Tickstart

I've found it invaluable to skip gears when accelerating from a standstill, you're on the biggest cog (I just have gears in the back), put the power down, when you reach the power limit you slam on the shiftlever (bar end shifter) skipping 2-3 gears and keep on the power. Really gets you off the line quickly, cars can't keep up.

I know you can gear down several indexes at a time with most brifters, but what about up? I'm not sure I should be enjoying my shifters so much but honestly they are superior in so many ways..
(I don't want to start a flame war, I have tried brake lever shifter and I do like them, they are convenient and pretty cool. But a bar end shifter is much more intuitive, just pull it to shift down and vice versa. Plus, a brake-only brake lever will always feel better than a unit serving more purposes.)

Ultimately my question is, are there brifters that allow for quick shifting in both directions?

CafeVelo

Campagnolo flagship shifters (chorus and up) do this, and until the redesign all campagnolo shifters did this. That feature is invaluable to me since I can keep a similar gear ratio but switch from large to small chainrings with one shift motion. It make it easier to hold speed going into a climb, and the inverse makes it easier to get in the right gearing to go back downhill. I really miss it when I ride my commuter (shimano 105), but I built it with the parts I had. All bikes and shifters I buy from now on will have campy or receive a retrofit immediately. Di2 and EPS also do this, but I don't want a robot bike.

GhostSS

Yeah there's a CX shifter that does that (sort of). Retroshift CX works with Shimano cassette spacing.

Project Any Road: Retroshift CX2 Shifters Long Term Review

Flyingblind9

Shimano systems require you too press the lever every time to move to a faster gear. I guess the only way to skip many is to use your chain rings if getting ahead of vehicles and muscle it out.

dtrain

racing cars dude, just keeping it real

carlcurry

Yep, one of reasons Campagnolo Ergo users won't even consider anything else (Chorus and above). I do this everyday while commuting, using a track stand at lights. Initial acceleration 17 to 15, then 15 to 13 (or to 50/19). All while out of the saddle. People think I'm fast, which of course I'm not. That and the fantastic comfort of the levers. BTW I'm mostly talking about bikes who I want to 'earn' sitting on my wheel, not cars.
The Shimano option is to go to Di2. Might be a nice reason to upgrade if you really 'have' to have it.

Fly2High

I stand corrected.

CafeVelo

Sora, like all shimano sti, can shift to a larger cog up to three at a time (pulling cable), the op is asking about shifters that can shift to a smaller cog (releasing cable). High end Campagnolo does this, up to five cogs at once.

Lazyass

Get a vintage bike with downtube shifters.

rpenmanparker 

Of course OP, if you had a double up front, you could accomplish that with a front shift. Start on the small ring and the rear cog that you actually want to end up on when the front is on the big ring. Then do your shifting thing in the front. The effect would be just about the same, a three of four cog change depending upon whether you had a standard or compact crank up front. Compact would give you about a 4 cog change, standard about 3.

jsk

Shimano Di2 can multi-shift in either direction with a single button press. You can even configure the speed and optionally set a limit for how many gears in one shift.

indyfabz

I never knew I had a problem until I read this thread. Thank God for BF. Sometimes it's as good as WebMD.

Stucky

This is why I like downtube shifters....we've lost functionality with brifters- which some consider to be "progress".

rpenmanparker 

Even worse, sometimes it's not.

caloso

Yup. 10-speed Chorus was (still is, actually) perfection.

Homebrew01

I would take modern shifters, allowing me to shift while out of the saddle, 1 shift at a time, over downtubes any day.
But with Campy, I get both features.

Disclaimer: As other mentioned, some lower Campy models have less multi-shift function (3 up,1 down instead of 5+ up ,3 down). Depends on the model & year.

Vicegrip

I have bikes with downtube, thumb, cable and electronic brifters and I will take brifters, cable or electric over DT any day. Even slight thinking ahead negates the positive aspect of a downtube shift and yoi get the many positive aspects of brifters not present with DT. Go di2 and have all the positive aspects of brifters and DT. DT works just fine but the fact is modern systems have more to offer for today's riders.

rousseau

I have fifteen-year-old Record 9-speed with the multiple-cog upshifting on my "town" bike, and ten-year-old Centaur 10-speed with the single-cog upshifting on my workhorse rider. And to be honest, I don't miss the multiple-cog upshifting. Maybe it's because I don't race? I find I can shift up three or four gears pretty quickly with three or four clicks of the thumb.

I even find that having to modulate your thumb pressure to get the desired action with multiple-cog upshifting can be a slight annoyance. I wonder what it's like in racing when you can't afford to have screw-ups? With the single-cog upshifting you can hit the thumb lever as hard or soft as you like to get the same result. Not true of the multiple-cog upshifting.

Eh?

Nachoman

Unfortunately the first generation Di2, which I have, does not.

KenshiBiker

One of the features I love about my Record EPS . . . Of course I have the same feature on my Suntour Barcons (soon to be replaced with Shimano Dura Ace barcons) on my winter commuter.

Fiery

With integrated levers you don't have to delay the shift and then dump several gears, you can keep shifting up and accelerating at the same time.

I've yet to see a brake-only lever that's more comfortable than modern integrated units.

Leinster

At first I loved the shift-dump as I crested the climbs on my 8spd Mirage shifters, going from the 21 or 23 to the 17 or 15 in one motion was great. But then one time when sprinting for a summit, I went to shift from 21 to 19 and ended up in the 15 nearly grinding to a halt. On my 105, it maybe takes me fractionally longer to go to the 15, but at least I know I won't overshoot. And I have a technique I sometimes use in the drops where I flick the shifter alternately with index and middle fingers and can shift 3 cogs in less than a second.


Multishifts and trimming were the 2 big advantages of downtube shifters that brifters have never really thoroughly worked out. I won't go back to DTs for my main ride, though, I like being able to shift while standing too much.

caloso

One of the great things about 10-speed Campy is really useful for rolling hills: by hitting both buttons you can dump the front and several cogs in the back, which gives you close to the same ratio, but now you're in the lower range.

gsa103

I believe Shimano will drop 2 gears at a time, and the shifts are so fast that your cadence would go to hell trying to drop more than 3-4 gears. Its seriously a non-issue.

bt

well, this changes everything!