What are brifters?
 

What the title says.

brakes + shifter = brifters

brake levers + gear shifters in the same unit.

"Brifter" is a concatenation of "brake-shifter" lever.


Edit: (Wow, a three-way tie in responses . . . I don't know if I've ever seen that before.)

Nice use of the word concatenation.

i just call them shifters
brifters sounds ugly.

+1. must be a programmer. :D

But they are NOT just shifters.

They're either S.T.I. Dual Control Levers, Ergopower Controls, or DoubleTap Controls. Or brifters.

I hate the word. It's dicky. :p Everyone knows what 'levers' do, and those that don't definitely wouldn't know what 'brifters' are. Shimano, Campag or Sram don't use the word...

Bifters is a made up work found mainly here on BF. It's sort of like the made up words they try to make you use at Starbucks when ordering.

agreed. I hate the word as well.

Brifter is a portmanteau of brake and shifter.

vocabulary++ :p

bar end shifters... who am I kidding, the is road cycling.

Brake & Shifter:

Concatenation: brakeshifter

Portmanteau: brifter

I hate the word. I'm boycotting the forum unless it's renamed.

It looks like Shimano calls their STI stuff "dual action control levers" without trademarking the phrase. Do you like that better?

I'm boycotting the forum until someone precisely defines what's early and what's not. I'd also like to see clarification as to whether 7-speed controls produced after the introduction of 10-speed still qualify. :P

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimano_Total_Integration

Shimano Total Integration (STI) is a gearshift system designed by Shimano for racing bicycles. It combines the braking and gear shifting controls into the same component. This allows shifting gears without having to remove a hand from the bars, unlike previous down tube shifting systems. This component is usually referred to as a "shifter" or "dual-control levers", or occasionally "brifters".

In 1990, Shimano introduced their STI shifting levers for road bicycles, which completely integrated the brake lever and shifter.

In 1992, the other major global producer in bicycle components, Campagnolo, collaborated with the Sachs company to produce their ErgoPower system...

My 9-speed Sora R3000 group was bought brand new in 2018. So, I clearly cannot put it in the same place as my Campagnolo Racing Triple/Veloce 9-speed group.

No?

And am I the only one who thinks of 1950's doo wop groups when I hear about the brifters?

...shrakes ?

Bifters

or maybe, “front levers”

:lol:

I don't see how this is different from the Road Cycling forum. Those bikes are obviously not old enough to be C&V, because that would mean that I'm old, so they're just not the newest spec stuff. ;)

Brifter - definition: a brake lever with better things to do.

I think the same years, but "The Brifting Blues" by Charles Brown, later recorded as "Brifting and Brifting" by Paul Butterfield. :)

^:lol: