Ultrashift is actually a rehash of the old 2006 and earlier system. You can upshift and downshift the entire cassette in one movement. The Escape 2007-2008 I believe was limited to 3 gears in one direction at a time. Campy abandoned it in 2009 in everything except some Veloce brifters. Best to go with Ultrashift IMO.
No so. The '09 ultrashift is an entirely new internal mechanism that bears no resemblance to anything that Campy made in previous years. It still shifts up to 3-cogs larger with the finger lever but the thumb button can only shift 5 cogs smaller rather than 9. That's still more than ever needed.
All Campy shifters worked largely the same from the time of their initial introduction in 1992 until 2007. There are improvments along the way and changes to the ergo body and brake hood shape, but the function was largely the same.
In 2007 Campy added quick shift to the left finger lever, that does nothing but reduce some of the dead travel, so it takes less movement to cover the 3-4 clicks needed to shift the FD. QS FDs require one more click than previous models.
Campy also changed the Centaur and lower level shifters to the limited function escape mechanism in 2007. This mechanism was previously used only at the lowest Xenon level. It could shift only 1-cog smaller or 3-cogs larger with one push of the tumb button or finger lever. It is no longer made for 2010.
The 2009 ultrashift levers have an entirely new mechanism, brake hood shape and brake lever. The new mechanism is expected to require far less maintaince since it has no g-springs.
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/sho...d.php?t=153213
There has also been a running change made to the 10 speed ultrashift levers so they now have right finger clicks much like the 11 speed models, rather than the much lighter click of the early models.
http://weightweenies.starbike.com/fo...564723#p564723