Di2 is fine.

At the moment, I am leaning toward eTap for my eventual upgrade. Here are the things I really like about eTap vs. Di2

Pro eTap

• External, individual batteries (to me) make charging and emergency power issues better
• Extension bar-end buttons
• Wireless for easier installation
• Shifting up/down/toggle design
• Weight (I think eTap is lighter
• Value for a top-tier product
  

Pro Di2

• It's Shimano
• Better button integration on the brakes
• Ultegra is less expensive
  

If icould afford and justify the prices of both then I'd go Etap! This system is only gonna get better and better and the new firmware updates keep coming in!

As far as DI2 is concerned, it has reached its potential and no further improvements will be seen in the near future even though the 9150 had great things going for itself at this moment, the limiting factor will always be the wires and the oversized battery.

At the time when I got my DI2 there were no hints of Etap so 6871 or 9071 was the way to go and i decided in the cheaper version! If I was you right now, I'd go Etap however di2 is just fine as well if you prefer to keep a few hundred bucks in your wallet, nobody will knock you for it lol

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

I've got eTap on the road bike only and have never used Di2, so take it for what it's worth: The ease of instillation and ease of battery changing of eTap should not be understated. No wires to come loose, no battery inside a seat tube that needs recharging etc. I know there are workarounds for a lot of these Di2 issues, but SRAM really nailed the ease of use on this

I've used Ultegra di2 for a few years, and just finished setting up an etap aero group.

In terms of setup, the etap was easier due to not having any wires to route through the frame, hiding second junction box in BB, hiding battery in post and wiring down from there, etc. The blip box is of course a little bigger and thus hard to hide inside anywhere by the stem, has to be mounted on top of or underneath the stem.
Other than a brief spin around the block, I haven't had a chance to really ride it. The shifting seemed to work perfect. It doesn't have auto trim fd like di2, but I only noticed a very slight amount of fd chain rub in the extreme cross gear (large chainring, largest cassette gear).

Di2 of course is a well proven and reliable system, it works perfect, battery charge lasts forever, so there's that.

I wanted to try the etap just for something different, but di2 is still a fantastic system IMHO and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

Maybe just choose the one you like the look of the most?

What firmware updates have they released? As far as I can tell SRAM hasn't released anything.

---

Strava

Eventually they will... I'm talking about how Etap is at its crawling face and its potential is upwards as oposed to shimano/durace DI2 who may have reached their potential!

If for any reason i said or implied that Sram had done a firmware update already that was not to be taken as a factual statement!

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

If you aren't a competent mechanic keep in mind that a shop will charge something for the install.

I just did a Campy EPS install on a warranty frame. The company that made the frame (who will remain nameless because they have always been good to me), has made some subtle design changes over the various model years of the frame. This made the install really tricky. I usually do my own mechanic work, but after about 5 hours of fiddling I took it to the shop. It took my mechanic a solid day to do the install. In contrast, any lugnut with a couple Allen keys can install eTap in 30 minutes.

Wireless is the future.

I'm not sure what factual basis you have for claiming that only Etap will continue to improve and Di2 won't. That makes no sense to me.

This was an opinionated thread so i gave mine and how i think that di2 has limiting factors for further improvements you dont see it since your opinion is otherwise... whats hard to see???

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

^^^ This. I'm planning on upgrading my Shiv to eTap next year. Just because I want to. It currently has Red 10sp.

I had my first test ride with the etap wifli on my road bike yesterday. I picked etap because of the ability to swap the battery if one dies out in the middle of nowhere solo training ride. Or I could carry a backup (small and about the weight of gel packet) on a long ride. Also not having the shifter wires. Those two things were worth the additional cost to me. I have plenty of friends with Di2 groups and they all like that system, but I wanted to try the etap.

I am pretty happy with it and I am very glad I got it. However, I just have the one test ride so I cannot speak for long term use or reliability.

I do not plan to upgrade my tri bike and will stay with mechanical. If I get a new tri bike I would consider etap for less cables and the ability to use the blips.

Serious question - what improvements do you see with etap via firmware updates? Either it shifts correctly (which Di2 does) or it doesn't, no?

Again, my etap group was definitely easier to setup, but I'm not sure I'd use that as a deciding factor between the two. So you might have to take a few hours to properly setup a Di2 system, big deal, its essentially a one time setup. Now if you had a frameset that absolutely had no place to hide the di2 battery (seat post too narrow, etc), then I could see that as a definite nod towards etap.

The other reason for me to think that di2 is dead is again the wires... wires are old tech, think about a wired PM versus current ones, which will you buy?

Also just how we evolved from using an ethernet cable to wifi?! Nobody in their right might will ever go back to needing to be hooked up to the ethernet cable to get internet... we all want wireless and etap gives you that!

Not too long from now, people going to look at wired di2 the same way people look at mech shifting! Lol it's in our nature to go wireless if that wasnt the case then we wouldn't mind having all of our wires hanging out on our cockpit

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

On the track wired SRMs are still king. If you think that WiFi has anything on a good wired connection, then you're neither in IT nor are you a gamer.

Shimano doesn't do things by halves. Di2 is easy to set up, reliable, available, proven, and supported (how many firmware updates for eTap so far?). The fact that you need the blipbox for the eTap TT setup shows they don't have it all figured out yet.

Not a gamer, got better things i can waste my time on like attempting to learn how to swim better lol

I'm trying with all my might to hide all wires from the wind and you're wanting more wires ha ha ha

You want wires, keep them! I want wireless just can't afford it

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

I am waiting for Di3 wireless.

I just upgraded all my bikes to eTapx4. I had D/A and Ultegra Di2. If you gave me di2 I would use it, but I would buy eTap.

The cockpit is where wires can be difficult to conceal and SRAM's solution is worse than Di2 where it actually matters. Let me know when eTap TT actually becomes wireless with an easy took hide blipbox and we'll talk. No way I could get my P5 front end as clean with eTap.

I honestly don't understand why the eTap road shifters can house all the electronics in something the same size as a mechanical shifter, but they couldn't figure out some sort of "sausage-shaped" Blip to go inside the extensions. Hell, even make the blip stick out a bit forwards, so it would have roughly the same dimensions as a Di2 shifter and wouldn't necessitate a different extension to get the same reach - gives the engineers plenty of volume to stick the electronics in.

---

ZONE3 - We Last Longer

Do post and the end OP with what you decide to go with! Hopefully my replies were of any help!

---

Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

I love my Di2. I can't see cost/benefit of moving to eTap.

I'd be willing to bet the 2nd generation eTap does something very close to this. I've even been tempted to buy a pair of shifters and see if it is do-able as-is.

---

Strava

j

Check out Nick Salazar's retro Trek TT build on TriRig. He just sticks the blip box on the end of the extension. Blip box, rear derailleur, done. A little bit of an ergonomic cludge, but incredibly simple.