MicroSHIFT has all the time kinda flown below the radar with well-performing highway and mountain bike teams at nice costs, gliding below the shadow of SRAM and Shimano’s place as mainstream class leaders. So their new Sword gravel teams shouldn’t come as a shock given the class’s development, however they positively come out swinging.
Providing devoted 1x and 2x setups, the MicroSHIFT Sword groupsets include shifters, derailleurs, cassette, cranks, and chainrings, leaving you to supply no matter mechanical brake calipers you wish to run. And sure, it’s absolutely mechanical and really reasonably priced. Let’s have a look…
Actually vast gearing from simply 10 speeds
One of many greatest standouts for the group is how huge of a gear vary the 2x group will get you. It’s provided with two chainring combos, 46/29 and 48/31, every with a large 17-tooth leap. Mix that with the 11-38 cassette and you will get a 24% decrease gear (0.76 lowest gear ratio) than with a regular 50/34 compact chainring setup with 11-34 cassette!
The 1x chainring is obtainable with 40 and 42-tooth counts, and with the 40T paired to an 11-48 cassette, it’ll offer you a 0.83 lowest gear ratio. When you can’t crawl up any climb with these, it’s not the drivetrain that’s the difficulty.
Shifting & Ergonomics
The Sword brake levers are designed for flared bars as much as 45º, with an outward angle to match the place your fingers are on trendy gravel handlebars, however they are saying it’ll nonetheless work high quality with 0º flare bars, too.
The levers have a excessive pivot placement to extend leverage and scale back attain, so you will have most braking energy even with a single finger, which is useful when braking from atop the hoods. The internals pull extra cable than their highway levers, too, supplying you with extra energy on the rougher surfaces.
The shifter buttons are two distinct buttons, with an even bigger paddle for pulling cable (as much as bigger gears), and a launch paddle to click on right down to a smaller gear. There’s a single right-hand shifter to deal with the rear, however the left hand will get choices. An identical two-trigger design handles entrance shifts on a 2x construct, or go for a set brake lever for normal 1x builds, or one with a pivoting lever to regulate dropper posts.
The hoods have textured rubber covers, and beneath are unbiased attain changes for shift and brake levers, so you will get every part precisely the place you prefer it.
Shifty, Pedally Bits
The entrance derailleur will get a intelligent cable rigidity adjustment screw that’s simply accessible from the highest. As soon as put in, merely flip a 3mm hex wrench in there to loosen or tighten cable rigidity to fine-tune your shifting.
The rear derailleur is available in two variants, one for 2x with an extended cage to deal with the additional chain motion, and a medium cage for 1x builds.
There’s a built-in clutch that may be turned on or off for simpler wheel elimination or improved chain administration. The anticipated bezel to regulate cable rigidity is there, nevertheless it sits on an orbital mount that permits 15º of rotation in any course. So, it doesn’t matter what odd angle your cable housing exits your body, the bezel’s vary of movement helps enhance the angle at which the housing feeds into the derailleur for much less cable friction and smoother shifts.
Lastly, the pulley cage is well detachable and replaceable do you have to bend or break it…and it’s the one piece that must be modified to go from 1x to 2x and again. Effectively, you’ll wish to swap the cassette and chainrings, however you received’t want a brand new derailleur or shifters to modify between drivetrain sorts, simply change the cage.
The crankset can be the identical for 1x and 2x, with an uneven 110/80 BCD that matches one or two chainrings, each theirs and lots of aftermarket choices, too.
It has a 24mm spindle to suit any Shimano or related backside bracket, and is available in 165/170/172.5/175mm lengths.
The ten-speed 11-38 cassettes are all new for this group, and are available two variants, each with 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-38 tooth counts. The G-Sequence is the higher-end, lighter model that makes use of an alloy service with alloy huge cog, and the H-Sequence is all metal. Full weights listed additional down within the article.
The broader vary 1x cassettes are their Introduction X 10-speed mountain bike cassettes (425g for G-Sequence, 662g for H-series) with 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-34-40-48 cogs. All cassettes match on a regular HG freehub physique.
Components & Spec
Claimed weights for all elements are:
- Shifter SB-G7000R: 256g
- Shifter SB-G7020L: 256g (2x left)
- Shifter SB-G7000L: 170g (1x left)
- Shifter SB-G7000LD: 250g (dropper left)
- Entrance Derailleur: 108g (braze on)
- Rear Der-Med: 308g
- Rear Der-Lengthy: 329g
- Cassette H105 11-38: 453g (all metal cogs)
- Cassette G105 11-38: 336g (alloy spider with alloy huge ring)
- Crankset 1x 40T: 790g (810g 42T)
- Crankset 2x 46/29: 925g
All cranks weighed in 172.5mm size with out pedal spacers. Particular person element pricing is:
We now have a gaggle on the way in which (together with some TRP brakes) and can report again as soon as we’ve put a couple of miles on it!
