frankenbike's frankenbikes

Yeah the Microshift stuff is interchangeable with Shimano. So in theory I could run it with a 9-speed Shimano shifter and cassette, since the 7/8/9-speed Shimano derailleurs all have the same pull ratio.

With friction shifters - that's what I thought, but it's actually not the case. The derailleur shift ratio on SRAM 10-speed stuff is so low that you really need a lot of cable pull for it to work. A 9-speed Shimano friction shifter only pulls about 25mm of cable. A 10-speed SRAM shifter pulls >30mm of cable. So it would only shift through about 8 gears on the cassette. It might be possible to bodge something but I'm not sure it's worth it when the shifters are as cheap as they are.

According to this Exact is different from 1:1. Confusing that they're all named so similarly. I've visited that page a lot over the past few weeks...

What is definitely going on the bike? So far...

• an Octalink BB and some Shimano Claris triple cranks to which I'll fit one chainring (either a 39, 42 or 50). I picked up the 42t chainring today - it's for single-speed, not 1x, so it's not narrow-wide or anything. Might not work for 1x after all.
  
• the free Tektro CR510s which I also collected today - basically brand new, no reason not to chuck them on
  
• a new stem for sure, and most likely drop bars.
  
  

Aside from that anything that works.