RPK79

When I bought my groupset for my current build the internal on the 105 was one of the major driving factors for going with that group over the Tiagra.

KBentley57

Did you paint it yourself? Or was it powdercoated somewhere else. Or did it come in the black?

link0

It looks nice to me. They provide a lot of value.

RT

It came in matte black. Recent RD hanger break scraped frame badly, had it blasted/powdered for $80 local.

vwchad

Looks like decent stuff. Hidden routing is cleaner, for sure, but it does make for more work when it comes time to replace housings.

OP, I'm curious to hear your experience with Microshift both after installation and a few hundred miles later. I've got a frame waiting for me to buy the parts to build into a light touring/commuter and I'm looking to keep it cheap.

coasting 

so is shimano better than microshift? how much cheaper is microshift?

seems like a good alternative for a back up bike.

bikedoofus

Wilco - fitting them this weekend and heading out for a decent ride as soon as they're on. Will report after first ride and also in a few weeks time.

RT

Not the OP, but have been preaching the Microshift gospel for years on this forum and have several thousand miles on 8,9,10 speed groups. The 9 speed levers I'm using now are crisp and clean. Levers being used with new Sora RD and 105 5600 FD. They are not as quiet as Shimano or SRAM, but this doesn't concern me as I'm not riding in a library. The ergonomic design of the hoods are comparable to Tiagra 4600, but a little smaller, and not as small as 5700 or Ultegra.

And for $106 there is no better value.

bikedoofus

Good to know, thank you! Only thing I couldn't get a handle on by reading various reviews was longevity and reliability, so a bit of a shot in the dark there for me.

This always amused me. Isn't it better that you get a good loud positive click? If you're belting it into the wind and your ears are roaring and the bars are nearly bouncing out of your hand you might not know otherwise.

RT

Go with what fits in your hand well and gives you a good ride. 105/5700 are an awful fit for my hands, and I can tune Sora derailleurs to shift as well as 105. Everyone has a preference, this is just my experience. That being said, Microshift has yet to break on me, and I've dumped them hard enough to put me out 1/4 of a season. Microshift FD and RD options are also as good as Shimano at that level, again, in my experience.

bikedoofus

She lives!!! Fitted everything today. Working very well so far, but I'll hold off till I've done a couple of hundred miles to do an in depth review. No easier or harder to fit than anything else.
Gone are old Sora shifters & mechs. In are the 'Arsis' (snort) shifters and mechs, an ultegra 6600 crankset, a SRAM 1070 11-28 cassette and a KMC chain. Total cost of upgrades was £251.

coasting 

looks good. how does the shifting feel?

bikedoofus

Just did a 15 mile evening ride, and generally very happy. Rear dérailleur/shifter was perfect straight out of the garage. Front dérailleur I thought was perfect out of the garage but on my ride I kept noticing a slight but annoying chain whir which I just couldn't put my finger on - turns out that rear 28 cog (my old cassette was 13-25) was pushing the chain into the top of the dérailleur! Very annoying and cut the ride short. Moved it up a millimetre and went out again, then everything was perfect. Easy to avoid, just remember to double the manufacturer's recommended tolerance between large chainring and deraileur if using a 28.


How does it shift? Well.... not much to report really. You click, it shifts. There's no delay, the action is light enough, the buttons are in the right place, the levers are easily pushed for their entire throw without moving your hand from the hood/drop, so all is well. It shifts no better or worse than any other well set-up road system I've used. It certainly feels a bit different to shimano in operation - whereas ultegra/da shift quiet and smooth with an action that puts you in mind of a swiss watch, this feels far more businesslike and puts you more in mind of a bolt-action. Can't really describe it any better than that. I do prefer it, though I can see why some might not.


I don't think it sounds particularly loud, but I think it is perhaps louder than ultegra/da. It certainly isn't loud enough to bother me in the slightest.


Impressions generally - it does all feel extremely solid. Perhaps this is because the brake levers only move in one direction - this I like. I always suspected campag fans were on to something there. Braking feels no different to shimano, though braking from the hoods is a little harder than with sora because the ergonomics are obviously leant more toward the drops. Braking from the drops feels very good. Shifter controls are easy to reach from all positions, though if you like to cruise on the very bottom of the drops and shift with your index finger from there like ym dad does then you're probably not going to be able to reach the upshift trigger without moving your hand. If you only ever use hoods/drops as I do then you're fine.

Jiggle

I'm pure Texan and it makes me chuckle.

bikedoofus

"Arsis"... "Bona".... I wonder if they pissed off their English translator?

Smiziley

I've been racing on the Nashbar branded 10 speed Microshift version for the past 2 seasons. Have close to 10,000 miles on the shifters and front derailleur. I've replaced the rear derailleur, it got bent in transport late last year. I told myself initially that I would just ride it til it broke then just replace with some Shimano parts. They've been really durable and Are just as solid today as the day they were installed.

bikedoofus

Everything well adjusted now, took me two rides to get it perfect but I've now got 100 miles on it and no complaints. I dialled back the upper jockey wheel float a bit at one point, it came with a bit more than necessary but maybe that's required with shimano cassettes - I know SRAM use less/no float so maybe that's why my SRAM cassette seems to prefer without. Or maybe it shipped too loose - who can tell.

Unfortunately my rear hub seems to be damaged as the cup & cones bearings came very loose last night and after replacing the balls I noticed it's warped such that the cassette wobbles slightly as it rotates - whole hub body must be distorted I think. So... I won't be able to report with any impartiality on the groupset till I get that fixed. Complete pain in the arsis.

bikedoofus

Oh dear.... failure! The left/rear shifter has lost the ability to switch between trim positions on the big ring and is thus extremely annoying to use. Going from the small ring you can shift up to the small ring upper trim position, big ring lower trim position and then big ring upper trim position. But pressing the down shift trigger drops the dérailleur down to the small ring every time. This means you have to change down to the little ring then back up to the big ring each time you want to move back and forth across the cassette on the big ring!

Have emailed the vendor and Microshift and am awaiting their reply. Will update again later.

bikedoofus

Microshift have come back to me and confirmed that they are sending a replacement direct to me. Can't argue with that. The number of people who've said they've run Microshift for years without issue and the early failure of mine makes me think it was probably just a duff unit.

rms13

That group is fairly new right? I don't think anyone has been using it for years without trouble. I was briefly considering it to update my Ironman. Main reason I didn't was I needed full group and I got 105 for about $400, the MS mini group for about $200 plus cranks, bb, chain, cassette would have been $400 or more. I did a lot of research and didn't see any real long term reviews but from the reviews I read the only major complaint was shifting was really loud

Looigi

I wonder if it could be something like a pawl getting gummed up, fixable by hosing out with WD40? This is not uncommon in other brand shifters, though it usually takes at least a few years to happen depending on riding/maintenance conditions.

bikedoofus

I think Arsis is pretty new but from what I can gather the internals are no different to Bora, Centos, R10 etc.

bikedoofus

Could well be. Certainly it feels like something is lose and needs locking down. Already tried the spray lube trick, no joy. Certainly they look like they should be user-servicable, so I'll try taking the duff unit apart and see if I can fix it. Didn't want to risk it myself as there's a good chance I'll break it taking it apart, or I'll not be able to get it together again, but as they're sending a replacement I may as well have a go on the old one. At least I'll know how (or if) I can service the new one in the future! Once I receive the new one I'll have a try with the old and update my findings.

bikedoofus

Changed to a SRAM Rival groupset in the interim - riding with the broken shifter was driving me crazy and I've got up a good habit of going out regularly which I didn't want to break. It was a bit of a leap of faith as I've never used SRAM before but I'm extremely happy with the result - shifts are very crisp and never hesitant, seems a significant improvement over the shimano and microshift setups I've used in the past. Braking is also significantly improved though modulation is slightly poorer, so probably just more leverage at the lever. Using one lever for down and up shifts took very little time to get used to but then quite a few miles to fully eliminate occasional accidental upshifts. Not utterly convinced by the ergonomics - think I still prefer the beefier hoods of shimano and microshift for my big hands, but equally this could just take a bit more getting used to. Also the chain has dropped off the little ring twice on rides despite my having adjusted the lower limit as high as I can go without chain rub. Think a chain catcher might be in order as this never happened with Shimano or Microshift setups but then the cage was narrower on the Shimano mech whereas SRAM's is a wider cage lower down to eliminate the need for trim on the smaller ring - I like this, so happy to use a chain catcher as a compromise. I note the newer SRAM mechs now come with a chain catcher attached.

Still waiting for the replacement so haven't done anything with the old shifters for now. It's looking like I will just sell on the new replacements when they arrive as I'm pretty sold on the SRAM Rival group.