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Old 09-30-12 | 05:44 PM
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Drew Eckhardt
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Joined: Apr 2010
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From: Mountain View, CA USA and Golden, CO USA

Bikes: 97 Litespeed, 50-39-30x13-26 10 cogs, Campagnolo Ultrashift, retroreflective rims on SON28/PowerTap hubs

Originally Posted by Kimmo
I tend to have a pretty good memory for these sorts of details, but without any actual experience of these later types, it's hard to get it all straight...

I'm interested in acquiring some of the post-2001 (round top) 9spd levers; how many flavours did these come in, and what the hell does it all mean again?

Ultrashift, Quickshift, Escape, WTF?

Ideally, I'd like them to shift the same way 1st-gen Ergos work, if that has a name... but I take it these ones won't, is that right?

What's the deal?
Escape is Campagnolo's loathed escapement mechanism (like Shimano and SRAM) which only shifts one cog smaller, original introduced at the Xenon level but used on all levers Centaur and below for 2007-2008. You don't want it.

Quickshift was a front derailleur ratio change that happened at the same time; although you can get Chorus/Record (still made) QS levers that use the classic mechanism instead of escape.

Ultrashift is Campagnolo's second or third (depending on whether you count pointy and round hoods as separate because) generation ergo lever with the current hood design. It still shifts three cogs larger and five smaller. Instead of having 12 clicks on the left lever of which 7 are used for a triple it has just 6 with all used. It replaces the wear prone G-springs (no longer listed separately in the spares manuals) with coil springs and separate ball bearings to engage detents. Chorus and above current production 11 speed shifters use this mechanism, and 2009-2010 Veloce through Athena levers did. 2009 10 speed units had weak detents which were resolved as a running change. There was also a mid-year move to ball bearings on the main pivots of the less expensive shifters.

You can still buy NOS 2010 Veloce Ultrashift levers for $125 from Total Cycling including a cable set.

Given the discontinuation of small parts (I was replacing G-springs every few years and also replaced thumb lever and front lever return springs which broke due to fatigue) I'd skip the used 9 speed levers that are likely to need maintenance and upgrade to 10 with a pair of NOS 2010 Veloce levers before the supply dried up (I bought myself a set of Centaur Carbon levers before those ran out).

Last edited by Drew Eckhardt; 09-30-12 at 08:37 PM.
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