Microshift Sword Drivetrain Review

[@nooranik21]

I have about 300 miles on my resto mod road bike with a Sword group set. I have been very impressed so far. I opted for a 2x set up instead of a 1x and I have been happy with that decision so far. Just for the sake of experimentation I went for the sub compact crankset rocking the 29/46 rings and that low gear of 29:38 makes it so the bike can crawl up hills with very little effort. That said only having a high gear of 46:11 has not yet bothered me. I have only spun out on the bike a handful of times. The overall actuation and performance of the levers/derailleurs has been excellent. A lot of reviews mention the long lever throws but that's only an issue for the first ride. After that, i became accustomed to that muscle memory. It shifts smoothly and reliably in both directions. All of my riding buddies think I'm insane for putting a microshift gravel group set on a bike because they think it is cheap. I can assure you, while Sword is cost effective it is not cheap. It feels really good. Riding is believing and I am a beliver.

[@tedjohnson64]

Very interesting review! I was considering getting a bike with Microshift Sword, but… the lack of precision that you demonstrated (sometimes shifting multiple gears) is a problem that I hadn’t considered. I’m riding an ancient 1994 Bridgestone RB-2 with Shimano RX100 downtube shifters, and one of my favorite features is that there is zero play, and that each up/down shift always makes a loud BAM noise and shifts exactly how many gears I wanted. Having indexed shifters overshoot and then having to feather back a gear almost sounds like the behavior of 1970’s friction shifters.

[@spinningtrue]

Yeah it just doesn't seem to be quite as precise as other systems I have used although I have since read that a lot of newer drivetrains won't shift as well in the stand as they do when actually riding the bike because they are designed to shift when slightly under load... it's something I have gotten used to but I do still notice it even when I am riding the bike.

[@malcontent_1]

Thx for the follow-up video

[@tontrenner]

nice review thanks. :)

[@spinningtrue]

Thanks!

[@peterburkett1589]

Thanks for the review. What saddle is on that Lotus?

[@spinningtrue]

It's a velo orange saddle, pretty sure it's discontinued though!

[@peterburkett1589]

@@spinningtrue Thanks

[@SofiaisSunshine]

You can easily swap the chainring out to whatever ring you like on the sword…

[@spinningtrue]

Is it direct mount or does it have a specific BCD?

[@SofiaisSunshine]

@@spinningtrue its standard shimano hollowtech specs on the bb with a 24mm spindle. The chainring is standard 110bcd asymmetrical. Same as a lot of prowheel stuff. Easy to find narrow wide rings on amazon, Jensen etc

[@spinningtrue]

@@SofiaisSunshine Really I did not know that thanks!

[@SofiaisSunshine]

@@spinningtrue no worries, the only reason I know is I just researched it and put one on order. All I could find was a 165mm w/42t, everything else was sold out. I found the specs on their website and sent them a message to confirm I could swap out the chainring. Sweet bike setup and great video!

[@spinningtrue]

@@SofiaisSunshine that's interesting, it was a little hard to find the specs of this stuff like what the chainline and stuff is too... 165mm cranks might be really nice, I always use 170 because I don't like 175. Enjoy your build!

[@HagobSaldadianSmeik]

Interesting but its a shame that they only sell mechanical break levers and no hydraulic ones. I can live with 10 speed but I am entirely unwilling to ever return to mechanical breaks.

[@spinningtrue]

Yeah but then you get the basic Deore drivetrain that's also very good and not that much more money

[@waysidetimes9226]

I rock Juin Tech hydro-mechanical disc brakes on my disc bike and can easily lock up my tires in a panic brake with the stock brake pads, which are not great. I don't really see a problem with mechanical so long as the road levers have good mechanical leverage. I've run Microshift R9s and felt they didn't have good leverage, but Sora is great. I'm sure Microshift has improved since the R9. That being said, I have run two different purely mechanical disc brakes and didn't like either. The Avid BB7 and Paul Klampers can both stop reasonably well, but they only move one piston, so they get really uneven wear on the pads and there is ~always~ either brake rub or really bad breaking. I always went for the brake rub option. I gained 1mph from switching to Juin Techs. Plus, rim brakes are great! The good ones stop incredibly well. It is not hard to lock up any tire up to 35mm IME. The only downside to them is when you run them on carbon rims. When you think about it, they are a two-piston mechanical disc brake with inherently better mechanical leverage.

[@johncleere4885]

I think 90% of people in the Microshift demographic are mechanical brake folk.

[@SirBrass]

Microshift is an entry-level/budget focused company. It's much better than shimano tourney and lets those of us with mechanical disk or rim brakes still have a replacement option. My Giant CFR-3 had gunked up shifters and needed replacing (due to even more issues than gunk after digging into them some). Now, you can't FIND RSX shifters anymore, and the only 3x7 shimano brifters out there are Tourney, which is BLECH. But, you can still find Microshift R7 brifters (3x7) and Microshift is Shimano compatible, AND the front derailleur lever has TRIM too. Absolute win. My frame is rim brake and the rear triangle too narrow to fit a 2x10 groupset on there either. So, thank God there was Microshift with a good replacement option that didn't require me to replace my entire drivetrain for lack of decent replacement Shimano brifters. There's still a place for mechanical brake shifter sets. Not everything out there still cycling is capable of running hydraulic disk, but still needs servicing and brifter replacement as things age, while the frame is still in great shape.

[@keithhunter3910]

I am running mechanical Growtacs on my gravel bike and Paul's Klampers on my Krampus bikepacker. They are both powerful stoppers and low maintenance.