Originally Posted by
rm -rf
The biggest differences for me:
Rolling, hilly rides
I can shift the front chainring quickly and easily, even for very short roller hills.
I have the buttons set to "shift 3 cogs" when holding down the button for 1/2 second or longer.
In other words the user interface works almost as well as mechanical Campagnolo ergo levers made since 1992 apart from the maligned Escape units and their second coming as Power Shift.
So at the base of a hill, it's two long presses of the bottom button on each side--to drop to the small chainring, and go 3 cogs smaller in the back.
Push both thumb buttons down, stopping at the 3 cog position on the right with no long delay required. Newer ones have a 5 cog limit, older ones could sweep the entire cassette if you have really long thumbs which was nice for rear wheel removal but not useful riding. 5 cogs are needed to get the next gear moving to the small ring on a 50-34 compact with a tight cassette (ex: 34x15 follows 50x21 when separated by 16-17-18-19).
Then a long press of both top buttons at the crest of the hill goes big chainring, 3 cogs bigger.
Push both levers all the way out, no delay needed.
I'll be shifting a lot to stay in a good cadence when I'm trying to hold on with faster rides.
Works the same, although 2009 and newer Ultrashift levers eat cables when you shift like you have ADHD. I replace my rear cable after 2000 miles every 10 weeks because they're guaranteed to break strands within 500 miles.
The auto trimming of the front derailleur is nice, too. No rubbing when cross chained.
Campagnolo levers trim in both directions.