Not sure if this was talked about already, but thought it was pretty cool.
From Velonews:
“Shimano’s long-awaited introduction of electronic Dura-Ace shifters for aero bars arrived at Ironman. Quick, accurate shifting under load from either the ends of the aero bars or the brake levers should appeal to any time trialist or triathlete. | Photo: Lennard Zinn”
That is very cool…curious to see how reliable they are though!
I’m sure MACCA wish he had it
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I’m sure MACCA wish he had it
Ouch
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Excellent point. With electronic shifting or, more correctly, “electro-mechanical” shifting there is greatly reduced risk of cable problems. There are other potential problems but the trade-offs may be valid.
It will be very interesting to see the impact of electro mechanical drivetrains on frame design as well. The full benefit of the electro mechnical design may not be mechnical in the shifting context, but may extend beyond into new design possibilities for framesets and aerobars that fully integrate the wiring and controls.
Exciting ideas…
I along with many product managers have had time to test it. Shimano seems to have nailed it and you will see both 2009 and 2010 spec’d with it it. The only wish I have is a smaller battery that can be tucked in to the frame better, almost like the Mavic Zap of old.
Just another useless thought…I wonder how long it will be until they come up with some kind of rechargeable system. It seems some kind of magnet on the cranks and coil some where near the bottom bracket could work. Maybe some of the scientist could opine if something like this would work.
Shimano has stated that faster and more precise shifts are the main goals. As I understand the shifting is much more controlled, so misshifts due to shifting while standing or shifting too many gears or mis adjustment will all be lessened. I don’t think that a huge percent of races are ruined by shifting, but I’ve seen my fair share of broken chains and dropped chains at races to think that improvements can be made.
Styrrell
If you want to recharge the battery it takes energy. If you are using energy from riding, that will take energy from there. How much? Im not sure, but the hubs that shimano makes to run a front headlight are definitely sucking some wattage from your power-output. It would therefore be counter intuitive to do this for a competition situation.
Stephen J
how about a layer of photovoltaic silicone under the clear coat of a bike frame. Turn the entire frame into a giant solar cell. I wonder if carbon fiber (or another structural fiber) could be treated to make it a photovoltaic material, or if a current photovoltaic material could be made structural
In theory you could have an on/off switch for the charging, so it only charges when your training. Really I don’t see remembering to recharge abattery every 4 months as a big deal though.
I could see some sort of photocell recharger, but mostly to lighten the battery.
Styrrell
True, but from what I’ve heard the EDA won’t let you make these user errors. It wont overshift, wont shift too hard or too slow, wont shift at the wrong time.
I think part of peoples reluctance with EDA is that no one sees a huge improvement. There isn’t one, if its an improvement is going to be subtle.
There really isn’t any need for anything better than 10 speed DA or Campy Record, but companies have to refine there products every few years or someone will overtake them. EDA puts Shimano out front on the “newness” scale compared to Red and Campy 11 speed.
Styrrell
I think the fact that these things “autotune” to each gear is gigantic. How many times have you been halfway through a long ride when your rear shifter goes out of tune? 30% of the time? i know hot to fix it, but the rear shifters are so blatantly consumer unfriendly devices to keep in tune…
When electronicly controlled shifting came into motorsports in the 90’s it had a huge impact and almost none of it had to do with the mere fact drivers were now shifting with paddles on the steering wheel rather than a stick at their side. Putting a computer between the driver and the clutch/transmission opened up a huge range of possibilities for performance improvement just as drive by wire throttles had. In fact, much of the performance stuff the engineers came up with by using the new computer controls was eventually banned since it was basically too good and was upsetting competition (e.g. programed shifting, improved traction control, real time remote engine managment programming, etc).
Bikes don’t have nearly the same potential of benefitting from electronics as race cars do but the people focusing on cable failure on manual systems versus battery failure on electronic systems are missing the whole point of going electronic.
If you want to recharge the battery it takes energy. If you are using energy from riding, that will take energy from there. How much? Im not sure, but the hubs that shimano makes to run a front headlight are definitely sucking some wattage from your power-output. It would therefore be counter intuitive to do this for a competition situation.
Stephen J
Considering this thing runs off a watch battery for several months the recharge current would probably be in the milli-watt range comparable to increase in wattage cost if you did a poor job on your last leg shave and missed a few hairs.
JJ