I started riding road bikes with Campagnolo 10 speed. It allowed 3 larger cogs and at least 6 smaller cogs in one shift. Like Drew said, two thumb lever presses at the base of a hill. Very nice at the bottom and top of hills.

The downside was during sprinting or hanging on in fast group rides. I sometimes shifted two smaller cogs accidentally when I only wanted one.

My newer Athena 11 is 3 larger cogs, 1 smaller cog. I thought I would hate it. But it's fine, I don't sprint on this bike, and can click 2 or 3 smaller cogs with a series of quick thumb shifts. (And the lever effort is lighter, so the shifts are easy.) The 3 larger cogs shift is very useful, I'd hate to have to make 3 individual shifts.

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My other bike has Di2, set for "shift 3 on a long press".

It's really nice, fast and accurate. It doesn't take any thought when I'm going all out. It's so easy that I'll shift the front ring for a very small hill, where I used to just mash uphill in a too-hard gear.

And a normal short click will always shift just one cog -- good.

At the base of a hill:
Hold both lower buttons for 1/2 second or longer (the "long press"). It shifts to the 34 chainring, and 3 smaller cogs, close to the same cadence as it was before the shift.

Over the top of the climb:
Hold both top buttons for another long press. Now it's the 50 chainring and 3 larger cogs.

Been running gripshift on my mtb basically forever. Grab as many gears at a time as you want in either direction. So I am very used to having this.

Never even noticed untill you mention it that I can't do the same on the upshift on my road bike.

Guess it is really not an issue.

This thread is...interesting.

The proper to response to 90 percent of BF threads.

I did really like that feature on my Chorus 10-speed shifters. There's a race here in NorCal that features a bunch of rollers. Hitting both thumb buttons at the bottom of the climb put you in almost exactly the same gear but in the small ring. Awesome.

Count me another fan of multi-upshifts. My biggest gripe about compact cranksets has always been the number of required shifts to get the next gear when changing chainrings relative to a triple crank. Campy's shifters solve that problem. Any chainring swap is a single lever push with each hand. Brilliant. I've used Shimano brifters for over a decade, mostly Ultegra. There's no way I could shift as fast with Shimano as Campy when swapping chainrings, and given that I ride rollers almost exclusively, that's a big selling point.

After moving to Campy Shifters with multi-upshift I don't think I could ever go back to single upshift.

Well, since I'm a friction-shifting Luddite -- I only 'multi-shift' if I come upon a traffic signal that requires that I shift from 'full-tilt-boogie' cruising speed to 'stop/start'. Hills are more gradual shift events.

Di2 synchro shift is pretty darn close...probably with a firmware update it can be as fast simultaneously shifting as Campag mech is. Shimano intentionally slowed the synchro shifting down relative to multi or single shifts it seems.

Not that I have interest in battery-powered shifting but is there a way with Synchro shift to force an early chainring shift so that it happens at the bottom of the hill rather than in the middle?

This.

DT friction is so very awesome.

There are two modes (in addition to standard manual)...and hopefully the names just reflect Japanese terminology that doesn't translate well:

1) "Semi-synchro"-a delightfully uninformative and confusing name name..... In this mode, you manually trigger the FD shift...BUT it has a multi-shift of 2-3 gears attached to to the FD command with no extra button pushing....thus being roughly equivalent to the Campag simultaneous gear dump (just with one shifter command)...getting you to a same or sequentially lower or higher gear on your other chainring.

2) "Full synchro"-another WTF does that mean name. In this mode, you setup preconfigured shift points as you go up/down the cassette for the FD to trigger (with the option to do a multi-shift to compensate and get sequential gearing). With this mode you never need to command the FD at all, in fact you don't even need FD buttons. Just tap up or down your cassette, and at your pre-configured points the FD will on its own shift and the rear multishift.




How does this actually work in reality, with an actual bike transmission??

Example...my Di2 gravel/touring rig has a 46/30 crank with an 11-32 cassette (11-12-13-14-16-18-20-22-25-28-32). I have the R/L brifters setup for paddle-shifting (left is always an easier gear, right is a harder gear. Rear buttons are RD shifts front buttons are FD shifts)

1) I have "semi-synchro" setup for 3 multishifts whenever the FD is triggered. FD is triggered, the RD will shift 3 gears in the opposite direction to compensate-getting me (more often than not) a next step higher/lower gear. This mode I like when loaded down with panniers for commuting-since I live more in my granny ring when loaded down. So I'm bombing down a hill in my 46-14 and hit a hill, I can either multishift regularly down the cassette, or trigger the FD which will land me in a 30-11.

2) I have "full synchro" setup so I have 15 or 16 sequential gears (can't remember offhand exactly) in my 22 gear drive train. Whenever I get downgeared in the big-dog to 46-28, the next shift down gearing triggers the FD and a 3Xmultishift getting me to 30-20. When upshifting on my granny gear once I get to 30-16 the FD/multishift is triggered to get me the next gear up my 46-22. This mode works nicely for unloaded riding around.


The nice thing about Di2. It is digital and all basically mouse buttons. Within Shimano's framework you can make it however you want and as contrived/specious/WTF/insane as you want....or if you liked it better the old way-there's always standard manual mode.

Can you shift while out of the saddle? Can you double shift (front and rear at the same time)? Can you double shift while out of the saddle?

Riding a bike with DT shifters requires a bit more planning ahead than STI shifters, obviously, but I find that's part of the charm with the vintage setup. And of course, there are obvious advantages that STI shifters have over DT like the ones you mention. BTW, you can double shift, and if you're skilled enough, do it out of the saddle.

Why would I try to shift out of the saddle, silly?? lol. That's poor technique. Double shifting in the saddle? Hell yeah!

Yep. I find myself reading the road and myself and riding a bit smarter on the DT than I do on the indexed MTB.

That reminds me how much I appreciate the two completely separated levers on Campy shifters. In the dead of winter with thick gloves on it can be quite difficult to only hit the little lever behind the brake lever without moving the brake lever, too, on Shimano shifters. 'Mouse buttons' would very likely be a total PITA in the same situation.

Poor technique with DT-era cassettes/freewheels, perhaps (shifting while standing). Been doing it since I got my first pair of Shimano Sora levers back in 2003, though. Shaped cassette cog teeth FTW!

My smiley was because I assumed some true DT-junkies could probably do any of things I mentioned, but I know I couldn't double shift on DTs without quite a bit of practice.

There is some charm to the simplicity of DT shifters. No argument there. Some day I'll find the right frame that I'll decide to stick with the original downtube levers. But it won't be my hilly ride bike.

Steep hills where you can't really get in the saddle.
Hard acceleration where a high-torque posture can be effective.
Sprinting.

These are significant advantages for STI. You can do it with bar-end shifters too, but it's somewhat more awkward.

Out of the saddle shifting on downtubes is pretty hard to pull off, especially if it's more complicated than just slamming a lever (get into the small ring or the small cog) with your knee.

But, for double-shifting in general, I'd say downtubes are pretty decent. Never have to move both hands to multi-shift, and lever shifters can throw multiple gears at a time very naturally.