Wanderer

Are their products any good?

I_bRAD

Short answer: no. They're cheap though!

operator

Nope.

They suck. Rebranded about a million times and resold as well. Quality level is about sora, or lower.

Wanderer

Thanks - a friend needed one, and found a good buy on a rear derailleur. I just had no knowledge on them. I'll encourage him to visit the LBS.

DArthurBrown

I think it depends on what you mean by "good". Do they move the gears effectively and precisely on an 8 speed? Sure. Are they cheaper than Sora? Usually. Would I bother with their stuff when Sora and Tiagra stuff can be found new on eBay or less? No.

JanMM

The Microshift FD's on my RANS 'bents work well.

cs1

Have you actually used them? Try doing a search of Microshift. Most of the reviews are positive. I love people who say something sucks without a reason.

https://road.cc/content/review/14420-...10spd-groupset

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cofi...-on-microshift

https://allaroundcycler.blogspot.com/...-shifters.html

Sure they're not DA or Record. But they don't cost anywhere near as much.

defjack

Works just fine on my Cruzbike Quest. Jack

CPFITNESS

nashbar has their own rebranded microshift stuff for cheap, I may pick some up since it's cheap.

fitzdawg

I have the re-branded Forte 10 speed group from Performance on my Fuji Newest, and I have to say that it works just fine. Having owned and ridden everything from 2200 to Ultegra in the last few years, I would place the Microshift stuff right around Tiagra. It is certainly as good if not better than Sora, and no matter how cheap ebay stuff is you can't get Sora or Tiagra in 10 speed.

On a side note, most of the folks on this forum that are bashing the Microshift components claim to own bike shops. Since they are shop owners they're getting things like Dura-ace at cost, so of course the law of diminishing returns doesn't apply to them. When I was shopping for parts to build up my road bike I could choose from 2-5 year old 8speed Sora from Ebay, or brand new microshift from performance. Since I wanted 10 speed I would have had to spend 2-5 times as much for 105 (the higher rate for brand new). So is 105 stuff 5 times better than Microshift? In my opinion no it's not.

NightShift

Do you know the computer component company ECS? I tend to think of Microshift and ECS and same way.
They both make products for many different customers, with different quality control standards, and different price points.
Not all rebranded products are equal, even if it's basically the same item for the same factory.

Buy from a shop or company you trust. Don't worry about the fact that you could get "the same" item cheaper from some company you've never heard of/dealt with. Enjoy the savings over the bigger names. Use the warranty if you need to, but don't expect to need to.

fitzdawg

That's exactly why I bought from Performance. I figured that even though I could "technically" save money through ebay, with Performance I always have their satisfaction guarantee.

Bikewer

I've been thinking about replacing the friction-shifters on my vintage ('72) roadster with the Nashbar items. I've been haunting ebay for a set of 8-speed brifters but so far either too expensive or too worn.

HillRider

A bit OT, but have you thought this project completely through? On a bike that old there is likely to be a lot more to it than just adding brifters and a cassette.

Bikewer

Yeah, I see that they're only available in 10-speed version. My roadster has already been converted to 8-speed, so there would likely be no problem with rear-wheel spacing, but it would need a new chain, and the appropriate stops to replace the friction shifters.
I may just keep looking for a decent set of 8-speed 105s or Ultegra jobs.

bigdaddy10028

nashbar must be watching this thread, at some point this morning they jacked the price up on their shifters from 129 to 169. they had a coupon that lets you get 20% off of any single item. I was going to use it and ge tthem for 103 bucks but now i gotta hold out I guess. shoulda got them 2 weeks ago when they were doing friends and family sale for 25% off your entire order!

greyghost_6

Anyone know if its compatible with shimano components? Im reading it is but want a more definitive answer. In my experience SRAM cassettes that advertise they work with shimano work as if they are not. If microshift is proven to be compatible give a mix and match a try. It seems their deraleurs are good but shifters are lacking. If that is the case pickup some derailleurs and shimano shifters and test it out....then report here so we can all know how it went haha.

bigdaddy10028

Yes, in fact they were sued by shimano because they used the same pull ratio. I just picked up a set of 9speed shifters. Someone was selling on ebay for 140 bucks but he was located in NYC so he sold them to me for 120 and i just rode over and picked them up. Gonna use them on a flatbar conversion.

dstrong 

Bicycling magazine just had a write-up...couldn't find it online...to summarize:

• It's an eight piece group...MS doesn't doesn't offer BBs or Cassettes.
• About $470 total
• About 120 grams heavier than Shimano 105, 220 g's more than Apex
• Older ISIS BB systems
• Sluggish front shifting
• Less polished braking
• the shifting mechanism is "quite exposed" (whatever that means)
• Smaller release paddle is tough to reach from drops
• It's "almost all win"
• Cross-compatible with many shimano road groups.

bigdaddy10028

And i'm sure that magazine is in bed with shimano because of how much ad revenue they spend with them so any magazines review doesn't mean jack shyte to me. It's the same thing with golf equipment.

cs1

Even though they might take a lot of advertising dollars their review of Microshift isn't really bad.

bigdaddy10028

I suppose dstrong was paraphrasing the article as well so we don't know exactly what was put. Here is my take after riding about 4 miles on them First of all, I have the 9 speed shifters mated to an 8 speed casette. I installed as per instructions and was expecting to have the situation where my derailer stops prevented the last click but that isn't happening, now I think it's because once you have the cable run through the shifter you have to actually do the install backwards and push the RD all the way in to the biggest cog and then tighten. Regardless, it was still shifting okay, sometimes It would double shift and jump down 2 cogs on one click but then if I hit the other paddle it would jump back up one. the shifting was relatively quick and responsive though it felt a tad bit slower than my flatbar shifters that were previously on. I'm going to ultimately put a 9 speed cassette on, it just hasn't come in yet. I'm confident this will solve all issues. In the meantime I just tried the alternate cable routing trick and will give that a go this morning.

the front shifter is made for a double and has 3 clicks in it. I'm going to attempt to make it work for a triple, presently it isn't working out however, It could definately be because of the front derailer model that I hve on their, I'm going to attempt it with a true road triple FD and pray that it works because otherwise, I don't know where I'm going to get the triple shifter from. One downside to Microshift is clearly exposed when you see their website. One look and you will understand why they can sell their product cheap; they are no frills. The website looks borderline bootleg. It almost really caters more to potential distributors and not actual endusers. Since I bought my shifters off of a guy who simply sells them on ebay who was local to me in NYC I'm going to check with him on who his sources are and see if he can get me the appropriate model, otherwise I may be sol and have to swap out to a compact double. not the worst thing in the world, but at 235lbs I've grown to love my triple!! One reason i'm going to 9speed is so I can add a 32 tooth cog on the back and have a 30/32 combo with my triple. If I have to swap out to a compact the 34/32 will at least give me the same lowest gear that I have now with my 8 speed triple which is 30/28.

More to follow as I get this all tweaked and running.

bigdaddy10028

Preliminary review. Upgraded to 9speed cassette today running on 2200 rear deraileur 11-32 cassette. Rd rated for 27 tooth max which is funny cuz 8 spd cassette I replaced was 11-28 . We all know ratings are conservative and this is no exception, it easily shifts to that cog and shifts smoothly through all the gears. This is WAY BETTER than sora brifters (the only others I've used so I'm limited here) some complaints have been about uplifting from the drops, it's not perfect and it seems if they made the small paddle a tad longer it would be fine. Regsrdless, I don't have much trouble at all. I love the fact that I can downshift 3 gears with one throw. These are replacing flatbar trigger shifters which were a pain to quickly downshift as are sora. As for the front, I had a flatbar fd so my one dug up a tiagra triple fd to get the pull ratio right. My shifter I'd only a double but it has 3 clicks one is supposed to act as a trim. My mechanic fiddled and played around and ultimately added a barrel adjusted to the shifter and got it to shift to all 3 up front. It takes some playing with a bit still but it is more than functional until I either decide to swap in a compact crank or am able to trade for the triple. Bottom line is for 120 bucks these are well worth it.

bellweatherman

I disagree with all the people saying that Microshift is bad. I have tried Microshift. Granted, it wasn't my bike and I really only had time to test it out for less than an hour, but it actually isn't too bad.

Most of the people here dogging Microshift haven't even tried it. The brand is from Taiwan. Not really well-known. Cofidis uses them on all their TT bikes. Here is an article of their usage in this year's Tour de France. From Cyclingnews.com:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cofi...-on-microshift

Kimmo

I'm just glad to see another brand of dual-control lever. More competition = better gear, cheaper : D

I'm hoping this will accelerate the rate of innovation some...

That's just absolute ****en poo. It should be possible for someone to make levers with interchangeable indexing bits to suit any combination.