Originally Posted by
NoRacer
Dissenting vote for Microshift 10 speed brifters: I did my Ridley X-Fire build in December 2009 with the Forte version of Microshift 10-speed shifters. From the start, I liked how they felt in my hands, but I did not like that the FD shifter took two movements to go from the small to the large chain ring (unless I kept the FD cable under higher than normal tension all of the time) AND it kept breaking front brake cables right at the anchor. Some teflon grease at the archor seemed to help, but my confidence that a breakage would happen out on along ride was high. I started carrying spare brake cables--something I never had to do with Shimano brifters.
Another annoyance was that the throw of the small lever of the RD brifter seemed very long compared to the Ultegra shifter I replaced.
The icing on the cake--coming home from work the small lever of the RD brifter broke off in the middle of a shift. WTF!!!
Let's keep this in proper context. =)
http://weightweenies.starbike.com/fo...hp?f=3&t=60779
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/sho...d.php?t=187519
http://velonews.competitor.com/2009/...shifter_100636
Just sayin'. Microshift seems to be the red-headed step-child around here, and maybe doesn't get the same allowances as the others due to it's sales and marketing venue. It's encouraging to see a more affordable option that's getting largely good reviews. Shift lever breakage seems to be surprisingly not uncommon with the Sram Force and Rival stuff. A friend of mine had his 2010 Force shift lever come off in his hand just last week. Boo. We'll see how his warranty replacement goes. One more similar failure will likely signal his return to Shimano.
-Jeremy