microSHIFT Sword Black Review: Shifting Expectations – John Watson | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

John’s been riding the microSHIFT Sword Black groupset for a few months on the Black Mountain Cycles Mod Zero and has penned a review that follows up on Travis Engel’s thoughts on the original Sword groupset he wrote in 2023. Sword Black is an even more affordable ($349 vs. $474) cable-actuated groupset, but in an era of everything going electronic, how does it stack up? Read on for this in-depth look…

Less, not More

Much like Travis’ journey with the original Sword group, my experience with Sword Black came at an opportune time. I wanted less, not more, from my drop bar groupsets after putting hundreds of miles on my Bruce Gordon Monster Cross, which has XTR 8-speed rigged to an indexed barcon. There is something just so simple and numbingly beautiful about riding that setup.

In the interim, I began working with Whit at Meriwether on the Ponderosa, the award-winning gravel platform, built with Shimano’s GRX 12-speed. That groupset is phenomenal and epitomizes peak non-electric shifting, in my opinion.

But for the Mod Zero review, I wanted to build it more budget-aligned and began looking at the options on the market. microSHIFT Sword was on my mind…

Then microSHIFT came knocking at my inbox with an alluring announcement: they had an all-new, more affordable version of Sword launching called Sword Black.

Sword Black Quick Hits: Fewer Speeds, Lower Cost

$350 for an entire groupset, including a crankset, is cheap. Dirt cheap.

Lower gear ranges than comparable road groups (2x 11-38T, 1x 11-46T)
Dialed ergonomics that feel good on flared bars
Easy to work on yourself – even I can set it up and have it shift crisply

But there are key differences:

It has 9 speeds instead of 10
There is no clutch in the rear derailleur
It has a square taper crank (!!!!!)
The groupset is $126 cheaper at MSRP ($349 vs $474 including crankset)

And to note:

Advent MTB shifters work with Sword and Sword Black rear derailleurs.
All Sword and Sword Black shifters work with Advent MTB derailleurs.
microSHIFT designed Advent and Sword to operate on the same cable pull.
However, only the 2x left Advent flat bar shifter works with the Advent 2×9 front derailleur. That shifter doesn’t work with the Sword Black front derailleur. The front derailleurs use different cable pulls.

Pricing

Sword Black 1×9 Groupset, Shifters, M Cage 1x RD, Steel 42T Cassette, Crankset: $219.99
Sword Black 1×9 Groupset, Shifters, M Cage 1x RD, Steel 46T Cassette, Crankset: $224.99
Sword Black 2×9 Groupset, Shifters, Braze-On FD, L Cage 2x RD, Steel 38T: $269.99
Sword Black Cranks (1x or 2x): $78.99
Sword Black Wide Front Derailleur Double (braze or clamp on): $26.99
Sword Black 1x Rear Derailleur 9/10 Speed (medium or long) Cage: $42.99
Sword Black Drop Bar Shifters 1×9: $144.99
Sword Black Drop Bar Shifters 2×9: $169.99

Weight

I weighed the parts from the Mod Zero build on a postal scale. Not that anyone is an über veight veenie when it comes to lower-tier groupsets like Sword Black but hot damn, these numbers impressed me.

Sword Black 1×9 shifter/brake lever: 278 grams
Sword Black brake lever: 200 grams
Sword Black rear derailleur: 338 grams
Sword Black square taper cranks 175mm long, 40t ring installed (no crank bolts): 662 grams
Sword Black 9-speed 46T cassette HG spline: 578 grams

Compatibility and Clutches

Sword and Sword Black use the same cable pull ratio, which makes the rear derailleurs cross-compatible. So, if you have a Sword Black group, you can swap in a Sword rear derailleur without changing any parts. Or you can just piece together your own kit. It’s a nice upgrade path if you decide you want a clutch down the line. Throughout my entire review of the Mod Zero, I never felt like I needed, nor would benefit from a clutch.

Ergonomics

Hopping on Sword Black, coming from Shimano GRX took a little re-wiring. My right hand immediately felt for two paddles but was greeted with a small bar and a paddle. The bar shifts down the cassette, and the paddle shifts up. The throws are completely acceptable but might feel strange coming from an electronic shifting group where you’re pressing a button. Both offer a convenience over reaching down to a barcon or downtube shifter – the other two shifting mechanisms in my drop bar bike rotation.

The shape of the hoods is sculpted to match up even with bars like the Ritchey 52 cm WCS Beacon XL I used on the build. Overall, the entire feel of the hoods is modern, with enough real estate for wielding the bike on singletrack or for those moments when you might not want to get in the drops.

Your hand positioning can take a little re-wiring if you’re coming from Shimano or SRAM, particularly from an electronic groupset.

Then, if you are in the drops, the finger reach required is also natural, coming from someone with XL glove-sized hands. Here’s a photo series showing the reach required for the Sword Black levers and Ritchey Beacon drops.

Cable Actuated Fun

When you offer a cable-actuated brake lever in your groupset, you allow riders to use rim brakes, too. While the Black Mountain Mod Zero was built using TRP Spyre disc brakes, I could have run this groupset on a rim brake bike like a vintage MTB drop bar conversion. That’s something you cannot do on a hydraulic brake lever.

For bikes that I travel with on a plane, I still prefer cable disc brakes over hydraulic disc brakes…

9 is Fine, No Really

Look, we all can count. 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13-speeds? Really? I get it. I really do. Modern, high-end bike stuff is a lot of fun to ride. It really is. I love the way electronic shifting feels on a crisp, new bike the first time you ride it. But I also like the way beat-to-shit 5-speed friction shifting feels. How the chain just glides across the freewheel until you land on a gearing you desire. There’s an intentionality with each shift, and you spend less time “finding” the right gear and more time making your current gear work. Those 5-speed friction setups feel very pure.

Compromising here, I will say a 1x drivetrain with 9-speed is indeed fine for most uses, especially if you don’t live in an extremely mountainous region. If you do, you can run a compact double or swap out for the Advent MTB derailleur and Advent (48T) cassette. A 40t chainring paired with a 46t cassette is enough to get me through most of our big mountain dirt road climbs. If I wanted to climb singletrack, I’d have to eke fewer gear inches somehow.

My answer for such gearing conundrums is to use a smaller chainring in the front with a modern crank. Speaking of…

Square Taper!

Spencer and I always lament how it’s a shame the square taper crank interface has all but dwindled from modern groupsets. So imagine my surprise when Sword Black was specced with one. Square tapered cranks are great. The bottom bracket bearings last for seemingly ever. They’re ubiquitous, cheap, and you can run a loose-ball style bottom bracket for seemingly endless spinning with very little bearing drag. Or a cheapo Shimano one for $25.

I have square taper cranks on the Meriwether and actually feel like the crank flex leads to all-day riding comfort, too. The one issue I can see people having is sizing the appropriate spindle length. I usually start with a 103 mm spindle for a 68 mm bottom bracket shell and go up from there.

TL;DR

Look, Sword Black is great. 9-speed is fine. Really. Chances are, you’d enjoy having fewer gear choices. The ergonomics of this kit are in line with much more expensive modern offerings from the bigger brands, too. If you’re not a tinkerer who enjoys hodge-podging together groupsets from the 1980s and 90s parts still operating out there and just want a no-nonsense groupset that looks nice and costs $349, look no further. Granted, there is no clutch on Sword Black, but you can always buy the kit in parts and order a clutched Sword derailleur if it bothers you.

As for any critique, I do find that the shifters vibrate and rattle on washboard roads. Initially, I felt like this slightly cheapened the use experience. But to be honest, I quit noticing the rattling after a few rides. Our brains are great at becoming habituated to new sounds. ;-)

microSHIFT deserves an award for its groupsets – oh wait, we did that already – and I hope to see them offering more kits in the future.

Pros