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Interesting and thoughtful comments. I'll look out for the microshift sword stuff. At the moment, I'm conscious of not wanting to buy a lot of new bike kit. There is too much stuff being produced in the world. I tend to look ar second hand kit generally with the occasional foray into new bargain territory.
My favourite bike is a 40 year old Bob Jackson frame for which I have some new ie second hand kit to install. This will be my steed for a LEJOG in summer.
Long live the downtube shifter!
greytyke
Apologies for the essay below. I think about bikes more than I ought to...
I hear you. I have luddite tendencies myself. The over-complication and huge expense of modern mid/high end road stuff really turns me away. My parts bin is relatively deep but stops about 10yrs ago. The most modern parts are this group, and a Rival 1 mechanical group. Others are 5700 shifters/derailleurs, 5600 shifters/derailleurs, 7700 full group, some old Sora shifters, some 10sp campagnolo stuff, and an assortment of bar end and downtube shifters. Oh, and a bunch of old derailleurs that still work great.
I really have little interest in the newest stuff. Knowing myself, I like to tinker too much to make that investment, and I hate the idea of having to spend big money on consumables like chains and cassettes.
I think that's partly why I like what Microshift is doing. It seems like they don't even want the performance market. They've found their niche in the budget-but-works segment.
The new Sword group solves some of the aesthetics issues people will have with the Advent X stuff. Modern looking shift levers and derailleurs, and an additional 2x option with accompanying derailleurs. Those shifters are also advent x compatible, so perhaps I'll get some down the road to try out.
These shifters are really simple. When you pull the brake lever, and look at the shift mechanism like you might do on an older shimano, you can see how unsophisticated it is. But I like that. Really easy shifter throw and and as far as shifting feel goes, they feel somewhere between Sram and Campagnolo. Not as snappy maybe as older Campagnolo, but similarly positive clicks to Sram. They feel good, but not as polished feeling as Shimano. I like that the shift levers are independent of the brake lever.
With an 11-48 cassette I really miss a few cogs like 12, 14, etc. I think it goes 11/13/15/17/19/24/28/34/40/48. I could actually do with a cassette kinda like Shimano's 7 speed megarange with the tighter series and a bigger jump to the last one. That said, for touring/commuting/kid carrying and pulling/errand doing/etc., it's perfectly usable.
Install is very straightforward. Nothing unusual.
Having said all of that, for someone who wants something that works well enough, isn't concerned with having the most modern bits, can do with the big top end gaps, and is OK with the aesthetics, Advent X is pretty great. If big range isn't necessary, it shifts an 11-36 really well too, and that solves the big top end jumps problem. Sword further solves that problem by having a 2x10 group complete with subcompact crankset, and dedicated derailleurs. Still feels like a budget group compared with srampagmano options.