Wanting to upgrade to Ultegra Di2 hydraulic and need advice please

Livewire

Hello everyone,

I would like to upgrade my current Ultegra mechanical group set to Ultegra Di2 hydraulic and need some advice please. My bike is a 2016 Giant Defy Advanced SL.

My current bike has mechanical Ultegra and post mounted hydraulic brakes (RS785) I would like to upgrade to Ultegra Di2 (R8070) however existing Ultegra crank is in very good condition as is my cassette, the RS785 brake callipers work fine for me so neither of these 3 components need upgrading.

I have searched on line and the lowest price I can find for a full R8070 group set is around £1300.00, however this group set includes items that I don’t need like the crank set, callipers, cassette and chain. I have also tried my best to price up individually the parts I need but I am struggling to find the Ultegra Hydraulic Di2 shifters for less than £600 for a pair. Can anyone point me in the right direction to either a kit that contains only the parts I need or place that will see all the bits I need separately? Or would it be easier for me to purchase the full R9070 group set then sell the bits I do not require? Maybe it would be more cost effective doing it that way.

Basically I just need Di2 hydraulic leavers/shifters, front and rear di2 derailleurs, battery, all correct cabling.

Thanks in advance
Dan

bendertherobot

How about SRAM Etap hydraulic from CRC less 10% if you have BC discount. Comes out at £1100 or so. Keep your existing chain, cassette, chainset.

Livewire

bendertherobot wrote:

How about SRAM Etap hydraulic from CRC less 10% if you have BC discount. Comes out at £1100 or so. Keep your existing chain, cassette, chainset.

Thanks for the advice, I do like the thought of losing the shifting cables but not sure if I could cope with running Sram alongside Shimano, if a SRAM chainset was included I would probably have gone down that route so thanks.

veronese68

I may be interested in your shifters and rear mech if you do that.

Livewire

Veronese68 wrote:

I may be interested in your shifters and rear mech if you do that.

Great, I will give you first dibs, they only have around 1500 miles on.

StillGoing

You can get an Ultra upgrade kit to R8070 that will just include the shifters, derailleurs, battery, junction boxes and eTube cabling. I went this way, albeit for R8050 retaining my existing Rotor crankset and cassette.

lostboysaint

philthy3 wrote:

You can get an Ultra upgrade kit to R8070 that will just include the shifters, derailleurs, battery, junction boxes and eTube cabling. I went this way, albeit for R8050 retaining my existing Rotor crankset and cassette.

You evil person, I'm now off googling that..........

Livewire

philthy3 wrote:

You can get an Ultra upgrade kit to R8070 that will just include the shifters, derailleurs, battery, junction boxes and eTube cabling. I went this way, albeit for R8050 retaining my existing Rotor crankset and cassette.

Would you be so kind as to provide a link to this kit? this is just what I am after but can not seem to locate it myself using Google!!

cossyrush

I'm doing the same thing.
I've bought mostly 2nd hand parts, but did get new battery (DN version).
I got R785 shifters from EBay for £180ish.
The cheapest I could find latest gen shifters R7080's was around£400 from Germany, and I wasn't prepared to pay that much.
I'm planning to use a garmin remote so if don't feel I've missed out on the 'secret' buttons on the top of the hoods.

cossyrush

And the cable prices are outrageous.
I was planning to make my own but I couldn't find the connectors.
If anyone knows where to get them from that would be great.

Btw you don't need the lower junction box (junction b)
You can just join the wires, this means you can buy long cables and cut them in half.

StillGoing

Livewire wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

You can get an Ultra upgrade kit to R8070 that will just include the shifters, derailleurs, battery, junction boxes and eTube cabling. I went this way, albeit for R8050 retaining my existing Rotor crankset and cassette.

Would you be so kind as to provide a link to this kit? this is just what I am after but can not seem to locate it myself using Google!!

I went via a Taiwanese dealer on eBay. He did sting me for shipping fees too mind, which were extortionate. You can try contacting him to see if he has a R8070 upgrade kit. If I were you though, I'd buy the whole thing locally and sell off the parts that you don't want as part of your full mechanical Ultegra. That or go SRAM eTap for similar money. It just depends whether you want the additional features of Di2 that eTap currently doesn't have like synchro shifting and the hidden buttons.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-Ulte ... SwEaBaTI2b

Livewire

philthy3 wrote:

Livewire wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

You can get an Ultra upgrade kit to R8070 that will just include the shifters, derailleurs, battery, junction boxes and eTube cabling. I went this way, albeit for R8050 retaining my existing Rotor crankset and cassette.

Would you be so kind as to provide a link to this kit? this is just what I am after but can not seem to locate it myself using Google!!

I went via a Taiwanese dealer on eBay. He did sting me for shipping fees too mind, which were extortionate. You can try contacting him to see if he has a R8070 upgrade kit. If I were you though, I'd buy the whole thing locally and sell off the parts that you don't want as part of your full mechanical Ultegra. That or go SRAM eTap for similar money. It just depends whether you want the additional features of Di2 that eTap currently doesn't have like synchro shifting and the hidden buttons.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shimano-Ulte ... SwEaBaTI2b

Thanks for the info, I think I may end up just going down the route of buying the full groupset and sell the bits I don't need. But I am sure I will end up putting the updated Ultegra Crankset on my current bike so will have a full Ultegra hydraulic groupset to sell afterwards.

veronese68

Livewire wrote:

Thanks for the info, I think I may end up just going down the route of buying the full groupset and sell the bits I don't need.

If you do that, and don't have internal routing, I would keep the STI, hose and calipers connected and sell complete as some people seem to be scared of bleeding. That would be more interesting to most people than the fact that the calipers are new I suspect.
Unfortunately I'm not most people.

Livewire

Veronese68 wrote:

Livewire wrote:

Thanks for the info, I think I may end up just going down the route of buying the full groupset and sell the bits I don't need.

If you do that, and don't have internal routing, I would keep the STI, hose and calipers connected and sell complete as some people seem to be scared of bleeding. That would be more interesting to most people than the fact that the calipers are new I suspect.
Unfortunately I'm not most people.

I am afraid they are internally routed and my bike has post mounts not direct mounts. I would happily connect the new Ultegra callipers to the STI levers with new hoses and fully bled before sending if required.

The buyer can even choose the length of hose required.

wahla21

I am in the same situation as you!

How have you got on finding a upgrade kit?

Livewire

wahla21 wrote:

I am in the same situation as you!

How have you got on finding a upgrade kit?

Sorry I gave up sourcing an upgrade kit or all the bits separately, Ended up buying a full R8070 Groupset for around £1,250.00, sold my old Ultegra groupset to recoup some of the money.

More than happy now, Di2 is great but if I had the chance again I would probably go with Dura Ace Mechanical.