Originally Posted by Retro Grouch

Shimano's 9-speed brifters were listed as double or triple capable. I owned a 9-speed equipped Ultegra equipped tandem and road bike that used identical shifters. The shifters actually had 4 shift positions. On the double I got two shift positions for each chainring. On the triple, the middle ring had two shift positions and the other two rings had one each. I also had flight Deck computers on both bikes that always indicated the right chainring so I'm sure that's the way Shimano intended for them to be set up.