I come from a 2x10 Red, which is a pita because of the front derailleur adjustment. I thought about moving to DI2, but didn't do it because my frame on the road bike does not have the mounting screws for the DI2 battery holder. As I have a no zipties policy this rules out any sort of DI2. What makes the eTap appealing to me is the simplicity of installation, what I found disappointing is private communication (security by obscurity never works), lack of XTR type of synchro shifting, and finally missing integration. Right now I understood there is no chance to read the selected chainrings from any head unit.

So finally I think you basically gain not much.

I wouldn't go with ETap for one main reason - I can't shift both derailleurs at the same time.

I always make a shift in the rear when I shift at the front, in order to compensate for the big change in gain ratio. I perceive a real world loss in not being able to do this.


Wireless appeals to me in theory, although I'd want to see if people have any problems with connection and/or power loss in specific components etc.

And it wouldn't work with a triple ;-)

Good point there. I tend to shift the back slightly ahead of the front ring change, I'm wondering how close together you can apply a rear change and then a front change, or vice versa.

I could see it being cool for paralympic athletes, where you might want the shifters all on one extension. That might be a nice benefit.

Haha I actually do ride a triple! I bought it out of ignorance mainly, I had signed up for a super hilly iron event despite not owning a bike. Did a bit of noob research and saw that triple=hills so went for it.
I used the 30t chainring for a grand total of about 200m before I bought a Vector, now I find that I can make good use of it to stay under threshold when it gets steep.

I suppose if it was a fraction of a second for the shift then it wouldn't matter, but I figure if I'm paying that much more convenience of use then it makes no sense to have to change my habits.

Hadn't considered the para-athlete angle. Very true.

Wiggins is using it, so can't imagine the loss you talk of would be anything other than immaterial.

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I am curious about this. Can you explain in more detail?

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eTap uses the 2.4GHz spectrum, it's a protocol called Airea, it's not ANT+ or Bluetooth.

Right, I have heard of that.
But how is that security by obscurity?

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I don't know much about the protocol, and who collaborated on its development. Was it developed in house at SRAM?

My guess: Because it's not an IEEE working group?

From what I heard, I think so (in-house by sram).

Can a proprietary protocol still be pretty secure?

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Sure. Is it likely they did a good-enough job? I don't know.

Do you prefer the Microsoft or a Linux model?

Obviously can't comment on eTap but I did move to Di2 last year. There are a couple "gains" but they are pretty minor until you are riding, and shifting, on the edge.

The biggest difference IMHO comes when you are shifting under load, particularly with the front ring. Standing up putting out 700 watts suddenly feel the need to shift? No problem. It shifts exactly the same as if you were cruising along at 150 watts.

Shifts take very little effort, no hand movement and very little finger movement. On paper the difference in movement might look small but on the bike it makes a very perceptible difference. For the first time, I am totally comfortable shifting in the drops and I don't even have the aux sprint buttons.

Another "gain" is that the shifting behavior does not change with conditions such as dirty drive train or weather conditions (eg cold or rain). (On the other hand, I am cleaning my drive train less as a result so this may not be a gain at all).

With that said, for day to day riding it is not a huge difference and in many normal situations it is not different at all, save a little less finger movement. But, when things get intense, like in key moments of a race or when you need to shift on a hard climb, electronic is really nice. It is by no means a necessity but if you have the cash, you will not regret going electronic.

Of course, I tend to prefer open source (if that is what you're asking).

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yes, you can. When shifting down with one button, flick the other simultaneously and the front derailleur shifts. SRAM has been working on this for a long time, do you really believe they did not consider this scenario?

I'm not sure I follow you. I've never had my hands on the system so maybe it's more apparent when you actually play with it.

If I press both buttons then the front shifts, how can I press the rear shifter button in a manner so that both derailleurs shift simulataneously?

From SRAM homepage: . Also it was mentioned that the eTap can only pair one pair of shifters to the front and real derailleur to prevent somebody from "hacking into the system". My opinion is that by using a proprietary technology SRAM will 1.) not increase security and 2.) reduce software enabled functionality in the long run.

Re 1: Maybe at some point in time one bored person will disassemble the shifter or the FD an see which communication chip is in there. He will then read some pins from that chip to extract the preshared key which is used to encrypt communication. Based on that he will reverse engineer the communication and construct a device to fool around with. My hyopthesis is that this bored person will discover that SRAM took a shortcut to provide security by simply using a "proprietary" communication frequency, an "unknown" preshared key or other very basic security mechanism instead of designing a proper secure pairing mechanism.

Re 2: Imagine you want to use the Bioshift automatic shifting system. Bioshift is currently physically wired to the DI2. If Shimano now decides to switch from wired to ANT+ the only thing which needs to change in the Bioshift is the device the pure communication device. As ANT+ is open Bioshift can basically pay a small license fee, go to ANT developers conference to pick up some knowledge, buy standard chips to include in the device and use ANT+. In SRAMs case he would need to go to SRAM, pay a license fee (or not), learn a protocol which has "some documentation" and a very limed user community.

Can someone explain to me why security is important in this context?

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My hunch is that the shifts are fast enough that in reality not being able to actually initiate front and rear shifts simultaneously will probably not be that much of an issue since you're likely just talking a split second delay to flick both levers then flick one as your fingers will already be on both levers anyway to do the front shift. I assume if you initiate the front shift then immediately do the rear shift, the front shift would still be going on while the rear shift was being completed so it would probably seem pretty seamless.

Personally, I'd be more concerned about having to use two hands to shift the front. It would not be an issue in races or hard riding situations but I'd say almost every ride I find myself coasting up to a stop light, bottle in my right hand, fiddling with my computer, picking my nose etc, while shifting out of the big ring with my left hand . . . Not a deal breaker but if I was ever to switch over to eTap, I'm sure it would take some getting used to.

Do you want someone else to be able to shift for you?

Just think of all the people out there with the motive and know how, just waiting to hack your shifters while you're out on your rides. Or god forbid, on your trainer at home.

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What is the probability that would ever happen? Seriously.

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1. See video of the hacked remote controlled Jeep that was making the rounds a few weeks ago. In reality, the chances of someone hacking someone else's bike are very remote but, for marketing purposes if nothing else, high security is very important.

2. SRAM, quite reasonably, would like to maintain control of the proprietary system the spend a lot of money developing. Security = No knock off pirated shifters and derailleurs from China, etc.

Quite low but you don't think some little punk wouldn't get a kick out of going to a bike race and messing with some riders as they went by?

To you or I? Essentially zero, it's a non issue to us.

However, I can see the motive to doing it to a TdF favourite half way up Alp D'Huez.
A guy places a bet that Rider X loses time on the stage. As the rider goes past that guy, he gets thrown into the 53-11 and there's nothing the rider can do about it.
I doubt even somebody like Contador could make rotation and stay upright in that gear.