Are you still talking about shifting with Ergo shifters, or with bar ends? Much of the feel and any snap would be closely related to how you, the rider, shifts with bar ends.
While your two ROADIE friends may find a benefit from Campy on a ROAD bike, it’s easy to see why Campy is not a big player in triathlons. Campy’s biggest advantages (arguably) over Shimano are the Ergo shifters, and carbon cranks. Since in triathlon, many people run bar end shifters, that negates the Ergo shifter advantage, and in fact makes Campy brake calipers LESS useful. Having the release mechanism on the Ergo shifter may be better for the road, but it’s a definite drawback in triathlon with bar ends. You yourself claim that crank stiffness isn’t a problem, so other than sex appeal(and huge price tag), what’s the advantage, especially since many people in triathlon are going to aftermarket and/or compact cranks it’s another loss to Campy. Since Shimano is the 800 lb. gorilla now, incompatibility with most of your friends, people at races, neutral support, etc. is another drawback to Campy. Now I am not saying that Records sucks or anything, it’s just that for the money, for triathlon, Campy has some drawbacks, and loses much of it’s stated advantages.
The darn thing is 6,000 words long right now. We’re thinking about running it in parts, like, Brake lever/shifters first, cranks second, derailleurs third, etc.
Right now the hold up is the research on the ergonomics of ergopower vs. STI. WE are waiting for a response from an occupational hand therapy department head we turned the levrs over to for evaluataion. She specializes in repetitive motion injuries and is evaluating both levers for best ergonomics. She is not a cyclist so has no attachement to this other than determining best ergonomics. She runs the occupational hand therapy department at a downtown Detroit hospital. I spoke her yesterday and she told me she would have results “early next week”.
At any rate, it is more important to do it correctly and toroughly than quickly. At least that’s my excuse…
Tom, I’m all for being thorough, but I fail to see much more than a footnote’s relevance in having the levers evaluated by an OT. There just aren’t a lot of repetitive use injuries going on in cyclist’s hands. Which one works best for each cyclist? Well, that’s going to be very individual, just like frame angles, seats, etc. The only advantage (or disadvantage depending on whether the glass is half full or empty) to the decision maker here is that, in terms of STI, there are only a couple of players.
Tom,
Thanks for the update! I was just getting curious. You mentioned earlier in the thread that it was coming in 72 which had come and gone and I got tired of hitting refresh so I figured I’d ask. 
Intersting point TriBriGuy. what we are trying to find out from our OT Hand specialist, who is not a cyclist, is which lever “works best” with a person’s hand while they are seated in the cycling posture. So far the dialogue has been centered on where the bones hinge, how soft tissues work, ranges of motion, etc. It is an ergonomic examination and critique of each lever. Our goal is that it will add credibility to our findings. Clearly, from an anatomical perspective, the levers are different enough so that one will require less effort and movement to actuate the shift. That is our definaition of “better” in the case of the control levers. That is the information our OT will provide to us.
Thats the thing - he can’t tell the difference. Its all in his head. He has no idea.