I've had a cable problem once, my wife has twice. Just putting that out there, as it does happen.

My wife has a Di2 bike now, and at the moment I don't see an advantage for that application.

Where it is nice is for TT/Tri bikes, especially people don't HAVE a road bike at all. Because you can shift from the hoods or the aerobars.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

i have it on my S5. No real advantage to me.

I can name a dozen people I know who have had cables issues in a race. People love to make generalizations around a small sampling.

Di2 is incredible. I would never use anything else. Perfect shifting every time, never have to adjust anything. WAY easier to run cables especially in a fully integrated bike like a P5. Swapping extensions and packing the bike with Di2 is way easier because you can simply unplug the cables.

Sweat + Gatorade gets all over cables and then affects shifting/braking performance. Throw in road and salt grime, and performance deteriorates even more. Once Di2 is setup, it will work. Won't need to tune it every few months.

Funny you mentioned this. I just sold my road bike so I can upgrade to Di2.

Correct. Besides shifting performance, being able to shift from the hoods is to me the biggest benefit of Di2. Especially in a course with a lot of hills/climbing its a huge benefit being able to shift from the hoods. The counter argument to that is that a lot of people tend to shift too much and this would only enable that more*

*Please let a claim without any data to back it up slide just once... :)

I have been researching Di2 and I cannot wait to get it on my next bike. If I lived in a flatter place which does not require a lot of shifting, I might pass on it, but I live in Vancouver. I am constantly shifting and from what I have read, the shifting is amazing - even under load. Plus, I am a tech geek in the sense that once something has passed the first version which is often problematic, I am ready to jump on the train.

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Adrian in Vancouver

Curious...I would have thought that the most efficient way to cycle is to maintain the same power and cadence. Would this not require a lot of shifting?

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Adrian in Vancouver

If you live in an area that is very hilly (as in lots of short to medium climbs that are quite steep, not super long climbs like in CA or CO), you really do appreciate the advantage of Di2. The ability to shift from the basebar is just awesome.

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"Suddenly the thought struck me. My floor is someone elses ceiling"-Nils Ferlin

Di2 is a really cool solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Very nice, very slick, very expensive. I've been riding the bicycle since '94 and I've never had a cable issue on the road, and I still have most of the original cables on my 2002 Trek 5200.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

You can name a dozen people who had a cable issue in a single race? Or ever in a race? if the latter not apples to apples. Also if 2 di2 bikes had an issue at a single race at this point it would be a very high rate, for that one race.

There are still points for failure in a di2 system.

In the other thread people were blaming the owners for not maintaining their battery, the same can be said for most cable failures.

Neither is perfect.

Not if you dont need to shift to require that :0)

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__________________________________________________
Official Polar Ambassador
http://www.google.com/...P7RiWyEVwpunlsc2JtQQ

Been using Di2 since early-2011. I love it. I'm on my second tri bike with it. Way less hassle than mechanical.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I wonder if electronic shifting is a solution is search of a problem. Admittedly, cables do still require regular maintenance, are challenging to route inside a frame, but otherwise are very reliable and predictible. Electronics can be reliable and predictible, but not at a reasonable consumer grade price point.

All manually shifted cars still use 2 cables.

Most automatics still use some type of linkage.

Fully electronic throttles probably exist mainly because of emission requirements, otherwise a simpler cheaper cable would still be used.

Brakes still are mechanical and it will be some time before those ever change since they would require at minimum single redundancy of all electronic components.

Can some of the problems be solved. Yes, I think they can and I don't think electronic shifting will go away. I think fully integrating the wiring harnesses and battery into the frame would solve many of the issues. It would be nice if there was a standardized battery configuration, wiring standard and wiring connectors for all 3 components brands. Then frame mfg's could preinstall these components sources from approved suppliers.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

You might not have ever had a cable problem, per se, but you've certainly had a front derailleur that didnt quite shift right or a rear derailleur that needs a bit of an adjustment. .With di2, you'll never have that. Literally set it and forget it. And as others have said, it shifts perfectly every. single. time. It encourages you to shift at times when you might not have with a cabled bike.

I was also in the, not necessarily anti di2, but di2 cant really make a difference camp. And then I rode it. Once you do that, you'll understand why.

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"One Line Robert"

That fancy index shifting, moving the shift levers from the down tube and having more then 5 speeds on the rear hub are all just solutions to "problems that don't exist".

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

I don't trust electronics...

It encourages you to shift at times when you might not have with a cabled bike.

I see people say this all the time, when comparing electronic and mechanical. Personally, with optimally adjusted, Dura Ace mechanical, and Di2, the differences are minimal. Note the emphasis on optimally adjusted. I sense a lot of people don't have the time or the mechanical skill to fuss with front and rear derailleurs, so they are riding their bikes around with sub-par, to way sub-par mechanical shifting. This leads them to worry or concern themselves with not shifting when needed and thus being in the wrong gear. They get on a Di2 bike and they go, Wow!, and as noted it stays at that Wow phase for a long time.

If people can afford, it I say go for it. I have ridden Di2 in both TT mode and road mode, and I really like it. The roughly $1500 - $2,000 upgrade does seem steep to me, but I am sure many others, would say meh, based on the above.

The only down-side, that I have seen are these rare, spontaneous failures at bad times. I've seen two incidents this year locally at races, where their have been issues( note that is two issues in probably 10,000+ racer views on my part). One involved some form of shut down prior to an event - system just shut down. Battery all charged up. Mechanical help was on-site, but they could not trouble-shoot it in time before the start. The guy had to DNS. It took him out of a possible AG win - FWIW. The other was a system that froze up on course and the rider had limited gears for most of the bike.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Wonder why my Civic used a shift rod then....


In my TDI, I can see a good reason beyond just the emission control.

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I'm competing against my current fitness level, and planning to kick my a**!

This is exactly why. The majority of do it yourselfers dont know how to properly maintain their mechanical drivetrains and the others cant be bothered with taking it into a shop every time they start missing shifts. Definitely a caveat that is missed when I, and I'm sure others, state the 'encourages you to shift' bit.

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"One Line Robert"

the time it really shines is when going up a climb and shifting my fd. I can shift my FD at any time and not have to worry about dropping a chain...even under load.
di2 for the rd is nice, but in my perfect world i would have electronic in the front and mechanical in the back.

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Rattlesnake Blake
With the "Venom Enom"

In two years of Di2 (DA Di2 on TT, Ultegra Di2 on Road) I've charged the batteries twice on each bike. That's it.

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Rodney
TrainingPeaks | Altra Running | RAD Roller
http://www.goinglong.ca

Like Jack said, I see the real advantage for Di2 with TT setup.

For TT or Tri setup that is on a hilly course, having Di2 on the hoods is very nice. Not needed, but nice.

For both Road and Tri/TT setup, it's nice if you change around your equipment a lot, like playing around with different handlebars/aerobars or aero extensions. It's also nice that it is very reliable once setup correctly.

Being setup correctly is the rub. Di2 is very specific or can be very specific. With the original version, it is necessary to properly shrink wrap the connections. You also have to make sure you don't knick a wire when assembling your equipment. A lot of failures are due to a screw or bolt hitting the wiring and causing a short that doesn't affect you until later on and not noticeable when you first do it. Also, the shrink wrap has to be done correctly so NO moisture at all can get in.

I still have a plan to use my Look 596 as both a tri bike and a road bike and can easily do this if I use the new Di2 with E-Tube. I can easily set it up so I can just swap out my aerobars with tri di2 shifters and brake levers and switch to drop bars with road shifters/brifters. Just need to run brake lines again, which is very easy to adjust.

I still think the original version of Di2 is better if setup for a tri bike that is not to be altered much during the season. It is VERY reliable if done correctly.

As a person that is 1 1/2 years new to the sport, I bought a new road bike with Ultegra shifters and a new Tri-Bike with Di2. The initial reasoning for the Di2 on the tri-bike was the dual position shifting (which is definitely awesome), but now that I've ridden the same bikes, on the same routes, multiple times back to back, I can tell you there are other district advantages with Di2 that you will not notice unless you're riding bikes with cable versus Di2 shifting back to back.

You will notice the speed of shifting. Cable shifting seems fast until you ride the bikes back to back multiple times.

You will notice the ability to shift the front and the rear at the same time to create more gear ratios. The Di2 make this shifting so perfect, it's really no different than a single rear gear shift.

There are other items as well, very small, very subtle, items but they all add up in the favor of Di2. I never thought I needed electronic shifting for a road bike but my next bike will definitely have it - I won't even look at another cable shifted bike. Now if it just came on mountain bikes....