We remember first setting eyes on Shimano STI levers around 1990, and Campagnolo Ergo not long after that. While their function and aesthetics have certainly evolved over the years, they've more or less gone unchanged for nearly two decades in terms of how they operate. The same buttons have long done the same things, and this constancy has lulled us into contentment. Not unlike our old vices of training by heart rate or riding aluminum frames, our sense of familiarity with available technology sometimes prevents us from wondering whether something different could possibly be better.

No single component introduction in the last decade has caused the whirlwind of intrigue that surrounded the unveiling of SRAM's Force shift levers. Its DoubleTap technology -- where one simple lever performs both your upshifting and downshifting -- defies all logic. After all, both Shimano and Campy require the use of two levers to do this, and (as we've heard all-too-often) if companies as huge as Shimano and Campy couldn't think that up, how could a dinky outfit like SRAM make it work?

For starters, SRAM is anything but a dinky company. They had over $200 million in revenue last year, they own 13 factories worldwide and they employ over 2,500 people. In short, they had more-than-enough resources to allocate to the awesome task of re-inventing road shifting. They employed 25 full-time engineers for the job, and after a brief test ride you'll be slackjawed at not only the simplicity of the design behind DoubleTap, but the remarkable shifting quality it delivers.

Simplicity might be the key concept here, in fact. A Shimano Dura Ace STI lever has over 50 moving parts, while the Force is pared down to a simple 12 parts. And, at heart, DoubleTap boils down to 3 key parts in the shifter: A transport pawl, a holding pawl, and a spool. You've surely seen SRAM's Make the Leap ad campaign. That's not just a suggestion that you make a leap of faith from your Shimano or Campy-centric comfort zone and give SRAM a shot, but it's also a technical description of how DoubleTap technology works. In short, when you engage the small magnesium shift lever that sits behind the dedicated carbon fiber brake lever, the following occurs: The transport pawl literally leaps over the holding pawl, and with the help of the spool pulls (or releases) 3mm of cable per shift. Once you've completed the shifting motion, the holding pawl then holds the cable in place. You push the same lever whether you'd like to shift up or down. A small push of the lever releases cable (to put you down into your sprinting gears), and a bigger push pulls cable (to move you up into your climbing gears). It couldn't be more simple or elegant, and having ridden it we can assure you it couldn't possibly shift with any more sureness or precision. Prepared to be awed.

A few practical details worth mentioning: You can go up your cassette (into climbing gears) a maximum of 3 gears per shift. You can go down your cassette (into sprinting gears) only 1 gear per shift. One highlight of DoubleTap, though, is that it permits you to do what SRAM phrases as "Sprint Shifting". While gripping your handlebars in the drops, you can hold the right-side shift lever against the bar and downshift with a short, quick flick of your wrist. Unlike Shimano or Campy, you don't have to peel your fingers off the bar during a hairy field sprint to shift from your 12 to an 11. You can keep your hands securely on the bars for safety's sake while always making sure you're in a big enough gear.

One other small design feature is that when you shift, the lever doesn't move strictly right-to-left in the lateral plane. Rather, it sweeps 15 degrees inward (towards the head tube of your frame), to make the shifting motion mirror the natural inward curvature of your hand. It's a little thing that goes a long way in terms of ergonomic comfort and shifting precision. The lever is positioned close to your bar (an especially nice feature for smaller hands) in order to make shifting easier and to optimize this 15 degree sweep.

Force shifters have no external cables, so they look as beautiful as they feel, while maximizing aerodynamics. They come with a full cable and housing for both derailleurs and brakes. Given the intensely unique design of DoubleTap shifting, please note that SRAM recommends that you use a complete SRAM drivetrain, including both derailleurs, cassette, chain, and crankset in order to optimize shift quality.