Cycling UK Forum

Please could someone run through the different kind of gear changes there are...I am confused with STI and ergo and allsorts!
Many thanks,
Dave

STI and ergo are the same really, just differetiated by the different companies that make them.

hub gears (rholof) are the different ones

The Shimano system is called STI. Most of these operate from a paddle behind the brake lever. Tiagra is 9 speed, 105, Ultegra and Dura ace are 10 speed. Sora is slightly different. The upshift is via a button on the brake hood, the downshift via the brake lever itself. Sora is 8 speed.

The Campagnolo system is called Ergo. These are all now 10 speed and operate on a similar principle to Sora. Downshift via paddle behind brake lever, upshift via button on brake hood.

The cheapest is Xenon, then Mirage, Veloce, Centaur, Chorus and Record is the most expensive/best quality. Parts are interchangeable between groups. I'm currently running a Xenon rear mech on a Mirage cassette with Centaur levers.

The 2 makes are not really compatible with each other due to varying distances between cogs.

NB - downshift, moving to the larger cogs closer to the wheel, upshift moving away from the wheel.

Thanks for this - so there are changes in the way gears are changed from when I used to ride a bike! A lever was usually on the downtube near to the handlebars and this was moved to pull the gear mechanism from the smaller cogs to the larger cogs.
This STI sounds better in terms of hands can remain on the handlebars near to the brakes and still change gear....?
Dave

davidsmedley999 wrote:This STI sounds better in terms of hands can remain on the handlebars near to the brakes and still change gear....?
Dave

Yeah, but wait until you see how much they cost

Worth noting that STI is also applied to mountain bike straight bar combined brakes and thumb shift shifters. STI stands for Shimano Total Integration.

If it is some time since you cycled, the big change in gearchanging is indexing. If you are used to moving the lever then making slight adjustments to prevent the gear scraping, that has all pretty much gone. The teeth on the chainwheels and cassette (another development which replaced the freewheel) are all sculpted to facilitate the slick movement of the chain from gear to gear. The levers themselves are made so that each movement of the various systems provides just the right amount of pull to change gear precisely. Obviously, if it's not all set up correctly, things can be annoying or worse. The trade offs for this are first, that there is little compatibility between makes and even between some equipemnt from the same manufacturer and secondly, that the manufactureres prescribe what gear combinations are available. (As it is possible to get 30 gears on a bike - admittedly with a lot of duplication - the gear combinations you might want ought to be in there somewhere.)