Campagnolo Ergopower shifters

The Italian firm’s dual shifter is a paragon of elegant simplicity

- Kevin Raymond

If one development represents the abrupt transition from old-school tradition to the modern era, it’s the combined brake and gearshift lever. When Shimano introduced Shimano Total Integration (STI) levers in 1990, it fundamentally changed the way we rode. With no need to take a hand off the bars to shift, we could shift while out of the saddle, and shift with less effort, so we shifted more, adapting gears to our cadence rather than the other way round.