Upgrading shifters on road bike

[dougie]

Hi,
I'd like to upgrade the shifters on my Claud Butler Levante as the current Shimano Acera ST-EF35 8-speed STI ones are crap. I have seen shimano R440 8 speed shifters that are rapid fire and I'd like to urgrade to these. Is it a straight forward swap? Would I have to buy new brake levers as
well?

 

[mickle]

The R440s are perfectly acceptable, however now might be the time to upgrade to nine speed if your cassette and chain are due for replacement. A 9 speed cassette fits on an eight speed freehub and all of your other components willl work acceptably well. A new set of jockey wheels will convert an 8spd mech to 9spd to sharpen up the shifting when they next need replacing.