Mark Beaumont’s Koga Solacio for Cairo to Cape Town record attempt starting today - video

Mark says why he chose Di2 on http://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle/africa-solo. 

"It seemed a risk to take Di2 and hydraulic brakes. But when hands start to numb, it is so much easier to have buttons than levers. I did break a sprocket, which left me riding a broken cassette for 1,200 miles, but that’s not a Di2 issue. The system needed charging twice, so about every 15 days."

Good luck and godspeed. It is an almost counterintuitive choice of gear - I can't imagine Di2 offering any advantage in such a quest. The quoted "reliability" is unsupported by any data I am aware of, unless you mean reliability of shift (as opposed to "not breaking")

The other choices I can understand - this is a race against time, so if the frame breaks, it's over. Carbon as we know is tremendously strong but brittle, so while a touring cyclist would choose a steel frame that could be repaired in any big town, that's not the point here.

I heard an interview with a group of MTBers who did this route (on tubed tyres) and one of them had no punctures the entire trip. Average was just two or three for each in the group, so while tubeless are a right PITA to fit, I can see why they might be an option.

Disc brakes - again a trade-off of complexity against the ability to ride further with a wonky rim, but hydraulic? Fingers crossed. Dynamo hub is reliable enough, and although the first rule of driving in Africa is "don't drive at night" probably essential in a record-breaking run like this. He will run into some awful roads and then some that look good until there is a crater in the surface - BTDT.

I'd love to see more on his kit - not much detail on his website. I see he's on his way already - hope he gets there safely and quickly.

Goes to show how reliable equipment is getting if he's using di2 as the 'rugged choice' certainly doesn't seem to be as fragile as some people make out gears etc are.
I hope he does really well, that's certainly not a lot of stuff to be taking with you, I guess I should probably stop worrying about how much I carry on my morning commute really...

Carbon frames, Di2, ultra-light gear, disc brakes... seems there's a whole new generation of long distance exploration and time challenges at the moment spurred on by these technological advances - very exciting stuff. Seems a far cry from the retired geography teacher riding across Europe on his Galaxy/Brooks/Carradice combo, although that's not to say there isn't a place for both.

Bon voyage and good luck, Mark.

You can run a Di2 charger straight out of the Supernova's THE PLUG III no problem for charging on the hoof.

Brilliant, I wish Mark well. I would love to be in his shoes.

Strange choice to 'upgrade' to Dura-Ace Di2 in my view. I'd have thought rugged, touring gears would be more suited to the dusty roads he's likely to be travelling on. Dura-Ace was not designed to be on a bike fully-laden with luggage to be ridden thousands of miles through desert conditions. Good luck to Mark though!

There are Di2 USB chargers, I don't know if you could charge the battery when cycling, but you could charge a USB battery during the day from the dynamo and charge the Di2 at night from the that battery.

The frame has no space for mudguards. All that weight mounted high up will give it pig like handling.

For Africa he would be better off with his previous bike but with properly built wheels.

Mike Hall used dI2 on the Trans America route last year and that was ~7,000km so on bike charging is possible.

If Mike Hall were to attempt this record, He'll do it in less than 35 days.

Fingers crossed for a safe and successful record bid Mr Beaumont.

12,000km on a single Di2 battery charge?

don't Shimano claim up to 3000km per charge?