I looked extensively at the SRAM shifters, and could not find a favorable gear-inch spread for that. The other problem with SRAM shifters is that they are wireless, and thus each derailleur has its separate motor and battery. I'm not psyched on the road to be worrying about multiple batteries. The Shimano shifters Bluetooth their battery information to my Garmin Edge, so that I don't need to worry about that. The big concern regarding electronic shifters is that one might worry about depletion of a charge on the unit while out on an adventure, yet I find that I get 3-4 months on my road bike, and I shift a lot on the road bike. Specifically, the components I'd use would be RD-M9050 rear derailleur, which has a capacity for rear teeth of 40, and 3 x 11 possibility. The front derailleur FD M9050 would work with the FC M9020-3 with a chainring of 40-30-22 teeth. I'd then use the rear cog of 11-32, an Ultregra cog. Since the derailleurs are in the XTR mountain bike groupset, I'm not sure if they would be compatible with road bike brifters, like the Ultegra. So, I'm going to wait on that, until I hear that somebody has been able to assembly a unit that works on drop bar touring bicycles. And yes, I live in Puyallup. We moved here indirectly from Chicago many moons ago.
