New opportunities with SRAM Apex

[lighttourer]

Has anyone considered the opportunities opened up for tourers by the 11-32 10 speed casettes now available, when paired with a double off-road chainset? Can the SRAM Apex levers be used with their off-road front mechs? If they can, then I would've thought that a 39/26 chainset would give a good range for touring. Or even better, a 40/24, using eg a Stronglight Impact chainset, if there is a front mech that can cover that range and work with the Apex levers (although I guess the Apex levers themselves don't really offer anything new). Like I say, I'd be interested in hearing others' views on this. At present I use Campag triple setups, but I'm drawn to the simplicity of a double set up, and I like the ergonomics of the SRAM levers (not sure how they fare when it comes to reliability compared with Campag?)

I note from Chris Juden's comments on another thread that the new 10 Shimano off-road gear is not compatible with their 10 speed road stuff, so it looks like that isn't going to be an option for tourers. So what about the SRAM option?

[GrahamG]

Nothing to stop you doing that with your campag set up in 8 or 9 speed flavour - just need a shiftmate or appropriate/relevant shimergo solution.

Edit - if you want 10 speed and/or SRAM shifters then you're quite right but I'm sure someone told me that front mechs were a different cable pull ration (according to the SRAM website) but might be worth a search.