Quote Originally Posted by lo123 View Post
What's the difference between a road and touring triple?
I was thinking of something like the Sugino XD600 shown here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/cranks/11074.html. Not as low as a true MTB triple crankset, but lower than a road triple. Would require a new bottom bracket though...

Quote Originally Posted by Catriona
9 speed shifters won't work with 10 speed cassette - but I'm pretty sure that you can run a 9 speed cassette on 10 speed shifters... You just end up having a ghost shift for the last one. Somewhere on here, debw and or lunacycles were discussing how to do it on a cyclocross bike... It may have been for someone's terry valkyrie that they were getting information on how to build up. So going to a 9 speed mountain bike cassette in the back, she'd probably only have to change the rear derailleur & cassette.
If a 9-speed cassette will work with 10-speed shifters, that might be the cheapest way to gear down. I've never stuck a 9-speed wheel on a 10-speed bike....will try this tonight!

I love the looks of that new SRAM XX. (If I convert to it, DH will kill me. It's a given. ) My only concern in this application is finding a rear derailleur with enough capacity to handle that cassette range, and that will still work with the existing shifters if possible. If I found the right Madone on the interwebs, Lo's bike has Shimano Ultegra SL on it.