I ran the silver 9-speed Microshift thumb shifters on my MTB for two seasons. The machining and quality of the clamp and levers is very nice and they are a pleasure to look at. Mine were the index-only option and I bought them from the cheapest Taiwanese source on Ebay. I also have heard about the Surlys with the friction option but have never seen them in person. A couple of observations:
On rough trails, the indexing stops were kind of light and I would sometimes accidentally bump the right shifter with my knuckle and shift when I didn't want to. Also, I was coming from using the newest XT and Sram x-9 speed shifters and I was surprised at how when I switched to the Microshift, my right thumb would get really sore after a Mt. ride from all of the shifting. The ergonomics, that is, not having to lift your thumb over the grip and bar to shift, are IMHO is vastly better on the newest XT/XTR shifters. I know this is a very un-rivish opinion. I say this in regards to mountain biking where you are having to shift a lot quickly and in technical situations. I also say this as someone who used Suntour XC Pro thumb shifters for many years of riding. That said, I would happily put the Microshift thumb shifters on any all-arounder or city bike without hesitation. Maybe approaching 50, my thumbs aren't what they used to be. Suggestions for strengthening my thumbs? Perhaps mounting tires on A23 rims each night? Scott Calhoun Tucson, Arizona On Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:37:36 PM UTC-7, Daniel M wrote: > > My understanding is that the Microshifts are index-only (no friction > option as with the Shimano / Thumbie option), but that the proprietary ones > that come on Surlys (but are not sold separately) do have the friction > option. Can anyone confirm or deny all or part of this? > > Daniel M > Berkeley, CA > > P.S. I particularly love it when using the Microsoft shifters and I need > to up or downshift, so I push or pull the lever, nothing happens, I push or > pull it further in the same direction, then the shifter turns into a > spinning blue wheel for a minute, and then later I get the entire sequence > of shifts all at once at a completely inappropriate time. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
