Hi, Noob to Campy gears here, but can someone please explain the difference between the (Veloce) Ultrashift and Quickshift? What exactly do they do differently?

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.

Many thanks for the info.....

EDIT: ok I take that back. I shall read on!

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.

https://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.

https://weightweenies.starbike.com/fo...564723#p564723

I'm not familiar with the 11-speed clicks. My Centaur '09 shifters have very light clicks ... so light I sometimes over shift onto larger cogs by mistake because it's souch a light tough. Does this mean the 2010 Centaur shifter will have a more distinct click ? (good IMO)

Yes, 2010 will have it and so do later versions of the '09 shifters.

I've not had the overshifting problem myself. It takes a lot longer throw to get that second cog. Using a compact crank, I do a lot of 1-cog shifts and full sweep 3-cog shifts after shifting to the big ring.

It sure sounds like it. Over at, I think, the RBR forums, someone did a detailed disassembly of the 10 and 11 speed Ultrashift levers and you could clearly see differences in the shapes of the index gear detents (apart from just the spacing). The consensus was that this is what gave the 11 speed levers a more positive click like the old g-spring levers (at least when the springs were new).

Those light clicks are ****ing annnoying. It's like shifting a wet noodle. Whoever came up with that should be shot. And their families should be shot as well.

My theory is that they were expecting the 10 speed stuff to be relegated to casual users, just like all those "light action" pedals that have been coming out the past couple of years. But maybe they got some push back from users, so they went back to the traditional lever feel.

I'm fixing mine real soon - converting them to 11 speed with parts from a wreck-damaged lever. No more 10 speed on my bikes.

Yup. I have Centaur on bike #1, and a Veloce set NIB. Maybe I'll put the Veloce on my wife's bike and look for 2010 for bike #2.

I don't suppose there's any way to tell when ordering ?

No way to know what you'll get with '09 Centaur. Might be best to wait for '10.

Thanks again all.!

Campy made another change in the '07-'08 Centaur and below levers. An "Escapement" mechanism was also added to the front (left) shifter that eliminated their "micro shifting" ability and only provided one click to go from the big to the small chainring and only one trim click over the small ring. That killed the versatility and easy trim Campy front shifting had been renown for and made it work just like Shimano. I considered it a worse mistake than the escapement mechanism used in the rear.

I could live with the escape in the rear but it was super annoying on the front. I switched to '09 Veloce and that solved the front problem but now I have to contend with the annoying vague shifting in the rear. Clearly should have waited until 2010. Why did it take them so long to get it right?

I'm not a long-term Campy watcher, but it seems to me they've done an inordinate amount of shuffling of their product lines in the past 2-3 years. Starting around the '07-ish timeframe, they introduced Ultra Torque, dropped the triple crank from their mainstream groups, downgraded their best value groups to Escape, removed the Record-style internals from their lower-end hubs, and revised their shifters and FD to Quickshift. Then a couple of years later they drop Escape, introduce UltraShift and 11 speed, and revise their FD yet again. And, about a year before UT, they had just brought out a new Centaur square taper bottom bracket, and then promptly killed off Centaur square taper cranks. Now we have the latest revision to the ultrashift 10 speed indexing.

Many of these changes were welcome improvements, certainly, but it just seems a little uncharacteristic of Campy to be so wishy-washy. Maybe there's been some turmoil at the top of the company, or infighting over the direction to take their product line?

Thanks for all the replies and knowledge sharing.

I pray that my replacement '09 levers have the better lever feel. Wrecking my shifter would be a blessing in disguise, hah.