electric Shifters

big mce

We could put a man on the moon, send a rover to mars but we are still left with steel wire change gears on bikes that "sometimes" work, looks like there might be a change coming,

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/07/shimano

Happy Happy days.

72hundred

Sorry, link broken!

big mce

should be working now

penexpers

big mce wrote: »

We could put a man on the moon, send a rover to mars but we are still left with steel wire change gears on bikes that "sometimes" work, looks like there might be a change coming,

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/07/shimano

Happy Happy days.

Old news.

niceonetom

Fabian Wegmann used electric shifters on the tour. they broke, and having seen him grind up an incline in in totally the wrong gear and then fall off the back on the way down because he couldn't spin fast enough (the team car brought him a new bike so he was ok) i think that there's still a ways to go. i'd rather have wire dérailleurs with about 100 years of continuous refinement, improvement and competition between manufacturers than the latest idea that has yet to be successfully tested.

Gavin

penexpers wrote: »

Old news.

New article though.

penexpers

Verb wrote: »

New article though.

Yeah I guess the mainstream media are finally catching up with the cycling press with this story.

penexpers

niceonetom wrote: »

Fabian Wegmann used electric shifters on the tour. they broke, and having seen him grind up an incline in in totally the wrong gear and then fall off the back on the way down because he couldn't spin fast enough (the team car brought him a new bike so he was ok) i think that there's still a ways to go. i'd rather have wire dérailleurs with about 100 years of continuous refinement, improvement and competition between manufacturers than the latest idea that has yet to be successfully tested.

Exactly. Cables work perfectly well 99.9% of the time and the other 0.01% of the time they just need changing

Chips Lovell

Electronic shifters have been on the way for years now.

Mavic actually had them on the market in the late 90s. They were known as Zap and then a later version was called Mektronic. They died a bit of a death because they were wireless and prone to interference. ONCE used them for a while until one of their riders saw them fail in the middle of a time trial.

Both Campagnolo and Shimano have been developing wired systems and they'll both probably be on the market next year. Pro riders have been testing them for the past two seasons. I remember reading Bert Roesems had them for the Belgian races last year. Said he loved them because you never misshifted, even when hammering it.

TinyExplosions

That's like so 1994....

"Chris Boardman won the 1994 Tour de France Prologue in Lille, France riding Mavic's ZAP electric rear derailleur"

kenmc

As somebody with a fixed, limited budget, I don't see myself ever going for these to be honest. Mechanical things are generally far simpler to maintain than electronics, and for me, and I suspect the average leisure cyclist, the cost:benefit is simply too high. Never mind the fact that electronics and water don't really get on too well either.
It's all well and good if you have Shimano giving you new components for free, but for those of us who need to buy the things..... :eek:

fish-head

I really hope it never properly takes off.

Chips Lovell

kenmc wrote: »

As somebody with a fixed, limited budget, I don't see myself ever going for these to be honest. Mechanical things are generally far simpler to maintain than electronics, and for me, and I suspect the average leisure cyclist, the cost:benefit is simply too high. Never mind the fact that electronics and water don't really get on too well either.
It's all well and good if you have Shimano giving you new components for free, but for those of us who need to buy the things..... :eek:

It's not something I'd be rushing out to buy. I'm perfectly comfortable with mechanical and it doesn't take that much effort to keep it working perfectly.

I thought Sean Kelly had an interesting take on it when he was asked about it during the Tour de France coverage. He said that in a few years the technology would trickle down to entry level bikes and he reckoned it would prove huge with newer cyclists who were intimidated by mechanical systems.

beans

I was trying to come up with a chainless-drive system last night myself. Didn't get too far, but I'll keep at it.

Magnets seemed the best option, but prone to sudden and hilarious failure

niceonetom

i heard kelly make that point too. makes some sense but i think that people who are intimidated by mechanical gears will be just as intimidated by new fangled electronic ones. i see the nexus and sram internal hubs as being a much better solution for that market - no external derailleur to scare 'em, simple twisty shifter, and the ability to shift gears while stopped.

people who say they are intimidated by gears usually have a long list of other reasons why they won't cycle too; traffic, weather, safety, fitness etc. basically, all excuses fat people make. trek did a sh1t load off market research into the 'blue ocean' (the 80% or so of americans who do not have a bike or intentions of getting one ever) and designed a bike for them. sell it did not. what was it called again? with the self gearing hubs and saddle box? they're put off by the fact that it isn't a car not because of the gears.

edit: Lime (ugh) http://www.trekbikes.com/ca/en/bikes/2008/urban/lime/limelite/

72hundred

fish-head wrote: »

I really hope it never properly takes off.

Ah well, don't say that. In 10/20(/50!) years we could all be using them or something that came from their development.

72oo

Thomas_S_Hunterson

fish-head wrote: »

I really hope it never properly takes off.

I still don't see the point of indexed shifting

Gavin

The unfortunate thing about electronics is the sealed nature. It reduces the ability to repair things without having to replace them. More advanced electronics will soon have more complex computers, riddled with bugs no doubt.

Same with cars nowadays. I used to know a guy that loved working on cars, but had to stick with older ones. To maintain a newer one, he would have had to fork out a large amount of cash for a manufacturer specific computer to interrogate the car.

A cartridge bottom bracket is the only component I can think of on a bike that has to be completely replaced. Other parts can be repaired, sub-components replaced etc.

And of course, the great thing about mechanics is the complete independence. You get on and pedal, no worry about batteries/power not being available.

Chips Lovell

niceonetom wrote: »

...i think that people who are intimidated by mechanical gears will be just as intimidated by new fangled electronic ones. i see the nexus and sram internal hubs as being a much better solution for that market - no external derailleur to scare 'em, simple twisty shifter, and the ability to shift gears while stopped.

people who say they are intimidated by gears usually have a long list of other reasons why they won't cycle too; traffic, weather, safety, fitness etc. basically, all excuses fat people make...

I got the impression that Kelly was referring to the newbie sportive type rider who wants to do the W200 but doesn't know how to adjust their gears. Thing about those nexus hubs is that they weigh a tonne and it'll be a long time yet before you see them on a road bike.

While it wouldn't have me running to the shops, these electronic groups do some interesting stuff, like automatically trim the front derailleur and automatically align the rear. It means no more fooling around with barrell adjusters and limit screws.

Just read the new Shimano system comes with a new Flight Deck computer that can be wireless connected to a PC. There's plenty of scope for integration too with power meters and what not, which are becoming all the rage.

Verb wrote: »

The unfortunate thing about electronics is the sealed nature. It reduces the ability to repair things without having to replace them. More advanced electronics will soon have more complex computers, riddled with bugs no doubt.

Thing is, this is the way the wind has been blowing in the bike industry long before electronic reared its head. For example, while you can take apart a Campag shifter and replace parts, Shimano shifters are famous for not being rebuildable and 95 per cent of the public is using them.

fish-head

72hundred wrote: »

Ah well, don't say that. In 10/20(/50!) years we could all be using them or something that came from their development.

72oo

I dunno, it just seems all wrong. Is it not enough to try and learn the skills of a mechanic without having to worry about being a sparks or a computer technician?

I'm just a bit of a luddite at heart I guess. (says he who is using the internet)