Wait until January 2019 https://forum.slowtwitch.com/.../?page=unread#unread

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

I had Di2 on a previous bike and now have eTap on another bike. I prefer eTap because of the wirelessness and ease of carrying a spare battery on-board, but I don't know that I'd go through the hassle/expense of converting from Di2 on an existing bike. If there's any sort of performance difference between the two, I can't tell.

There were several threads here on this exact topic. Here is one: https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...20vs%20etap#p6427449

I have DI2 on my tri bike and eTap on my road bike. I prefer the DI2 on my tri bike integrated gear changers on the brake levers and the eTap being on my road. I even run the older model shifters as that is my preference on my tri bike up and down changers on the brakes and end of bars front and rear. I personally wouldn't put it eTap on my tri bike and see no advantage in just swapping until they upgrade the blip box as it appears to be the weak link and that may be in January.

Ditto Shambolic's post above. I have DI2 on my tri bike and eTap on my road bike as well. And, I much prefer Di2 for the TT bike application due to integrated brake shifters, better hidden installation, and synchro shift. Even if SRAM came out with integrated brake shifters that eliminated the blip, I would still go for Di2 on the TT bike solely for the synchro shifting.

On the other hand, I cannot imagine a universe where I would ever put Di2 on a road bike. SRAMs shifting design is phenomenal on a road bike. I sometimes wish I could incorporate Shimano's semi-synchro on my road bike, but not enough that I would ever give up the everyday shifting awesomeness of road bike eTap.

Don't know if anyone has ever tested it, but Etap RD / FD are huge and there might be an aero penalty, especially against the low profile Shimano 9150 or 8050 RD's.

I've run out of "power" on both Etap as well as Di2 setups on the road, and Etap is nicer because you can at least swap the FD/RD batteries and still get rear shifting. But that choice is available only if you don't run 1x front ;)

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Need more W/CdA.

I don't know, seen from the front they don't seem any bigger to me, and the battery may improve trailing aerodynamics.

I might be in the minority here, but I went from SRAM eTap to Di2 on my TT bike.

I had replaced every part (all under warranty) of the eTap system except for the blip box. Had the system for 2 years and replaced 3 of the blips, 1 click, a hand full of batteries, and both the FD & RD once. I liked the idea of the system, but couldn't risk the problems during a race.

Since switching over to Di2, I have had zero problems, granted I have only had it for a few months. From what I hear the eTap road is leaps an bounds better than the eTap TT (I know the FD & RD are the same).

Same.

I had major problems with eTap on my TT. Constantly dropping the chain. Or FD not shifting properly. Had it replaced under warranty and still same problems. Bike was in the shop every week. What a PITA.

Long story short- I switched to Di2 and haven't had an issue since.

I’ve had both but, personally, I prefer Di2. I run 2x on my TT bike and the auto-trim function on Di2 is really nice.

Same for me, di2 for a long time, and when I built a new bike this past season, I too stayed with the 'older' style two button shifters. I did try etap on another bike. I didn't like the idea of the batteries needing charging all the time, needing to be taken off for transportation (to not drain them), the tabs on the derailleurs that can snap off, etc. Outside of a one-time times saving during initial setup, I see absolutely no advantage to etap. I bet Sebi doesn't love it anymore either! ;)

As far as I know, di2 shifts to the FD to the small chainring before it dies so it also provides mercy should you be a dumb enough to bbn or check your battery level ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

I like Etap... wireless and modular batteries.

I've never used Etap just because whenever I was doing any research on comparing the two, it was E Tap that had all the system problems (very very few for Di2) and it was always noted that E Tap shifting was just a tad slower than Di2.....in a nutshell, the conclusion I always came across was that + for E Tap for it's ease of installation, + for Di2 as "it just works!" and + for Di2 for better shifting.

I have Di2 on 3 bikes and still wont consider using ETap yet.

I have etap on one bike and di2 on the other.

I like etap, but i love di2. I've been a SRAM fanboy for a long time, but i think that di2 shifts faster, smoother, and more reliable than etap.

The etap FD has to be adjusted just perfect, and even then I'm afraid of chain drops. Granted, the bike it is on has compact gearing (gravel bike), which typically shifts worse than the 53/39 standard i have on my road bike. I don't know if i've ever dropped a chain on my di2 bike, and I've been riding it for 2 years. I haven't adjusted the derailleurs in that whole time, and it is still perfect. I've had too many chain drops to count on etap.

On etap, you also have to worry about rear tire clearance due to the giant battery that sticks back from the FD. I wish SRAM would make a battery that is half size that i had to charge twice as frequently. I would use that for sure, especially since my FD battery last so long because I'm afraid to shift it.

Etap isn't all bad. It's nice that you can toss and extra battery in your tool roll/saddle bag. If you (or anyone else in your group) ever gets a dead battery, you can pull over and swap in just a few seconds. Shimano is more smooth, but etap still shifts really nice. If di2 didn't exist, etap would be by far the nicest groupo available....but di2 is better in my opinion.

Might want to ask Sebastian Kienle his thoughts on that

🤣🤣🤣 he'd have a thing or 2 to say about it!!!

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Speed kills unless you have speed skills!!!

I've had Etap and DA Di2 on my Madone.

I love the idea of Etap. I could not get it to work. I spent hours on the phone with SRAM support and still could get the FD to quit throwing the chain. The Madone has pretty short chain stays and that MIGHT be the problem.

Swapped out to Di2 and I've never touched a thing since. It's stupidly good and from what I can tell a lot "smarter" than SRAM in that it can be tuned / etc.

That said if SRAM comes out with 1x12 I'm in. I never had a RD issue and would go back to wireless in an instant if I could make it work.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

If you've run out of power on Di2, then you know that power automatically goes to the rear (shutting off the front) for the last 50 miles of battery life. Were you more than 50 miles from a charger at the time?

As I said, does not apply to 1x setups where FD is removed ;)
Of course, low battery levels shouldn't be used as a choice factor between the groupsets as in most cases it's just user error - grabbing the bike and heading out without doing the basic checks.

Also, if battery dies (has happened to me) - or internal connections to it get loose, you're left singlespeed with Di2 without warning. Etap does have its own share of problems especially with RD dying, but these rarely (as far as I've observed) come without a warning - usually the RD displays some weird behavior for a while before going dead.

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Need more W/CdA.

But it's not "without warning" as only the rear will shift for the last couple hours of battery life.

Saw someone in a bike race last year who lost because their etap shifters stop communicating with the derailleurs. All the batteries were good; the wireless connection just stopped working.

On that note I think eTap and smart trainers might be a bad combo (at least for me anyways). I run a Elite Direto in Ant+ mode (because of their known bluetooth issues) and found that one too many devices operating wirelessly in the vicinity will kill the erg mode. This is will a Ant+ power meter and HRM. My phone running the app with an ANT+ adapter, bluetooth headphones tied to tablet and my Garmin watch connected via BTLE to my phone. Runs fine until one day my wife "chromecasted" the kiddos tablet to the TV in the same room (wireless router is there too) and lost erg mode. Only way I got it back was to just shut off my headphones and turn off bluetooth on the tablet I was using. Then disconnect/reconnect my trainer (i.e. power cycle it).

That was a "fun" 15 minutes in the middle of my session.

Other than that I've got no opinion on what is better as I have Di2 but never tried eTap. Love my Di2 so far (on road bike but soon to be on my Tri bike too).

I have the opposite. The eTap on my TT bike has been flawless (knock on wood) and is more intuitive than the Di2 on my road bike. I have to think too hard on the road bike on which lever to press to shift.

This. If you love eTap on TT, you will do freakin' back flips on a road bike.