campy ergo vs. shimano STI shifters
 

Any opinions on which shifters are better?

If you're not sure. Take somes test rides with bikes having both kinds of shifters. Go with the ones that you like best.

A topic for the ages.....sigh...endless threads....

Here goes -
1. Ergo is better and anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron.
2. Shimano STI is better and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, the real answer is neither. They both work great. Differentiators are:

1. The hoods are have different shapes and each fits some people's hands better than others.

2. Shifting ergonomics are different - Campy's inner lever downshift and side button upshift vs. STI's brake lever downshift and inner lever upshift. A matter of personal preference.

3. Campy Ergos are maintainable/rebuildable while STI's in general are not, although both are pretty reliable.

4. Campy Ergos let you jump 2-3 gears at a time if you want while STIs require multiple shifts. Some people care about this - others don't.

You really need to try them to decide. This can be hard as few stock bikes come with Campy. Hunt around and find one or try a friend's if possible.

also note its very very hard to find any local shops that keep anything lower than chorus in stock.

Even performance's brick and mortar shop here doesnt...drives me nuts...I jsut want some freaking centaur levers :(

I cannot speak for other parts of the country…

But around here, veteran, high-mileage and racing cyclist who pay for their own equipment mostly ride Campy. Cyclist’s whose club or team or shop affiliation gets them a discount on Shimano ride Shimano. This is in spite of the fact that there is hardly any Campy parts available locally. We Baltimore area Campy riders survive on mail/internet order.

I went from Ultegra to Chorus to Ultegra to Veloce for shifters. After all that I can say that I strongly prefer Campy levers. The shape of the hoods feel better to me and I like the shifting setup better then Shimano. I can also say that my new Veloce 10spd levers feel just as good as the Chorus ones I had so if your looking to save some cash don't be afraid of the lower end Campy stuff, it's surprisingly good.

Well that about sums it up. This post should be made permenent. Well done.

STI will shift down as many as 3. Up is one at a time.

campy will do about 6 at a time.

shimano sora does this... (except with lever vs paddle) but people hate it while praising ergo for being more intuitive. funny how that works

Well, the paddle/lever ARE located in different relative positions and that's what makes the difference. If you'd used them both,you'd understand.

Folks with small hands might have a preference for Ergo...
http://home.att.net/~thetandemlink/stivsergo.html

tried them both. both small shifting nubbies were too far reach for me... maybe i have short thumbs. either way i have personal preference for tiagra+ STI

"4. Campy Ergos let you jump 2-3 gears at a time if you want while STIs require multiple shifts. Some people care about this - others don't."

I know that I've read statements like this before on the forum. But, the Shimano STI 105 tripple setup that came with a 1999 road bike of mine handles 2 at a time shifting and mentions this "designed-in" ability in the 105 specifications sheet. I have made many 2 at a time upshifts with the Shimano setup. Now, I don't beleive that 3 at a time are doable.

I've had the chance to use both and I gotta go with Shimano on ths one.

Have you tried Shaw's Lightweight Bikes in Santa Clara? Terry just built me a mostly Centaur bike.

Slough's might be another place to look.

Steve, were you on Bubb at around 5PM earlier today? heading from Rainbow down towards Stelling?

CC,

No, it was too hot today. That's pretty close to me, though. Today was my recovery day after going ot on Friday (solo), Saturday (club ride), Sunday (on tandem, and Monday (tandem again). My wife broke the humerus bone in her shoulder and was off the bike for 7 weeks. We did a 6-miler last Sunday. Over the weekend we did 40 miles on Sunday and 50 miles on Monday.

Steve

I stand corrected. I read this too, and have not spent a lot of time on STI equipped bikes - mostly just test rides. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that Campy allows you to jump more gears at a time.

Most independent bike shops can get you any Campy group you want as a special order. I bought my Centuar Ergos from an LBS that doesn't normally stock any Campy stuff at all. It just makes the laying on of hands part difficult. And since as an earlier poster mentioned, you rarely see anything below Chorus in stores, I doubt that many buyers even know that Campy offers groups comparable in price to Ultegra and 105. A shame in my opinion. Choice is good.

I thought my bosses DA bike did more then the two at a time going one way (2 or 3 shifts one way 9 the other way for his 9spd) but with my chorus 10spd its no more then 2 shifts either way.

My 02 Chorus group will shift 3 gears down with the big lever. A shove on the little (thumb) lever sends it up around 5 gears.

I tried both, and personally preferred the Campy style of shifter. It just felt more precise. As I use a triple in the front (big damm hill in front of my house), the extra adjustments on the front shifter come in handy.

I'm a realative noob and haven't paid much attention to this sort of debate, so perhaps I can offer a relatively un-jaded appraisal of my Ultegra shifters and a friend's Chorus which I just got a look at last week...

Right off the bat, the Campy definately feels better, I think becasue it's more slender (and I've even got large hands) but also becasue of the angle/curvature that it comes of the bars--I understand the DuraAce is more slender and better sculpted than the Ultegra, so perhaps Simano is making strides in the ergo direction. I also like the slightly "slicker" surface of the Campys which seems to make it a little easier to rock the bike while standing.

OTOH, the Campys requred you to come out of the drops whenever you wanted to upshift, while the Shimano shifters can be shifted in both direcetions from almost any hand position. This made the STI stand out, especially as my friend commented that he would sometimes get shoulder pain from the asymmetric hand position he would occasionally adopt in rolling terrain--a position with the left hand in the drop and the right hand on the hood.

Additionally, an unfounded objection to the STIs seems to be that you can accidently apply the brakes while downshifting--theoretically possible, but not inevitable, and no matter what, you're certainly not going to be able to apply any real "braking" force save for a brief rub of the pads.

I'd personally be happy w/ either grupo, but I'll probably stick w/ Shimano. Not only becasue Shimano parts are more readly available in the US (and often on sale), but also becasue Shimano seems more willing to innovate to meet the needs of riders.

I'm curious as to why people are having problems shifting from the drops with Campy. I have rather small hands and short thumbs and yet I can reach the thumbshifters on the ErgoPower levers. As to those who claim Sora is the same as Ergo, I would have to disagree. The Ergo setup is much different from the Sora setup. Yes, they both use thumbshifters but the similarity ends there.

1. The Ergo thumbshifters are set further back allowing you to reach them from the drops. I do not know of anyone who has fingers long enough to reach the Sora thumbshifters from the drops.
2. The Ergo shift lever is placed in the same position as the Shimano STI secondary levers on the Tiagra and above shifters and the brake lever is independent and does not swing from side to side as with Shimano.
3. The shift levers also can move back and forth independent of the brake levers to accomodate reach. Actually the whole system's position is designed with a shorter reach than Shimano.
4. The Ergo's left shifter has many more trim positions than Shimano STI. And Sora I believe has no trim positions at all.
5. Also with Ergo, you can trim the front derailleur in both directions while with Shimano, you can only reliably trim in the downwards direction.
6. You can perform multiple shifts in either directions with Ergo. With Sora you can downshift up to three at a time but only single-step when upshifting. Also, while Shimano in general seems to shift smoother when new, Campy seems to shift more reliably over the long haul and double-shifting on Campy drivetrains seem to be less finicky.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. I know which one I personally prefer however. I can live with one or the other and I find my Dura-Ace STI shifters to work quite fine. I just happen to also like the way Campy works better.