Originally Posted by banerjek

I've been running STI since 9 speed systems were the big thing. I'm a huge fan and have used various Shimano and SRAM levels on my bikes over the years.

However, I've found the occasional failures (usually every 20-25K miles at some inopportune time) to be a pain because all the field fixes wind you limping home with a lot less gear selection that you'd like and an expensive purchase to look forward to.

The last time my Rival lever broke (3rd failure for that type) a few years ago on my workhorse commuter, I decided I was tired of buying levers and switched that bike back to DT. I live in a city and work on a steep hill and found that 1 tooth clicks really weren't optimum for commuting at uneven speeds or for hills as I found a huge percentage of my shifts required skipping cogs.

I'm finding that for at least that sort of riding, I prefer DT to integrated shifting. Taking a hand off the bar is a minus but the actual shift is faster than STI, I've never thrown a chain or missed a shift, and the reliability is bombproof. I still run Ultegra on my race bike which I still prefer for environments where my effort and speed are more consistent.

I'm wondering if I'm the only one who actually thinks DT is a superior way to shift for certain types of riding, or if I'm sliding toward retrogrouchiness?