to add on to etigge's post, this bike has gone thru a complete revamp, frame is left original. As far as i remembered when i last saw this bike:
it has a shorter fork to accommodate c-brake (lighter) though v brakes at rear, FSA carbon crankset, Deore 2013 groupsets and brake levers, lite-on wheelsets, durano tires, crank brothers pedals, fizik saddle, bla bla bla couldnt remember. Usually people like them owned a few bicycles, when they upgrade their bikes, those old components will be thrown to the old bikes.

as mentioned by mr.samo: we ride the bike, not the bike ride us. Do we need to modify that far? Or far you want to go? If your answer is yes, then "no mountain is too high"

I am no professional, just normal person who couldnt sit still bicycle enthusiast sharing my thoughts.

P/S: the bike doesnt belongs to me too.

Cheers.

sorry etigge, i will rape a bit of your posting in sharing my experience & opinion. hehehe ...To make situation simplfied, i will only elaborate on SHIMANO SETUP, let alone SRAM - they dont get along well with shimanos as we all know.

All Road Deraileurs works with MTB shifters - vice versa. Be it 7 speed, 8 speed, 9 speed. Until the latter Shimano introduced "Dyna Sys" system in some 9 speed MTB groupset. You will find the "Dyna Sys" chap or logo in the packaging and only in MTB components. The Deore, XT, XTR are the ones to watch out.

Dyna Sys components WILL NOT WORK with ROAD COMPONENTS. As i mentioned, Shimano introduced Dyna Sys in the newer 9 speed systems, so all 10 speed component are DYNA SYSed. So the tricky part is if you were to match up a 10 speed bike setup.

How does Dyna Sys work and why?
Dyna Sys system are designed with closer gear ratio, smoother shifting performance and improved power transfer. Closer gear ratio means smaller jumps between gear changes and less chance in chain dropping in rough conditions.
And for those who realize a shorter RD cable routing will affect your gear changes, and because of Dyna Sys short close ratio you can have the benefit of using shorter routing cables which long cable are dangerous in trails.

Dyna Sys uses 1:1 ratio (and no, they are not compatible with SRAM either, confuse & strange eh?!?) Meaning, it will jump 2 cogs or doesn't shift gears if you mix road & MTB (Dyna Sys) components.
Long to short:
A 10 speed road RD is not compatible with 10 speed (Dyna Sys) MTB shifter. - Chain will jump 2 cogs with 1 shift. And vice versa - it doesn't jump at all.
A 9 speed road RD will not work with a 10 speed (Dyna Sys) shifter too, but will work on a 10 speed road flat shifter. (Because of the pulling ratio)

This also applies to:
A 10 speed (Dyna Sys) MTB RD will not work on normal 9 speed shifters. But a 10 speed road RD will work with any normal 9 speed shifters



This is only RD side of story, there are other benefits for using Dyna Sys in FD too. Since RD setup is more crucial, i leave the FD alone lah..... hehehe.

Sekian terima kasih . :D