What year did STI shifters appear on road bikes?

Grannygrinder

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I have some 7 speed sti shifters that i'm thinking about putting on a bike from around 97-98, is it too early?
 
from memory, they were in prototype stage on works teams bikes from 1989. general release about a year later(or so).
 
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I'm glad I asked as i'd never have put them that early. I was unsure if they were pre 95 or not, thanks all.
 
Granny, things tended to come out on Road bikes before MTB BiTD. Then get transferred to MTB.
Dura-Ace only initially and it's called a 'Dual Control Lever' part of the STI setup.


If you turn it on its side, beef it up a bit and stick it on some flat bars, you get a reinvention of the wheel for a different purpose some many years later.
 
I think launch would have been somewhere in 1990. Earliest Koga Miyata catalogues I see it show up ar from 1991. This Panasonic is from '91 as well (catalogue in Gallery 2)>>

3302861865_50573e218b.jpg
 
I remember pros had them a year before they on sale to the public.

It's amazing sti/ergo have been around for so long and I've never even used them! I tried indexed downtube levers once but didn't like them because of the loud click every time you changed gear.
 
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