Electronic shifting

bianchimoon

As I was riding yesterday was wondering what the future holds with electronic shifting, what's the next step and whether it would be possible to have the 'brain' linked to a cadence meter ie if you dialed in 85rpm the electronics could do the rest and keep it there regardless of gradient? Would there be any benefit, would cycling not be as much fun, ie not being in control of changing gear? and more to the point - would there be any point?

t.m.h.n.e.t

If the electronics can maintain 85rpm by themselves,doesn't that make having a rider useless?

BelgianBeerGeek

Bianchimoon - time to buy a singlespeed.

bianchimoon

hmmm, doubt i could maintain 85 on a 10% gradient on a 'usable singlespeed' without gears or many others for that matter.

fish156

bianchimoon wrote:

As I was riding yesterday was wondering what the future holds with electronic shifting, what's the next step and whether it would be possible to have the 'brain' linked to a cadence meter ie if you dialed in 85rpm the electronics could do the rest and keep it there regardless of gradient? Would there be any benefit, would cycling not be as much fun, ie not being in control of changing gear? and more to the point - would there be any point?

Short term future will be wireless.

Beyond that, groupsets will come with integrated power measurement with a Shimano or whomever proprietary head unit, and yes, "constant" cadence will be an option, but I think they'll still give the rider the option.

bianchimoon

fish156 wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

As I was riding yesterday was wondering what the future holds with electronic shifting, what's the next step and whether it would be possible to have the 'brain' linked to a cadence meter ie if you dialed in 85rpm the electronics could do the rest and keep it there regardless of gradient? Would there be any benefit, would cycling not be as much fun, ie not being in control of changing gear? and more to the point - would there be any point?

Short term future will be wireless.

Beyond that, groupsets will come with integrated power measurement with a Shimano or whomever proprietary head unit, and yes, "constant" cadence will be an option, but I think they'll still give the rider the option.

ahh constant cadence or yes constant wattage hadn't thought of that one interesting concept

greasedscotsman

Mentioned this in another thread, but I think the future is going to be with hub gears and belt drives. Shimano is supposed to be making electronic shifting with their hub gears and once they can make them light enough and extend the number of gears a bit, I can see alot of advantages.

BillyMansell

Constant velocity transmissions already exist with the ability to change rpm through a twist grip.

You could make an electronic system but why bother? You would have to link up heart rate, gradient, power, steering angle, vertical angle, braking, acceleration...plus a whole load of other variables and then you would still need manual input for when the computer got it wrong.

I'm sure it could be done (hasn't Shimano developed auto transmission already?) so I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

bianchimoon

greasedscotsman wrote:

Mentioned this in another thread, but I think the future is going to be with hub gears and belt drives. Shimano is supposed to be making electronic shifting with their hub gears and once they can make them light enough and extend the number of gears a bit, I can see alot of advantages.

at the moment tho, it seems the technology already exists with eps, just need to link to a powermeter or cadence meter to get it to do auto shifting?

bianchimoon

BillyMansell wrote:

Constant velocity transmissions already exist with the ability to change rpm through a twist grip.

You could make an electronic system but why bother? You would have to link up heart rate, gradient, power, steering angle, vertical angle, braking, acceleration...plus a whole load of other variables and then you would still need manual input for when the computer got it wrong.

I'm sure it could be done (hasn't Shimano developed auto transmission already?) so I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

when all other gimmicks/marketing tools have been exhausted, i'm sure it'll be on the list to sell more eps at inflated prices for a while (not that i personally think it's a gimmick - 'just progress through technology"