Ultegra lever travel

Hi folks,
Just started using ultegra regularly on new bike. Like it, seems very smooth. However if there is one thing I would change is the lever travel when moving to the smaller cogs on the rear shifter. It seems I have to move the lever a fair way before it engages, I would rather it was a more instant engagement. Is this adjustable? Had a look at the shimano docs & it seems you can adjust the brake lever travel using their shims, but says nothing about the gear levers.
I'm also fairly sure I test rode some other ultegra bikes which had an earlier engagement of the lever. Is it maybe something to do with cable tension? Dont really want to start messing too much as the gears are shifting nicely but if there is an easy adjustment I'm missing would appreciate hearing about it.
Thanks a lot
Just started using ultegra regularly on new bike. Like it, seems very smooth. However if there is one thing I would change is the lever travel when moving to the smaller cogs on the rear shifter. It seems I have to move the lever a fair way before it engages, I would rather it was a more instant engagement. Is this adjustable? Had a look at the shimano docs & it seems you can adjust the brake lever travel using their shims, but says nothing about the gear levers.
I'm also fairly sure I test rode some other ultegra bikes which had an earlier engagement of the lever. Is it maybe something to do with cable tension? Dont really want to start messing too much as the gears are shifting nicely but if there is an easy adjustment I'm missing would appreciate hearing about it.
Thanks a lot
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If cable tension was wrong the indexing would not be correct, so this sounds unlikely as you say the shifting is nice.
Edit: If the levers are nice and solid with no rattles I would say they are functioning as they should.
Anyway thanks for the info :-)
Don't get bogged down into thinking that indexing is either difficult or something you should never touch. Cables bed in, indexing goes a bit out as much as brakes occasionally need closing up, and it's the easiest thing in the world to get it right again - get the cable tension just about taut in the highest gear if needs be, nip the cable clamp up then adjust using the rear thumb adjuster for coarse adjustment and the inline barrel for fine tuning. Go a quarter of a turn at a time, and if it gets worse not better turn it the other way instead. For that reason, always start with the adjusters about halfway along their travel to give you plenty in each direction. It won't need much, as long as you can drop the chain onto the highest gear and find that the cable just has a little bit of tension in it as your start point. You'll soon learn to gauge how much that is.
Shimano actually got it right with its Sora.
Thanks, it really isnt a problem with the actual shifting which seems fine. Its just that the distance you need to move the smaller shift lever to when up shifting the rear mech seems to me to be a bit too much & I had hoped this was adjustable so that the shift would engage a bit more instantly?
I'm not afraid of changing the indexing, its just that the indexing seems fine at the moment, its just the lever travel I would like to reduce if possible.
The best bet is to get SRAM or Di2 when you next upgrade if you want a groupset where you don't have to move the levers so much to shift.