Sub Compact

The front derailleur on my current road bike has been a problem since I got it. If you want the whole story, you can read it here: https://mondoblahblah.blogspot.com/2018/04/all-together-now.html

The microSHIFT derailleur supplied with the Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier v2 DIY build kit was just never quite right. It worked, but in order to shift to the large chainring I had to "overshift" so that the outer plate rubbed the inside of the crank arm and then trim the derailleur back once the chain made the move to the big ring. 

The crank arm didn't completely come to a stop when it made contact with the derailleur cage, but to avoid as much "rubbing" as I could, I tried to shift up only after the drive-side pedal passed the 12 o'clock position and have all trimming complete before it reached the 9 o'clock spot. Obviously harder when pedaling at a high cadence.

I got used to the motion, so it wasn't a huge problem. Since I spend about 95% of my time on the big 46 tooth ring, it wasn't much more than a minor annoyance. But the derailleur never actually worked the way it's supposed to, and it spent far more time rubbing on the crank arm than should ever be the case. We do it all the time, but we should never have to conform our behavior to compensate for the inadequacy of our equipment. We deserve to have stuff that works!

microSHIFT 9/10-speed front derailleur

These "winter months" tend to be when I attend to the routine maintenance of my bikes in preparation for the much more active spring riding season. This year I needed to re-wrap the handlebars and while I was doing that I thought I'd try a different cable routing for my bar-end shifters, running the cables under the bar wrap rather than having the big swoopy loops of cable housing jutting out over the front wheel where is kind of interferes with my rack-mounted handlebar bag. AND while I was at THAT, I might just as well see if I could do something about the annoying front derailleur.

After removing the microShift unit, I immediately noticed two things about it:  

1. The model number does not match that listed on the Cycles Toussaint site (FD-R62 vs. FD-R74E)
2. It is marked "9/10 Flat Handlebar"

microSHIFT FD-R62 9/10-speed front derailleur

I honestly have no idea if either of these things matter at all. They are both old, retired parts numbers and I'm not sufficiently interested to know if there was a mistake in my order. At this point I could probably just live with it forever, gripe from time to time and just get on with my life. But I have an Ultegra derailleur gathering dust so...  

I had recently run into the old Microsoft Ultegra 10-speed front derailleur in my parts bin. It's a remnant of my midlife crisis super bike, and it's just been sitting in the bin since I stupidly drove into a parking garage with it bolted to my roof rack. 

Now I am not sophisticated about chain lines, spindle length, etc. I used to believe that Shimano components won't work with anything other than other Shimano components, and even then only from the same groupset from the same generation. But I have recently come to believe that friction shifting can cure nearly all technical problems with bikes (thanks Russ!). So I figured I'd swap the Ultegra for the microSHIFT and see if it works any better. In the worst case I'd just have to swap them back, so what's to lose?

Shimano Ultegra 10-speed front derailleur

You probably won't be surprised to learn that of course the Shimano derailleur works better. At least it is easier to adjust so that the chain moves to the big ring without the derailleur rubbing on the crank arm. And it shifts down just as reliably. Altogether it just provides a much more confidence inspiring shifting experience. It does seem to take more "trimming" when I'm cross chaining. I think the Ultegra cage, which is specifically 10-speed only, not 9/10-speed, is narrower than the microSHIFT's, which would account for the difference. Saint Sheldon confirms. 

I suspect I'll spend more time trimming at the outside edges of the shifting range, and I'll see if that drives me crazy. For the moment, it's just nice to be able to pull up to the big ring in a single motion without having to think about where the crank arm is in its rotation 

So the moral of the story is that you should never leave an expensive Shimano component lying around in a box when you have an equivalent budget part you aren't happy with. Slap it on, see if it works. What have you got to lose?