microshift vs normal shimano shifters

clunkychunky

Im looking at a Felt F85 on the cycle to work scheme and have seen it comes with microshifters instead of the normal shimano range. anyone know how these differ??

cheers

keef66

As I understand it they have 2 gear levers in addition to the brake lever. Could be trickier to operate in winter gloves??

clunkychunky

keef66 wrote:

As I understand it they have 2 gear levers in addition to the brake lever. Could be trickier to operate in winter gloves??

oh right. thanks.
will look for something else i think.

essjaydee

Pretty sure microshift are a brand. My road bike has microshift front mech and it works fine

My SORA and Tiagra shifters both have additional levers to the brake levers, but in different positions. Don't think this is anything to do with wether they are microshift or not.

Bit more here http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17132417

Good review here too http://www.wiggle.co.uk/felt-f85-2011/

martincashman

I upgraded my winter bike from Shimana Sora 8speed to a Microshift Centos 10speed and they work great, my other bikes have Shimano 105 10speed. Whichever shifters you use, they just take getting used to, with Microshift, initially I kept trying to flick the brake lever to change but once I got used to the two levers, they work fine with thick winter gloves. Going back to Shimano 105 now seems awkward and will have to be relearned in Summer.

On performance, Microshift and 105 are almost identical, Microshift rear derailleur is better, bought a 2nd one as a replacement for 105 on one bike. The Microshift front chainring shifter is a bit slower than 105 tho, it must be said that I didn't change over from 8speed chainrings so maybe this is a factor. Front shifting isn't as critical, so this is not a big issue.

Very surprised more bike makers don't fit Microshift on bikes instead of Shimano and spend savings on better wheels.