Get to know 7 downsides of electronic shifting; the annoying things they never tell you about

Further to my earlier comment, I've solved the Shimano 'buttons too close' issue - which coming from Campag I found an absolute pest - by fitting sprinter shifters in the Campag thumb button position and programming it all to work like Campag, i.e. right thumb = upshift rear and left thumb = downshift front. I've programmed both buttons on each lever to do the same function following the Campag pattern, thus right = upshift front, left = downshift rear. Now it all works perfectly and I'm never missing a shift again or shifting down rather than up at the wrong moment.

Dagnammit - another Di2 battery bites the dust.

It was starting to hold less charge so I was checking the charge the night before wanting to ride and was charging it back up on a weekly basis. Yesterday morning, I rode into work and it was on 4 bars and working fine, parked it up and worked for the day. Started my ride home and it's completely dead (checked the cable, unplugged it and plugged it back in again) so I ended up getting the train home rather than do 20-odd miles on a fixie.

I'd bought a new battery when I saw it first starting to play up, so I plugged that in this morning and everything has come straight back to life. (The battery doesn't even need a firmware update so must be a new model).

I'm intrigued by the mix of Campag/Sram/Shimano components mentioned below by Belisarius.  Has anyone else tried this?  Everything I've read says don't mix - and that the pick up angles are different which could cause excessive wear....

Recent adopter of GRX Di2 on a self build - Dec '20.  If I had known what a pain in the ass it was going to be I probably would have skipped it, or would have gone for Rival AXS if 4 months later.  (Force AXS was just a few hundred quid too much, Rival not launched). 

My 2 cents:

Pro's

• No issues with buttons in winter gloves.
• Better front mech shifting than all but my best mechanical set up.
• It just works.
• Wheels still swappable within rest of my Shimano 11sp N+1's.
• Syncro shift
• GRX DI2 hoods and level position are best I've ever used.

Neutral

• Not convinced the shift speed is noticeably faster than well set up mechanical, certainly over 1 rear cog.

• Surprised how noisey the front mech is - even when just auto-trimming.

• Loss of the diagonal movement of the levers for combo braking and shifting on the RHS takes some getting used to.

Con's/TBD's

• Getting cable lengths right on a self build is a bit hit and miss.
• Worried about the sharp internal edges of my Ti frame will eventually wear the internal wires.  Ramming the junction box into the downtube safely was a pain in the butt.
• Had a major issue getting Front mech aligned - eventually traced to a cheapo front mech bracket.
• Syncro shift is cool but still catches me out when I forget how high up the rear cogs I am - even though I have the DI2 gear indicator field on my Lezyne GPS.

So I throw in my two cents. When I custom built Cervelo S3 (2019) I decided to go with SRAM eTap Red. I was already a huge fan of SRAM so I had no issues. I had the derailleurs and shifters on with 10mins and setup in another 10. I haven't touched it since, 2 years later even with ROTOR QRings. It shifts like a charm. Battery life has never once been an issue. LIke any battery device, you know to keep it charged. My Wahoo Bolt Elemnt lets me know when I need to charge in any case. Plus I just take them off and charge where ever I want to. I ride with a fully charged spare so even if I do get into trouble thats sorted. Finally there is certainly a lot less to go wrong with no wires, batteries and junction boxes etc with eTAP.

If you run a Di2 battery flat you have no one to blame but yourself. I think you could easily stretch the "several hundred miles" to well over a thousand, even in hilly areas of the country.

Buttons are always consistent no matter how cold your hands are, and the brake lever doesn't flap around. 

Each time I came close to going electronic, I balk at the potential complications, and had I not devised a perfect mechanical groupset, I would have switched a long time ago. The saga started with the 9000, and its breaking plastic casettes (no, they are not carbon), fraying Shimano polymer cables, putrid wobbling DA chains etc. It as if we were egged to switch electronic as if the mechanical had reached limits. After thousands of kms or trial and error, the solution became evident. Went for Gore cables (now defunct- and got Yokozuna), SRAM XG-1190, and after multiple 'editorial' criticisms, Shimano eventually redesigned to the 9100RD. Chain was still is a problem- at 5.8mm Shimano was just bad, touching all sides of the cassette etc. Then the store Guru, 40 years in the business, got me on Campy. we went from 400km reliable DA chain to 4000kms of nirvana metallurgy, tak tak solid, no wobbling, etc.  gained 2-3 km/hr just by troubleshooting these issue. Across all bikes, recreated the 9100/Yokozuna Cables,  SRAM 1190 Monoblock with a campy Record 11 chain. Rest all Shimano.

That brought the system to a degree of precision and speed (150-200ms per gear changes, and I did not have the eqpt to measure faster changes); or5-6 per second.  QUIET. So quiet, in fact, whether at 30, 40 45 50 km/hr, that I accidentally crossed and that was the only Humm that woke me up. Also use a special oil that ensures the whole thing shiny for 500 kms, never gunks up (I do clean x1 weekly or after rain). Trying Di2 once a year, see if missing anything, WHY, why go for it and add more uncertainty? Yes programmable etc.. But not superior! I would still use a SRAM cassette and campy chain irrespective of combo even if going electronic. Yes, Di2 is the best, but benchmarked against a poorly designed 9000/9100/7800/8000 with poor tolerances. When other bikes got the same setup, resolving the grinding, wobbling, etc, Shimano's reaction? Threaten those LBSes,all of them. Someone fixing their bad design with a SRAM (5.5mm) or Campy chain (5.3 mm metallurgy bliss) was a No No.

When I saw a SRAM ETAP fail to stay withi nfront mech limits, I could not believe it. WHY? Liek why? that can kill downhill!

Yes, did write a thank you email to SRAM, they were happy for the feedback, though tryign to get me all SRAM..

Presently, Yokozuna am at 20,000 kms per bike per cable, zero issues front or rear. 35-50 km/hr, hammer hammer hammer zero issues in 5 years. I do avoid the rain, and clean after. But, each time I chit chat near a LBS and see a frustrated EPS or Di2 owner coming in cursing his glitchy electronic system, what can I say?

1190s- i done mine at 15,000kms am told they have no wear from 11t to 28 or 30... I will keep them longer.

Chainrings- Hallowtech Shimano- so clearly 15,000-17,000 kms no more and sucks commence reason is the Campy chain is to brutally solid metallurgy, it does wear the Shimano chainrings. but... 15,000 kms of flawless is darn good.

So, years and tens of thousands of kms, faster mechanical shifting that I can perceive,never fialing state of the art cables, and no, am not yet ready for electronic given the quirks I read or see..

In the pic, 5.3mm Campy Record on a SRAM 1190, 150-200 ms per gear change, and nevr had a Gore or Yokozuna cable frail or fail...Business card added to demonstrate the clearance, both sides, of chain vs cog. Shimano you cannot slide one, let alone two ...

Well... having said I'd never go electronic, what was the point etc, I bought a second-hand Genesis 953 team frame, for a very nice price, intending to convert it to mechanical... and lo and behold it came with all the internal Di2 wiring, over £100 worth, probably because the vendor couldn't be bothered removing the Hope bottom bracket which needed a special tool. So, long story short, and a lockdown project later, I now have a second-hand-and-NOS Dura-Ace 9070 Di2 setup, which has been a fun learning exercise, as I've been all Campag in recent years.

So far, it seems flawless if a little bland. I'm surprised by the brutality of front shifts! Di2 fairly slams the chain on to the big ring, having learnt from mechanical setups to apply gentle pressure and wait for the pins to catch the chain. But certainly blingtastic - and the whole bike on the road cost less than £1800.

The only change I might make is add some satellite shifters to the inside of the hoods, so I can downshift with the thumb like a Campag shifter: those two buttons really are close together and a bit of a fumble.

Greif, now this is slow news day, Christ if you didnt know all this, you should not be buying, as ive said for years, lern the subject ???

Not done homework properly. My SRAM Force etap AXS groupset came with a charger and you don't need a dongle to update the firmware. You can use the app on your phone.

Had etap since it came out. Generally great but hard to get parts for 11 spd now. Worst thing is front mech limit screws, the metal is the weakest flakiest out, have wrecked one mech. Why not use plastic/ carbon screws? 

Don't laugh, but I went with Di2 (last gen Ultegra) because I thought it would be less faff and lower maintenance than cabled 105. I think this was driven in part by nightmares with getting SRAM Force front mechs to work properly and generally dodgy SRAM shifting.

It ended up being no less faff, and with a bunch of ugly cables and batteries tied to my frame. No internal routing available (and don't get me started on that particular rabbit hole).

In order to fund an N+1 I stripped it all off, sold it for what I paid for it secondhand, and went to Tiagra. Learnt how to align mechs properly and tune cable tension and have never looked back. Well, until I've dropped myself into Alivio/Acera hell with my new MTB, which is probably going to see me going 1X as soon as funds allow.

What's this I see about getting the etap battery tabs breaking off ?

A bloke on wiggle has gone through multiple in the space of a couple of years but still rates it.

Battery charge lasts over 1000 miles on Di2, winter conditions, riding mostly in the chilterns with lots of short sharp climbs, so plenty of gear changing.

My Garmin 520 connects with the di2, and can display di2 battery charge as a data field. If it goes below 10% it switches to limp home mode and will no longer shift from small ring to big  ring on the front mech.

Other stuff I want to know about (Di2) electronic shifting:

1) Can you have multiple batteries? Simultaneously?

2) Can you charge the battery with a dynamo? (Can anybody's electronic shifting battery be charged with a dynamo?)

3) Why does the E-tube app demand permission for location?

Friendly tip: Don't use the E-tube up for anything other than installation of the optional wireless unit.

I've had two bikes with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and these days run Potenza and Dura-Ace mechanical - frankly, unless you're a racer or ride a lot in an urban situation where Di2 can give you a nano-second more time (I'm neither and live in the Pyrenees), I don't really see the advantage of electronic compared with the cost; particularly with top-end mechanical groups like Dura-Ace.

I’ve never seen the point . I still ride the lightest option set up which is sram red mechanical 10 speed . I’ve tuned my rear mechs they weigh 90/ 80 grams . I tuned the shifters . I don’t use front derailure so took all the gubbins out of that  Shifter . So it’s just one cable into the rear mech very simple . Don’t have to worry about any electronics etc  . It shifts just fine I can multi shift as well . And it weighs zilch . That’s my preference . Keep it simple . I use my Kevlar housing which doesn’t even register a gram on my scales for each section . No inner liner needed just simple housing and gear cable . No hassle and pretty easy to spot if you did have any issues .