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What are brifters?

Old 06-04-21, 07:20 PM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by Viich
I don't see how this is different from the Road Cycling forum. Those bikes are obviously not old enough to be C&V, because that would mean that I'm old, so they're just not the newest spec stuff.
...no threads yet on Shimano vs Capagnolo, and I see nothing about disc brakes on road bikes. This forum will need to work pretty hard to match Road. Heck, I bet timtak will never even post in here.
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Old 06-07-21, 05:56 PM
  #27  
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Before 1990, the basic design of the road bike wasn't finished.

That's what brifters are - the final element of our favourite machine.
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Old 06-09-21, 01:52 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Viich
I don't see how this is different from the Road Cycling forum. Those bikes are obviously not old enough to be C&V, because that would mean that I'm old, so they're just not the newest spec stuff.
To me, it's just a very interesting period in road bike history. You have it coinciding with the end of the steel era, and these were put on some of the best steel frames ever built. And I hate to say this, but a lot of the early brifter stuff just looks good. The fact that it still works is also pretty great. For the most part, they got it right the first time.
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Old 06-10-21, 10:12 AM
  #29  
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On the manufacture of words that describe multiple function objects...

Robson Square, a three-block downtown plaza built between 1978 and 1983. An oasis of green roofs, waterfalls and hanging gardens, it descends from the city’s courthouses and government offices — a low-slung concrete complex designed by Mr. Erickson — by way of an ingenious series of gently graded granite stair ramps that Ms. Oberlander called “stramps” (she was inspired by goat paths).
...from the obituary of Cornelia Oberlander.
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Old 06-21-21, 05:47 AM
  #30  
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I avoid using the term “brifters”. Ergo levers for Campagnolo, STI for Shimano or integrated shifters & brake levers as a universal term.
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Old 07-05-21, 10:13 AM
  #31  
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Sheldon Brown may have invented the term?
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Old 07-08-21, 08:24 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by smurfy
Sheldon Brown may have invented the term?
Dunno, but I think it was him who said we should drop the French spelling of derailer, which I'm totally behind.
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Old 09-05-21, 08:02 AM
  #33  
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Nope I use old shift levers. like down tube shifters .I just like them better.
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Old 09-14-21, 09:47 PM
  #34  
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Call it what you want, I'm just glad the section is here. Maybe someone can explain Campagnolo vintage brifters to me, what works with what, and I can finally start venturing out beyond Shimano.
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Old 09-14-21, 09:57 PM
  #35  
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Brifters are...

Too Expensive!

I do have to admit they are coming down in price...
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Old 09-15-21, 09:54 AM
  #36  
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Anybody who doesn't like the term "brifter" is welcome to come up with something better. But it has to be generic (Microshift doesn't make "Ergopowers", and Campy doesn't make "STIs") and concise in order to catch on (are you really going to say "shifting brake levers" every time?), so good luck with that.
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Old 09-16-21, 09:44 AM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
Anybody who doesn't like the term "brifter" is welcome to come up with something better. But it has to be generic (Microshift doesn't make "Ergopowers", and Campy doesn't make "STIs") and concise in order to catch on (are you really going to say "shifting brake levers" every time?), so good luck with that.

Any replacement for the generic term "brifter" can only have a maximum of two words or it's too long to ever catch on. "Brake shifters" or, even worse, "shift brakers" won't work because it's confusing. It sounds like it's shifting the brakes or braking the shifts.
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Old 09-16-21, 10:30 AM
  #38  
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levers. context handles the rest.
no one ever asked me "which levers you talkin' bout?"
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Old 09-28-21, 09:15 AM
  #39  
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Originally Posted by blacknbluebikes
levers. context handles the rest.
no one ever asked me "which levers you talkin' bout?"

So I can convey what exactly I'm talking about with several words of context, or I can just use one word to do exactly the same thing? I'm going with the one word.
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Old 10-19-21, 04:28 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by Milice
Bifters is a made up work found mainly here on BF. It's sort of like the made up words they try to make you use at Starbucks when ordering.
​​​​​​
So would that make the people that make or install them Briftras?
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Old 03-02-22, 02:20 PM
  #41  
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I'm calling BS on this one
"B"rake + "S"hifter = BS
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Old 10-01-22, 10:58 AM
  #42  
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hmmmm.

I haven't heard or read a word "brifters" in Japan.

I looked in a dictionary and found none, but internet taught me. lol!

Friends and I still call them brake levers.
Bike shop guys call STI or dual control levers for Shimano, Ergo Levers for Campy.
I'm not sure if "brifter" is a common term for them in Japanese.
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Old 01-01-24, 02:32 PM
  #43  
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Originally Posted by Cyclist01012
Bifters is a made up work found mainly here on BF. It's sort of like the made up words they try to make you use at Starbucks when ordering.
ALL words are made up words. And brifter is very well understood outside BF.
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Old 03-05-24, 03:30 AM
  #44  
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You heard it here first... X-Ys. Levers where you move in the Y direction for brake actuation, and the X direction for shifting.

At first I pined for them, until I read about their swiss-watch complexity, lower durability, inability to fix on the road, and no friction backup mode. I haven't used my road bike in 20 years, but if I refit it from downtube levers, it would be for bar-end-shifters on the end of the bullhorn bars, they're as simple and durable as downtubes, just closer at hand.

My townie uses gripshifts.

But X-Ys are a definite plus for road racers; faster shifts while keeping both hands on the bars, a major plus when climbing out of the saddle.
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