What a great idea - another battery to charge and a rear mech that costs £260 just waiting to be tw**ted off the first rock. All for b***er all advantage other than possibly in a pro level sprint finish.
Whats wrong with cables??

Whats wrong with cables??

Nowt.

I really wanted to embrace my inner grumpy b'stard and hate Di2 and I thought it'd be something I'd easily manage ... but after trying it.

htrider wrote:What a great idea - another battery to charge and a rear mech that costs £260 just waiting to be tw**ted off the first rock. All for b***er all advantage other than possibly in a pro level sprint finish.
Whats wrong with cables??

I think the only reason I'd consider it at the current prices is for very long rides when hand issues are likely to occur. I've certainly had some weakness and difficulty in shifting after this years HTR.

But for most riding there's nothing wrong with cables.

ianfitz wrote:

htrider wrote:What a great idea - another battery to charge and a rear mech that costs £260 just waiting to be tw**ted off the first rock. All for b***er all advantage other than possibly in a pro level sprint finish.
Whats wrong with cables??

I think the only reason I'd consider it at the current prices is for very long rides when hand issues are likely to occur. I've certainly had some weakness and difficulty in shifting after this years HTR.

But for most riding there's nothing wrong with cables.

Me too as it happens but not enough of an issue to splash that kind of dosh or put up with the potential grief (look what happend to Rigoburto Uran the other week in the Tour!)... 'spose in an ideal world Shimano would produce some bikepacker friendly thumbshifters that work with 11 speed....

ianfitz wrote:
I think the only reason I'd consider it at the current prices is for very long rides when hand issues are likely to occur. I've certainly had some weakness and difficulty in shifting after this years HTR.

But for most riding there's nothing wrong with cables.

A friend used Di2 for the Transcontinental so he wouldn't lose time unable to change gear with numb hands.

But lost time unable to change gear with a flat battery.

SixPotBelly wrote:

ianfitz wrote:
I think the only reason I'd consider it at the current prices is for very long rides when hand issues are likely to occur. I've certainly had some weakness and difficulty in shifting after this years HTR.

But for most riding there's nothing wrong with cables.

A friend used Di2 for the Transcontinental so he wouldn't lose time unable to change gear with numb hands.

But lost time unable to change gear with a flat battery.

Oops. How did that happen though, as a small cache battery would charge it?

But yeah, nothing wrong with cables. I managed fine on a thumb shifter for a week plus with a totally f-ed right hand so you can be OK on cables in that situ, more about ergonomics than how it moves the mech, but agree that Di2 would be easier.

I also really like using Di2, like Stu, against my inner retrogrouch. I do see expensive mechs as a vunerable, risky thing - but a smashed mech is a potentially ruined ride whether it's Altus or XTR Di2. The rest comes down to cost vs performance while it's working and risk perception. In the last 10-12 years I've damaged more fork stanchions on rocks than I've wrecked rear mechs (3 vs 2), a more pricey result, just for perspective. A scratched fork's expensive but less likely to end a ride, any good tour/bikepack set up should be able to run SS somehow though.

The biggest faff with Di2 seems to be the e-tube wires getting knocked by a bar bag, that's a simple fix though. I did a 5 day trip with a chap who had a Di2 road tourer and that happened to him regularly (most mornings ), and once happened to me while I was riding the Arkose Di2, before I rotated the bar display junction up a bit.

Asposium wrote:

rudedog wrote:I haven't kept up to speed with electronic shifting - can you set a cadence and it will automatically shift to maintain the cadence?

not that I am aware of

Wow, so the only benefit is slicker shifting? I had assumed a big benefit from going electronic would be so you could make it intelligent/adaptive in some way.

Price seems incredible for such a marginal improvement in that case but I suppose people have different ideas on what represents value in the modern world.

I had assumed a big benefit from going electronic would be so you could make it intelligent/adaptive in some way.

Alfine D12 can be set to work on cadence as a kind of automatic box. For road/MTB stuff, tbh I don't believe constant cadence is anywhere near as important as Shimano and others make out. Maybe for a road pro climbing at a tempo it is. I ride happily between 30-100 RPM while knowing those low rev strains aren't efficient, but anything trying to adapt that for me would get on my wick really fast : ) I really liked but also got a bit annoyed with a SRAM 2-speed auto hub though..

You also get auto trim and sequential shifting from 2x11 XTR, that's stunning to ride. You can set how many shifts it makes per button push and other things with any D12, just line it into a laptop and adjust it (I can feel myself almost gagging as I type that )

jameso wrote: Oops. How did that happen though, as a small cache battery would charge it?

No clear reason why, but I'll let him describe what happened as he writes far betterer than I. About halfway down:

https://theadventurecapitalist.wordpres ... estarting/