Originally Posted by
Briareos
I see the advantages of that because in a few group rides I remember hearing countless number of shifts and I'm certain many of them were unnecessary.
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You can obviously race with DT shifters. People did it for years. I finished 2nd in a training race a couple of years ago on an old steel Paramount with D/T shifters.
However, there's no advantage to it. And you're not going to get any advantage by eliminating "unecessary shifts".
The advantage of STI is its so easy to shift, you can always be in the right gear, which will save you energy. (such as dwonshifting just before a sharp curve where the group will slow.) With D/T shifters, people have a tendency just to pound out little accelerations in too high of a gear. Not a huge issue, but definitely not an advantage.