fujibike

I've seen mention of brifters. When using that term is it in reference to shifters incorporated into the bake lever mechanism or is it referring to something else.

HillRider

"Brifter" is a contraction for brake-shifter, i.e. levers that combine both braking and shifting in one assembly like Shimano STI and Campy Ergo.

There are those who really don't like the term and it is a bit awkward but no one has come up with anything better. We seem to be stuck with it.

vpiuva

Now that we have electronic shifting, it won't be long until we can think our gear changes via a chip in our head. Bye-bye brifters, problem solved.