Dura-Ace Di2 Electronic road tested

blorg

As I'm posting up stuff from BikeRadar today they have a report up on their test ride of the new group.

Sounds nice, a few niggles but sounds very nice indeed. January 2009, I'm tempted to become a guinea pig.

tunney

Just curious as to what you feel the problems with existing DA are to warratn electronic DA?

cantalach

tunney wrote: »

Just curious as to what you feel the problems with existing DA are to warratn electronic DA?

Yeah, it seems like a solution in search of a problem. OK, so you get near-perfect shifting and automatic trims at the front as you move through the gears at the back. But is that worth the hassle of having to recharge your bicycle after every couple of outings?

That said, people probably had a similar attitude to indexed shifters when they first came on the scene.

Raam

cantalach wrote: »

Yeah, it seems like a solution in search of a problem. OK, so you get near-perfect shifting and automatic trims at the front as you move through the gears at the back. But is that worth the hassle of having to recharge your bicycle after every couple of outings?

That said, people probably had a similar attitude to indexed shifters when they first came on the scene.

Supposedly the battery is good for 1000km which is a decent amount, I guess.
http://www.velonews.com/article/81107
But I know for certain that I would forget to charge it.

Chips Lovell

To be honest, nothing really about it has me making me want to go out and buy it right away. They advertise auto-trim on the front deraileur, but the weird thing is that the new mechanical Dura Ace (7900) is advertised as not needing to be trimmed at all. In other words, its solving a problem they already had a simpler solution to.

The rear deraileur was meant to auto-adjust, i.e. align itself with the cogs, but apparently they ditched that for the weight savings. Mind you, it does mean you don't have to worry about cable tension, but how big of a hassle was that in the first place. Its most interesting application is in TT bikes, because apparently you can put multiple shift buttons on the bars.

Having said all that, new groupsets are rarely revolutionary. Even big changes, like moving from 9 speed to 10 speed aren't that significant in terms of user experience.

niceonetom

tunney wrote: »

Just curious as to what you feel the problems with existing DA are to warratn electronic DA?

not expensive enough. obviously.

yeah i'd take quite a lot of convincing on this one. "i can't go cycling because my bike is out of batteries" is not a sentence that anyone should ever have to say (ok, ok, 2000km is a long time between charges but still..)

i can have a go at fixing mechanical problems. electronics, not so much.

conceptually it doesn't sit well with me either. a bike is fundamentally a human powered vehicle, and although electronic gears don't actually propel you forward they would be part of the process of self propulsion. a battery pack ties the bike to the electric grid as firmly (though more distantly) as a car to the grid of petrol stations that fill every town in the world. that seems to taint the beauty of cycling for me somehow. undermines the independence of it :rolleyes: me and my ideologies...

tunney

el tonto wrote: »

Its most interesting application is in TT bikes, because apparently you can put multiple shift buttons on the bars.

Further promoting people to buy P3c with Zipp wheels and disc, full electronic DA, ceramic bearings, power metres and continue to ride on the hoods.

unionman

niceonetom wrote: »

conceptually it doesn't sit well with me either. a bike is fundamentally a human powered vehicle, and although electronic gears don't actually propel you forward they would be part of the process of self propulsion. a battery pack ties the bike to the electric grid as firmly (though more distantly) as a car to the grid of petrol stations that fill every town in the world. that seems to taint the beauty of cycling for me somehow. undermines the independence of it :rolleyes: me and my ideologies...

100% with you on that, I was thinking the same thing.

I'm not going to chain myself to a railing or anything by way of protest. Besides, I have only just entered the world of the index shifter...it's going to take me years to get over the novelty of that!!:)

DirkVoodoo

niceonetom wrote: »

not expensive enough. obviously.

yeah i'd take quite a lot of convincing on this one. "i can't go cycling because my bike is out of batteries" is not a sentence that anyone should ever have to say (ok, ok, 2000km is a long time between charges but still..)

i can have a go at fixing mechanical problems. electronics, not so much.

conceptually it doesn't sit well with me either. a bike is fundamentally a human powered vehicle, and although electronic gears don't actually propel you forward they would be part of the process of self propulsion. a battery pack ties the bike to the electric grid as firmly (though more distantly) as a car to the grid of petrol stations that fill every town in the world. that seems to taint the beauty of cycling for me somehow. undermines the independence of it :rolleyes: me and my ideologies...

Ahh, a purist! I don't think I would be convinced of moving either, it seems like more hassle than tightening a few wires and bolts now and again. Would be cool to try it out though, just to see how different it feels.

blorg

I was sceptical myself but TBH it does sound from this review (and indeed others) that it really works very well indeed. Shimano stuff tends to work well and they have been working on this group for years and years; Gerolsteiner rode a prototype in Paris-Nice in 2006, nearly three years before the thing is coming to market. No experience beyond Ultegra myself (which I am in general very happy with) but again I do think it sounds like they have electronic shifting working right this time.

Raam

I agree with Tom, it's just wrong. Move to ban Blorg from Boards spins.

cantalach

Raam wrote: »

Supposedly the battery is good for 1000km which is a decent amount, I guess.

Ah sure that's only 3-4 days training, tops.:D

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

I was sceptical myself but TBH it does sound from this review (and indeed others) that it really works very well indeed. Shimano stuff tends to work well and they have been working on this group for years and years; Gerolsteiner rode a prototype in Paris-Nice in 2006, nearly three years before the thing is coming to market. No experience beyond Ultegra myself (which I am in general very happy with) but again I do think it sounds like they have electronic shifting working right this time.

It failed on Wegmann during the Tour de France. Not good to be left with a single speed bike. Surprised it didn't receive more attention given that it was mid-time trial failure for ONCE that did it in for Mavic's Mektronic.

blorg

I did not know that Tonto, thanks for the info. It's not as if mechanical systems have never dropped or jammed a chain though, and I wonder if this system would make that less likely to happen.

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

I did not know that Tonto, thanks for the info. It's not as if mechanical systems have never dropped or jammed a chain though, and I wonder if this system would make that less likely to happen.

Very true, as exemplified by David Millar's bike toss in the Giro this year.

penexpers

el tonto wrote: »

Very true, as exemplified by David Millar's bike toss in the Giro this year.

Worth posting the video again I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqTKaDmUr1w