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Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting
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I'm looking at getting a new road bike, mainly for training and the occasional road race and short distance triathlon.

There are the options to get electronic shifting and also some models have disc brakes.

This makes the process of buying a bike even more difficult.

What are the implications of both of these for triathlon and what is your preference and why?
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [kiwi nz] [ In reply to ]
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Both are incredibly unnecessary. Electronic shifting is great on a TT bike and disc brakes are good for touring and CX. The biggest implication with the combo you're eyeing is the lack of selection of aero wheels.
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [kiwi nz] [ In reply to ]
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Bing factor, get them both

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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [Grill] [ In reply to ]
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The suggestion that ectronic shifting is more useful on TT than road is ridiculous. Maybe you live in Flordia but otherwise, nearly everyone shifts a lot more on road bike.
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [Carl Spackler] [ In reply to ]
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Carl Spackler wrote:
The suggestion that ectronic shifting is more useful on TT than road is ridiculous. Maybe you live in Flordia but otherwise, nearly everyone shifts a lot more on road bike.

No, I live in the UK and ride a lot. Even after 24 hours in the saddle I've never had trouble shifting my mechanical groupset. Does electronic shifting add any real functionality over its mechanical counterpart in road trim? No. Does it in TT trim? Yes, as I have the ability to shift from the bullhorns (which is invaluable any corner, roundabout and even on the push off). I stand by my contention.
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [kiwi nz] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [Grill] [ In reply to ]
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Mechanical works great until it doesn't. Electronic is the same every time. Maybe you're unique and ride TT bike in hillier terrain than road rig. Otherwise, I stand by my contention that I'd rather have electronic for the 10x number of shifts versus TT.
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [Carl Spackler] [ In reply to ]
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If the worst should occur (catastrophic failure in mid Wales with no cell signal for example), I can bodge together my mechanical gruppo. In a race, where the TT bike sees almost all its miles, any big failure spells the end so it doesn't matter.

What mechanical groupsets have you used, because 6800 is like butter...
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [ In reply to ]
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Ok so you have basically convinced me electronic shifting has no benefit.

What about disc brakes? I've researched that the pro peleton will more than likely go to disc brakes in 2016 onwards because they are "superior" but once again not convinced this is worthwhile for the average age grouper.
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Re: Buying New Bike- Disc Wheels and Electronic Shifting [kiwi nz] [ In reply to ]
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At this point you're not allowed to use discs in road racing. Which should then mean that they're not allowed for sanctioned tris, though I doubt the TOs will know that. There was a disc Defy at Taupo Half last week and no one cared.

The pro peleton would shift to discs because of manufacturer pressure to revive a flagging market (high end road) by creating a need for new bikes. Not something you want to be an early adopter on until hub formats (thru axles?) are resolved.

There are some fantastic 105 & Ultegra bikes around that offer great performance without doing anything weird. I'd stick with that sort of thing unless you really want to be the first on the block with a new toy.
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