eTap chainset compatibility

SJH76

I'm trying to decide between SRAM eTap and Ultegra Di2. I'm more swayed towards eTap mainly due to the ease of setup. I have a Trek Madone which is probably the most difficult bike to cable up so anything that simplified that would be welcome so I'm not sure of Di2 as I'd prefer to do it myself.

The question is, since I would have to buy the groupset first and a SRAM chainset later would it work reasonably well with an Ultegra chainset? I know most 11 speed across the board is cross compatible but the way eTap works made me wonder of non SRAM X-GlideR chainrings causing any problems. If it's a minor thing I'll happily stick with the Ultegra chainset for a bit until I can afford the chainset which is another £300

TIA

philbar72

should require a tiny bit of dialling in but nothing major!

SJH76

I thought that most likely the case but you never know with the top end stuff. They can have subtle things that just cause problems if you don't have the setup as they recommend.

StillGoing

There's no issue with self installing Di2. Its easier than installing cable outers and inners on a bike with a simple self made tool using a cable inner with a ferule and crimp fixed to the end. I had to contend with threading the cabling through a set of carbon 3T Aeronova to fit the bar end junction A that had so many rough edges inside I was convinced it was solid. But, I got there with a little perseverance.

eTap may have the edge with the simplicity of no cabling at all, but where Di2 has the edge is with the hidden buttons to control your head unit without taking your hands away from the bars and synchronised shifting.

SJH76

Another issue with Di2 is I'd have to get the control box cover specific to the system on the Madone. On the down tube there is a barrel adjuster that is inside the frame, to use Di2 you need to buy the other version which is another added expense. I'm not saying it's impossible to do, just that compared to many bikes the Madone is a very difficult one to work on. You get very little room for manoeuvre as all the cables are hidden. Just doing a brake cable is a chore and a half.

I could save myself about £500 getting it over eTap but I do like the simplicity of the gears changes on it. I'm not fussed with all the head unit controls. I leave my Garmin on 1 screen with all the data I care about in one page.

Matthewfalle

eTap all the way.

simpler, cleaner, lighter, nicer to use, better looking.

why stay stuck in the past with cables when you don't have to?

SJH76

I agree totally. So long as it will work with a Shimano chainset for a bit I'm sure it'll be fantastic. A grand is a lot to spend so I'd rather be 100% sure beforehand.

sungod

i've used etap with sram red 10-speed non-yaw rings, praxisworks rings, and sram red 22 yaw rings, all work well, only slight tweaking of fd position

where people report difficulty setting up the fd, factors involved can be one or more of...
poor set-up
flexy fd mount
compact chainset
short chainstays
chainline differs from sram's spec.
worn chainrings
using oval/other non-round chainrings

if you do want to add extra shift buttons at some point, you can, either get sram's 'blips', or you can make them (just a switch+cable+connector)

StillGoing

Matthewfalle wrote:

eTap all the way.

simpler, cleaner, lighter, nicer to use, better looking.

why stay stuck in the past with cables when you don't have to?

You've not ridden with either so how would you know?