You gave the impression that there's a pretty tight budget....if that's the case, don't bother with electronic shifting. It doesn't make you faster. Work on your engine, your nutrition, your sleep and save your money.

electronic shifting is icing on the cake for some setups. However, not having it doesn't keep you from being a strong rider.

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"Outwork your talent." Kevin McHale

In my heart I know you are 100% correct. The engine is very much the limiting factor. I need to keep reminding myself of that and stop trying to buy speed.

Some info here for di2, sounds like it would take some tinkering....
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...on_and_Di2_P2626098/

Etap should def work fine, you'll just need to find a place somewhere around the stem that you don't mind zip tying the huge blip box. But for the price of etap, maybe just sell the bike and buy something a bit more modern and throw ultegra di2 on yourself?

Ignore the responses about 'invest in your engine'. You're upgrading your bike because you want to upgrade your bike, not because you think it will make a difference. Life is too short to ride crap equipment.... ;)

I can be more than a little indecisive. As a short, old, relatively unfit, fat triathlete with self esteem issues I am not averse to treating myself to the odd upgrade but suspect that an all new bike in the house might be a step too far. If I do go the etap route then I would do it over time with as many second hand parts as possible. While a replacement bike already fitted with ultegra di2 would be simple the one off outlay even accounting for the sale of the Transition is likely to be more than I would feel comfortable with.

The cable routing in the Transition is a real pain and unless you are a confident and competent mechanic I wouldn't go down the di2 route. The exit hole for the front mech is particularly small and would almost certainly require you to drill the frame.

E-Tap would solves this problem and depending in your front end setup the blip box shouldn't pose a massive problem. If money is tight though and you want to go faster upgrade the brakes to some Tri-Rigs or hydraulic maguras. Speaking as someone who has raced a Transition for many years under many conditions the standard brakes are HORRIBLE which is amplified by the high level of compliance in the fork. They are honestly bad enough that you have to spend extra time on the hoods when braking and the extra time on the hoods cost you time overall.

So there is a better way to stop than the power of prayer. This is my first TT bike and I just assumed not stopping in a hurry was part of the price you paid. I have seen brakes for sale and will look into that option. I am definitely not a keen mechanic so that was part of the appeal of etap over di2.

I installed di2 in the SWorks Transition... a little work but not hard and the result is very clean. And I still think that frame set up properly is plenty fast. I race on a Shiv now and use the Transition as a Trainer bike but I my IM bike PR is still from racing on the Transition. I think I posted the details in the Transition specific thread but if you need any help just message me. To keep things simply I put junction B inside the frame near the head tube and Jjntion A is mounted under the stem. You could do a Tri rig Alpha and it would end up super clean.

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Team Zoot

Checking to see if you did the upgrade to Di2 or eTap.... I'm doing a project soon to put etap on my transition instead of buying a new frame and components. I think the etap would server me well by removing the shifter cables and keeping things simple and wireless.

Haven't done it, yet. Not ruled it out though. It is starting to feel like a winter project. Pick up as many etap bits second hand as I can then get what's left new. I know it won't really have a material impact on my speed but I fancy it and if I can do it at an affordable price why not?

Thanks, just losing the cables could be an advantage and save a little weight too. Still more cost effective than getting a new frame and components, which might not even make me faster :) I'll probably post the upgrade when I'm done....

I retrofitted my S-Works Transition to di2... it was not too difficult. Battery fits perfectly in the seatpost and I ran the Junction B in the frame near the headtube (I cut the internal cable tubes near the top tub exits to keep everything internal) Very clean install... just one wire out of the frame to Junction A which i mounted on the stem (or get a Tririg bar/stem and have it internal as well) I race on a Shiv these days but I keep my Transition around as a back up bike... still a damn fast bike.

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Team Zoot

Thanks. You just made me spit my coffee on my keyboard.

I have a 2012 Transition and as far as I know, prayer is the best option. I knew the brakes weren't great when I was comparing them to my 2008 Allez, but when I switched to a Roubaix with disc brakes and then raced Philly on the Transition in June I realized I was loosing a lot of speed and performance having to carefully plan every braking event.

I like to say brakes aren't important in a race because all they do is slow you down (as a joke) but the Transition's brakes take that joke to a new level.

Wait until a rainy day and you use the rear brake and then it fails to open because it got dirt in the spring. Trying to flip the bike over and get your fingers in between the brake arms to pop them apart is what nightmares are made off.

You just have to keep telling yourself that you have the fastest non-superbike ever made and live with it.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Toss in some Tririg brakes. Solved my issues. Stock brakes were only capable of suggesting the bike slows down... not so great at actually performing that action.

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Team Zoot

Hopefully I can get my Tririg breaks fitted tomorrow for Sunday's ride then I can comment.

I 2nd this. Tririg front and back, never had issues braking from descents on courses like wildflower, mt. Diablo, mt. Hamilton, tahoe, wet weather, etc.. but the direct mount brakes from my roadie is way beter TBH. Still tririg brakes work well than the stock ones