re·sus·ci·tate
rəˈsəsəˌtāt/
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1. 
   revive (this thread) from unconsciousness or apparent death.
   
   
   I am thinking of doing this same upgrade with the same bike. Any changes you would make? Different parts, cable lengths, etc.
   
   
   How is the synchro-shift working out?
   
   
   Great information btw!!
   
   
   
   

 


Edit: I should have read the first post!! 😂😂 let me digest that and see if I still have questions.

Since you’re very well versed on this and I don’t know my arse from a hole in the ground.

I have mechanical 1x on my TT bike, but after looking at prices for an ultegra di2 rear derailleur I’m thinking I might want to upgrade (solely to remove the mechanical cable going from extension into frame).

What all would I need to buy to do this? I have tririg alpha x bars and I believe you can put one of the junction boxes in there but I think you need another that I could place in BB? I have a dimond so think I’d also have to put battery in BB too? Would I have to remove BB to charge or could I route a cable up to the headset for charging? Cables? Would only want to go with the click things on extensions, no brake shifters.

Thanks!

Very impressive post and project. Thank you for sharing - I love in-process pics.

---

" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978

I would do it exactly the same...

I measured my long runs too long. It turns out that I did a pretty good job of measuring the direct length, so on those long runs, 10% fudge factor was more than enough. Also, I screwed up measuring my short runs from my extension, because I forgot to calculate that I drilled exit holes a little further away from the shortest path.

I wanted to spend extra money to buy all DA, but I could not justify it. After riding a few hundred miles with it, I would buy the Ultegra parts over again. I bought the DA brake/shifters, and I do like the fact that they say "Dura Ace" on the levers, but there probably is not much value to the nominal extra spend.

I absolutely love Synchro on a TT bike. They are a match made in heaven. The single-button end shifters on the extensions is one of the features that swung me to Di2 from eTap. (I love the eTap clicks.) Being able to go totally Zen-mindless and just push up/down while focusing inwardly on a long TT ride is priceless. Synchro shifting lets you zone entirely on your position, ride, legs, whatever, and just like the bike do its thing under you.

If you go 1x Di2, you need the exact same cockpit parts I did-- just the up/down buttons up front. If you did just extension buttons, then you only need a 3-port Junction B up front. You could do the same Junction B at the BB but only run a cable to the RD. Or, you could do a 5-port Junction B in your cockpit and run 2 cables back-- one to the RD and one to the battery. Personally, I would do my exact same setup, but delete the FD and FD wire. That is just a little bit easier from a wire routing point of view.

You charge it at the Junction A. So, if you do a Junction A in an extension, that is all you need.

Thx. Ok, so I think this would be the simplest setup - and cheapest? Damn, still pretty expensive, just looking at RD cost thought it would a lot less! (all prices from Amazon)

Bar end shifters - SW-R9160 ($202)
Cockpit A Junction 3-port EW90 ($76)
Battery - BT-DN110 ($120)
Charger - SM-BCR2 ($80)
B Junction ($30)
RD-R8050 mid-cage ($229)
2x ~500mm extensions to A junction ($50)
1x ~950mm A junction to B junction ($25)
1x ~200mm B junction to Battery ($24)
1x ~650mm B junction to RD ($24)

Adds up to $864

If I wanted to go ahead and route for FD and only slap it on there when I need it total w/FD

$1071

So I went ahead and priced out eTap as well, realizing I can put the blip box down by BB just like battery above. Blip box was a non-starter for me too as I was not going to have it exposed up by cockpit.

Blipbox ($272)
Clics ($121)
Battery Charger ($33)
RD ($610)

$1036

Add FD for $407

But Race view cycles has a mini aero group for $1,198. I'd have to buy the clics separately as this only comes with blips. I did not see any comparable Di2 mini groups available online.

Decisions, decisions. eTap would definitely be easier to install, but not much. Charging would be easier. Slapping the FD on when needed would be easier. I thought Di2 was going to be way cheaper, but not so.

Thanks for this pricing breakdown. I was going to specifically as for that. Thanks to the OP as well for the in depth breakdown. I have a lot of faith I can handle most of this myself.

Think I'm going to try to get a bike fit next week and start shopping for a new bike. One option that is starting to stand out is building a bike from the ground up. I really want the Tri Rig Alpha X bars /front brake and Di2, so this write up is perfect. The IA frame is on my short list if it fits as well. Not knowing what I need, I've been looking up "di2 TT groupsets" and you end up with cranks and stuff I'm just not looking for. I think building a bike will work best for me as I already have some major things like race wheels. And getting a bike with di2 usually comes with things like wheels that make it cost more than necessary. Also a fun project.

If you want to save money search for a 6870 group, many places are selling them brand new with big discounts. Also I seen better prices on line that the ones you listed, check competitivecyclist, that is where I got mine.

got any links? i'm not finding anything. i checked competitive cyclist and they do not have a di2 mini group, but they do have a power kit that comes with battery/charger/junction boxes/cables, but it's $100 more than all those items bought separately on amazon.

When I was shopping for mine, I had initially priced out parts from four different European shops. One downside, is that I found no one with a TT mini group other than eBay. So, I had to shop for individual parts. If you are going for the lowest possible price, check out Bikeinn, Probikekit, Jenson USA, Ribble, and Bike Bling. I have bought from all of these in the past with good results. I like Competitive Cyclist too, but they were the least competitive for Shimano parts.

The total was lower than yours. But then I decided I would rather have a US shop (if possible) and have another set of eyes. I bought everything from MyBikeShop. I really enjoyed the insights to not miss any parts. And, MBS's price was pretty close to what it would have cost to buy everything overseas. (Because of Shimano's MAP rules, US shops cannot publish good prices, but they can quote great prices if you speak with them.)

Without pricing out each individual item, are these online discounts larger than ~15%. I get a 15% through my LBS and wouldn't mind going through them if they are close.

I did not look at it that way, but I think it was more like 25% off US MSRP. I created a big painful spreadsheet with my list of parts, and I googled each one to find the cheapest price. I clicked on dozens of online bike store links. Then, I found the lowest prices, and did a logistics exercise to do the fewest number of orders while achieving the best price. In a few cases, I had picked a slightly higher price for a part to avoid adding another store to my order. But in the end, I threw it all away and just did a total order from MBS at their best price, which was probably within 5% of my best price from multiple international bike stores.

I would buy from your LBS. You could save something like $150 by buying internationally, but that to me seems like a small amount relative to the local support and fallback if you forgot something or need to swap something (like a cable).

Competitivecyclist does not have a mini group, you have to piece it together, I just went back to look at my invoice and they had a 20% off sale on top of their discounted price sale when I bought mine, probably the reason they had the cheapest price at the time, here are a few links for some of the parts I bought, maybe they will help your comparison:
brake/shift lever
TT shifters
Rear derailleur
A junction

Question for as you stated this in your first part of your write up ^. I am assuming this special RD adapter is for shadow style derailleurs (aka R8000, R9100(?), and most MTB style ones). Wasn't aware this part existed since I run 6800/9000 stuff on my bikes (MTB is Shimano Alvivo but that was a full bike so I don't mess with that on too much).

Also, do you use the Garmin sync to the wireless unit to display the gear/battery status and syncro-shift mode? Curious how that looks. I've also mulled using a SC-MT800 display instead of the WU111 as the former has a built in display. There is nothing in the compatibility charts that doesn't say it won't work with a road setup despite it being a design for MTB.

Nearly done putting together a Di2 conversion kit for my road bike (but using 6870/9070 parts instead) and about to put it together (when I can get some time to do so). Deciding whether to keep a WU111 I purchased or return it and go for the MT800 instead. Yes I should be able to use my Garmin to display the Di2 info but I like leaving it as 1 screen and not changing things/flipping pages honestly.

Yes, the new Shadow rear derailleurs have an extra little pivot stick on them that is different from prior gen derailleurs. It is part of the RD out of the box, because very few frames have the direct mount brackets yet. If you happen to have a DM frame, then you would remove that little extension piece and then mount the RD directly to the frame's DM piece. It is the opposite of intuitive.

Yes, I use the WU111 and and connect to Garmin. It is pretty cool seeing the gear graphics, battery level and shift mode. I actually never use that screen much in real life, though. I do use it occasionally to check battery level-- that is easier than trying to remember how to do it and interpret it on the Junction A. The major impact of connecting to Garmin is that if you use Synchro shifting, your Garmin will beep when your next shift will trigger a FD shift. This is huge, because Synchro will never surprise you with an FD shift. It is part of what makes Synchro on TT a wonderful thing. I am not as much a fan of Synchro on a road bike. Personally, I want absolute control over the FD on a road bike.

Does the e-Tube app try to automatically force firmware updates? I want to make sure it doesn't do anything screwy with my system without my permission since I plan on running a EW90 junction A (and read that has to be updated via the PC connection potentially and not though the wireless way...not completely sure on that).

E-tube will not do anything you don’t want it to. It takes multiple intentional clicks to do a firmware update. And, it doesn’t push them. It lets you do you.

I am not sure about the EW-RS910 update. I am not sure if that has come up on the FW update screen. I may give it a peek tonight...

exxxvii, you are a legend for this write-up. So helpful that even an idiot could follow the instructions.

At least, most idiots. This particular idiot has encountered one problem and would be grateful for your help.

I have the Ultergra brake/shifters (ST6871) which come with etube wires attached. This makes it a challenge to work out where to use the y-cable (EW-JC130-SM).

Did you use some sort of mini-junction to join the y-cable with the cables already attached to the brake-shifters? Or is there another obvious solution which I should have noticed? (Like, purchasing the DA shifters rather than the cheaper Ultegra equivalent?!).

I am not familiar with the ST6871 shifters and the cable type attached. It depends on the type of plug (male or female) at the end of the shifter cables. Is the plug type on those cables the same type of plug as on all the other components, like the junctions, batteries, derailleurs, etc. If so, then a standard cable will attach (such as the Y-Cable). On the other hand, are the cables intended to plug directly into a Junction box?

If they are the former (same as all other components), then you could plug the Y-cable directly into those ST6871 cables. However, if they are the same type of plug as on a standard cable and intended to plug into a junction box, then you cannot use a Y-cable without junctions, such as the 2-port EW-JC200. If the cables are long enough to reach the junction, then it probably does not make sense to try to use a Y-cable.

Thank you for responding. The plug is a male plug and so won’t link to the Y cable without a junction of some sort.

I could ditch the Y cable, but that would require me to use a different B junction (6 port) in the cavity in the centre of the Alpha X, rather than the 4 port that you used.. That provides two challenges:

1. Locating a 6 port B junction (not as easy as I had expected); and
2. assessing whether that 6 port B junction will fit in the space available in Alpha X.

Do you have any observations?

You could probably do it with 2 4-port Junction B boxes. There is a lot of room inside the Alpha X, and I am pretty sure you could fit two 4-ports and a short cable between them.

Another option is that you could install an EW-WU111 wireless unit inside the base bar to connect one of the brake levers to the Y cable. Then, on the other end, you could just use a EW-JC200 2-port Junction B between the brake & Y-cable. That would solve it with only one extra part and no discards. The only downside may be lots of extra cable length inside the base bar, but no biggie. And, your down tube cable may not be long enough if you had sized it for an EW-WU111 and short cable to the Junction B inside the base bar.

...and that is why you are A Legend and I am an idiot. Two Junction B boxes taped together will solve the problem nicely.

Thank you!

How are you mounting the internal battery BT-DN110 ?

I see Felt spells a cover that holds the battery at the bottom of the seat tube.

I have all my parts and am about to tackle this project ...battery is the only question.

That plastic cover on the bottom of the IA seat tube doubles as the battery mount. Remove the cover/mount to expose the Di2 battery mount. You just zip tie the battery to the plastic cover/mount, and then insert it all into the frame.

A-ha! So, I dont need to buy a different cover. Thank you for the info, much appreciated.

Dennis