Someone explain to me the benefits of eletronic shifting

prawny

lost_in_thought wrote:

But then, saying that, hydraulic brakes on MTBs - did they take off? Or still only used by a few people?

I'm not sure if this is subtle humour that has gone over my head or not. I knoe you're not a regualar MTBer

If it's not, they did, very much so. Hydraulic discs are now the norm for bike about £500+

I can remember people saying that discs on MTBs were stupid and pointless. Progress happens.

I was thinking the other day about camera phones and phones with colour screens, I'm telling you they're a gimmick wont last 5 minutes :oops:

I think Di2 is a good idea I've got nothing more to add to the argument the good points have been made ( by CiB ) but I'm not paying 2 grand for it, I'll have what I can afford still.

Wooliferkins

Car ecu's fail and you're £500 down and your bloody steering doesn't work, you trust your sat nav and end up in Croyden, just when you actually need your phone it lets you down. After 26 years in aircraft engineering one phrase I will take to my grave,

"Electronics, inherently unreliable and prone to failure."

It's not electric it's electronic

desweller

Wooliferkins wrote:

Car ecu's fail and you're £500 down and your bloody steering doesn't work, you trust your sat nav and end up in Croyden, just when you actually need your phone it lets you down. After 26 years in aircraft engineering one phrase I will take to my grave,

"Electronics, inherently unreliable and prone to failure."

It's not electric it's electronic

Mm. I'm not sure you would find many people agreeing that carburated engines with mechanical dizzys were in any way better from a practical point of view.

After 8 years in heavy duty fuel injection engineering I have no problems with electronics. Computers, or to be more specific, the people who programme them - that's another story!

Bowden cables are a horrible way to achieve precision positioning by any sensible standard. It's time they were put to bed.

roger_merriman

DesWeller wrote:

Wooliferkins wrote:

Car ecu's fail and you're £500 down and your bloody steering doesn't work, you trust your sat nav and end up in Croyden, just when you actually need your phone it lets you down. After 26 years in aircraft engineering one phrase I will take to my grave,

"Electronics, inherently unreliable and prone to failure."

It's not electric it's electronic

Mm. I'm not sure you would find many people agreeing that carburated engines with mechanical dizzys were in any way better from a practical point of view.

After 8 years in heavy duty fuel injection engineering I have no problems with electronics. Computers, or to be more specific, the people who programme them - that's another story!

Bowden cables are a horrible way to achieve precision positioning by any sensible standard. It's time they were put to bed.

not really the same, at the moment bikes are just cables, once you add batteries which degrade over time, and temp. plus water ingress etc.

this said I can real advantages but also down sides.

but time will tell, lets see it in 5 years.

CiB

There's another big benefit that we haven't touched on yet - effort & movement. The Ultegra shifters are a sight better than the 105 g/s on my last bike, but still require a good physical push of the levers to achieve a definite change. That movement isn't a big push, but it's a function of mechanical advantage translated into the distance that the front or rear mech needs to make a clean change. Heck - if that could be replaced with a single button push, on the hoods, the tribars when fitted, in the palms of my mitts, or by a sensor that senses road speed v cadence v left leg pedal pressure and blinks an LED to warn me that we're about to go up a cog, I could live with that. I'd be prepared to be labelled as a city w@nker even out here in Bumpkinsville by buying it. What's wrong with being the guy who leads the way, buying the new technology? Someone has to be first. Speaks the man who spent £900 on an Arcam DAB tuner a few years ago, only to find the bit rates plummeting soon after and the audio quality aspect of R2, R4 & Ministry Of Sound going down the pan... :?

You get in there, enjoy the moment and move on if it all goes pear shaped. Hands up everyone who's more than halfway through their lifespan. Get on with it. You'll regret it in 10 years time if you don't.

realALBERTAN

A general comment about Di2 would be that it (or the eventual) trickle down groups will be dominant for time trial bikes as it allows for multiple shifter locations. It will also take hold in triathlon for the same reason (drafting & non-drafting)