Originally Posted by
tagaproject6
I could lie and say I got them because of Zero-Loss, lighter, yadda-yadda...life is too short for such deep thinking on material things...in the end, I bought it because I perceived as cooler than Force or Rival
Other people have their own reasoning about why they do the things they do and some have this deep rationale and other justification about purchases. I bought it because I liked the way it looked and I can afford them.
It is probably not what you wanted to read, but if we are to be practical, most any shifter will work.
Your reason's make perfect sense to me, and I'm glad you got what you like. Unfortunately for me I have the opposite taste from you. I would pay big money for a group that functioned like Red (or DA or Record) , but was all polished aluminum. I was happy as hell when silver Rival came out, and wished it still looked that way when they added front zero loss. Carbon/plastic/painted parts just don't look good to me and as far as the aero shape of the newer shimano stuff goes I'll gladly burn the extra watts it costs me to pedal something that looks like my old 7400 did.