 39T single chainring which is not a narrow-wide, chainline is perfect, and yet coming down a dirt road a couple of days ago I threw the chain despite the rd being a clutch model, and it really got wound up in the crank :-( So at the moment i have the XT fd back on the bike as a chain guide - it's not a very far step to give it a shifter :-) and I know the 9 sp stuff shifts bombproof.

Thoughts appreciated...

[dustyrider]

I built something similar recently but picked up an 8 speed 3x xtr crank. I had the following in the parts bin: 9 speed DuraAce dt shifters, run as barends, a 9 speed 11/34 xt cassette, 8 speed xt front derailleur and 9 speed xt deore rear derailleur. Index shifting in the rear and friction in the front. Everything works great, and I have plenty of gear range!

I'll be making the dt shifters into thumbies once I need new bar wrap cause they get beat up as barends.

[NHAero]

I pulled the 11 speed clutch derailleur and the 11 speed Microshift barcon off, and replaced them with a Shimano 10 speed barcon shifter mounted on a VO Thumbie (best choice for a drop bar, 24.8mm ID, comes with shims for 23.8mm and 22.2mmbars). The derailleur is a RD-M772, which is a nominal 9 speed, non-DynaSys Shadow derailleur. I did the reversed B screw trick and that works to allow this derailleur to clear the 40T cog. So it all works together flawlessly without aftermarket hacks like a Roadlink or Tanpan.

[C. Matthews]

FWIW, Paul recently started making a Microshift compatible bar mount.

[NHAero]

True, but only for a 22.2mm bar diameter.

FWIW, Paul recently started making a Microshift compatible bar mount.

[NHAero]

Here's the RD-M772 with the B screw reversed, on the 40T cog and the 11T cog. Went out today, mix of trail and road, worked flawlessly