I finally decided the loud as shotguns, and so tight they cause numbness, shifters on my bike had to be replaced. In the past Shimano 105 5700 shifters have sold for around 280-320$, at least as far as I could find.

Today I found them as Nashbar for 220$ !!! Pretty excited, I am. And, they won't ship until late January, so it will like Christmas all over again (sorta) :-)

http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...2_514577_-1___

They're replacing Microshifters on a 2011 Felt Z6. I didn't mind the noise, too much, as I could use them as a sort of horn when riding the trail :-)

But they really are hard on my hands, causing numbness if I use the middle finger to shift, which is of course, the natural way to use this shifter.