The transmission is so worn on my ‘road’ bike that I can’t ride up steep hills without the chain falling off. I like to get maximum value and use out of things….

I’ve got a 10sp chain. I need a cassette but will mtb stuff work with 105 10sp shifters? Sometimes SLX is cheaper than Tiagra/105 but will it work?

Unusually it seems that it is cheaper to buy individual chain rings rather than a complete chainset at the moment but would a SRAM apex (from Spa cycles say) work with 105 shifters? Also can I mix and match chainrings? It’s a compact chainset but would one Tiagra and one ultegra work for example?

Cheers

You cannot mix and match shifters and mechs, but everything else works fine including using road cassettes with mtb mechs etc so long as they are all 10sp.

Third party chainrings are also an option. I’ve replaced a pair of Shimano rings with Stronglight Durals before now and had no issues. They may even have been an improvement.