Two gripshifters inside out.

SRAM Attack 9-speed

This is the old shifter in my Quest, the Shimano compatible 9-speed SRAM Attack. It was working fine, even after 10.000km, but I wanted to change to a 10-speed system and an SRAM XX derailer with the typical 1:1 ratio, while the Shimano shifters operate at a 1:2 ratio. So I needed another shifter. There is a retention spring at the top of the photo that does the actual shifting, clicking into the 9 recessions in the body.
Note the long coil spring, bent around the shaft that you can barely see (covered in white grease) at the bottom of the photo. It's function is to give a bit of resistance to your hand while shifting, but also to ensure that the shifter does not accidentally shift because of the derailer spring that is constantly pulling on the cable. This pulling on the cable of the derailer spring is the reason why shifting to a smaller cog is lighter to do than shifting to a bigger cog.
When my hands are sweaty, I have so little grip on the gripshifter that I have to wear cycling gloves to be able to shift to bigger cogs. In a hilly time-trial I once wasn't able to shift for an hour because I forgot to put on my gloves. I was p*ssed!

SEC 10-speed

 This is the newly installed SEC shifter that I mentioned in an earlier post about lightweight components. Now you can see why it is lighter: no grease inside. Just kidding, but the SEC  is not made any more complicated or heavier than strictly necessary. 

The basic principle of the two shifters are alike, but there are some differences. First, SEC doesn't have the long coil spring around the shaft, so it depends solely on the retention spring to counter the constant force of the derailer spring.

A second difference is that the recessions are not made in the outer body of the shifter. Instead there is a separate white part that you can take out. That is a smart idea of SEC: they only had to make one body cast for different systems. 8-, 9-, or 10-speed, Shimano or SRAM compatible, it's all the same shifter. The only thing they need to do at the factory is to mount the appropriate white part that has the recessions that you need for your system. The odd thing in this is that the SRAM compatible version is more expensive than the Shimano compatible. It's just marketing.......

SEC retention spring

This retention spring of the SEC shifter is much stiffer (shorter and thicker) than that of the SRAM. Still the shifting is much lighter, so I don't need cycling gloves anymore.
How this shifter will hold up in the long run? We'll see....

 NB: the reasons for changing to a 10-speed system is because I want the steps to be as small as possible, while retaining the total range. Why not have 11-speed than? Campagnolo has it, but the price tag simply becomes to hefty for me and the derailers and cassettes of Campagnolo do not give the wide range that I want.