Di2

PoorFarmer

So what are people's opinions on Di2. Have no experience of it myself and just wondering is it worth getting or would most stick to mechanical shifting?

godtabh

I much prefer Di2. I have 11 speed Ultegra Di2 and 11 speed 105. The Di2 wins hands down.

scott.s

I also have Ultegra Di2 and it's amazing. I love how low maintenance it is, but I'd hate to have to replace some components from a crash or something. Parts ain't cheap

godtabh

scott.s wrote: »

I also have Ultegra Di2 and it's amazing. I love how low maintenance it is, but I'd hate to have to replace some components from a crash or something. Parts ain't cheap

A rear mech set me back €200 a couple of months ago

Statler

Have Dura Ace Di2 and Dura Ace mechanical, I love the way the Di2 works, and works perfectly, but prefer the feel of the mechanical. If I was buying a new bike Di2 wouldn't be a deal breaker at the current price.

brownian

Quite a fan of Di2. Any worries about the battery running out would be misplaced - it lasts for ages. I'd recommend it.

godtabh

brownian wrote: »

Quite a fan of Di2. Any worries about the battery running out would be misplaced - it lasts for ages. I'd recommend it.

I've been caught out by the battery but you get plenty of warning and easy to check

Inquitus

godtabh wrote: »

I've been caught out by the battery but you get plenty of warning and easy to check

I got caught out once, you do notice the shifting isn't working as expected and generally have enough juice left to shift it into a decent gear to get home.

youtheman

Have Ultegra Di2. Got to face fact, it's the future. So embrace it. Some added advantages:
1. never have to worry about the cable stretching and the indexing going out
2. if you change from low to high on the back the front automatically adjusts to prevent the FD from rubbing.
3. easier to clean than mechanical.
4. easier to remove than mechanical (plug and play).
5. my Di2 RD is about half the cost of my Sram Red RD on my 'old bike'.
6. battery last ages (literally months)

I also went the 'whole hog' and got mechanical disc brakes, so I am fully Y2K + 20 compatible (but that's a horse of a different kettle of fish).

Inquitus

youtheman wrote: »

I also went the 'whole hog' and got mechanical disc brakes, so I am fully Y2K + 20 compatible (but that's a horse of a different kettle of fish).

Hydraulic disc brakes will be the disc brake standard, not mechanical, and it's hydraulics that are being pioneered in the pro-peloton at the moment.

Brian?

Inquitus wrote: »

Hydraulic disc brakes will be the disc brake standard, not mechanical, and it's hydraulics that are being pioneered in the pro-peloton at the moment.

I predict disc breaks will be a passing fad in the pro peleton. They'll be gone by 2020.

Di2 is unreal though.

Inquitus

Brian? wrote: »

I predict disc breaks will be a passing fad in the pro peleton. They'll be gone by 2020.

Di2 is unreal though.

Aye I love my Di2, defo not convinced on the whole disc brake front, they just strike me as a really sharp metal disc to do yourself serious harm on when the peloton becomes a twisted mess of Carbon and bodies.

Brian?

Inquitus wrote: »

Hydraulic disc brakes will be the disc brake standard, not mechanical, and it's hydraulics that are being pioneered in the pro-peloton at the moment.

I predict disc breaks will be a passing fad in the pro peleton. They'll be gone by 2020.

Di2 is unreal though.

Quigs Snr

Di2 is great. I have Dura Ace Di2 on 4 bikes and Ultegra on another.. honestly the Ultegra is as good as the Dura Ace apart from weight.

That being said.. as nice as it is I could live without it. Like Fabian Cancellara, I am quite happy with the mechanical groupsets on other bikes I have.

But if you want the Di2 and can afford it, then why not. I have only met one person, an A1 racer who went Di2 and went back (Funny enough though he went to Discs and loves them and won't give them up... NO just NO to Discs). The vast majority who have tried it love it as you can see by the replies here.

Unknown Soldier

It's great. I have Ui2 as it is sometimes known. The Ultegra version.

Battery last for ages. It really depends on how much you change gears, the FD being the biggest culprit/battery user (and that's the reason why it shuts down(first) when you are @ 5% battery left or so) You can get about 2,000km out of one charge.

Auto trims.

No issues with changing gears "under pressure" Out of the saddle.

You can even index the gears on the fly/while on the move (though you shouldn't need to(ever), unless your RD has taken a knock

It is also fairly customisable via the Software. In the sense you can chose how fast gears change, swap the buttons around etc. I have my rear mech programmed to move three cogs at a time when the button is pressed in, as I find it very handy to avoid cross chaining. I think the standard programming is that it moves through the whole rear cassette, which I can do just as fast by tapping the button.

It is also compatible with the latest Garmins via a small "talkie to the Garmins" adaptor yoke.So you can see what Gears you are in and what your battery level is. Through said talking to the garmin reduces the battery life by about 30/40%

I have yet to fault it.

ht9zni1gs28crp

Di2 is like a dishwasher...once you have used it its very hard to go back to washing dishes.

Mine has just ticked over 11,000km and no issues....

All My Stars Aligned

Just out of curiosity, are there any Campag EPS users here. Would love to hear what they think.

tunney

What is the problem that electronic shifting is solving?

Deagol

PoorFarmer wrote: »

So what are people's opinions on Di2. Have no experience of it myself and just wondering is it worth getting or would most stick to mechanical shifting?

Dunno if it's 'worth it' but I got a Di2 bike late last season and I love it. As others have said, it's almost zero maintenance and shifts correctly every time you ask it to.

ht9zni1gs28crp

tunney wrote: »

What is the problem that electronic shifting is solving?

There isn't a problem per say, just efficiency. Nothing wrong with washing the dishes by hand either :D

mossym

tunney wrote: »

What is the problem that electronic shifting is solving?

average persons ability to index gears correctly
badly indexed gears causing skipped gears when trying to change while climbing.
lack of strength in fingers meaning pushing a button easier than pushing a lever.

one of the above may be flippant, i'm not sure.

also, anyone suggesting you get months out of a di2 battery charge, i'm surprised no-one has suggested they cycle more yet

stecleary

mossym wrote: »

also, anyone suggesting you get months out of a di2 battery charge, i'm surprised no-one has suggested they cycle more yet

Maybe they just dont change gear that much because they are manly men

mossym

stecleary wrote: »

Maybe they just dont change gear that much because they are manly men

can't really offer a opinion on di2 then so as they've not really used it very much then (firmly tongue in cheek)

i;ve had di2 for 3 years, had just gotten it when met a guy at the stephen roche atlantic challenge in clare. guy was on a 3 or 4k pinarello, and was asking me about my di2 as he had jsut bought a new pinarello, 8k, with di2. asked about battery life. told him it was supposed to last roughly 1000km. his reply...

ah sure that would do me for a season on a charge .

he was keeping both bikes, 12k in bikes and didn't plan on cycling more than 1000km a year.

PoorFarmer

Deagol wrote: »

PoorFarmer wrote: »

So what are people's opinions on Di2. Have no experience of it myself and just wondering is it worth getting or would most stick to mechanical shifting?

Dunno if it's 'worth it' but I got a Di2 bike late last season and I love it. As others have said, it's almost zero maintenance and shifts correctly every time you ask it

Thanks for the replies. Am being offered a Propel at a pretty good price and dice nobody I the club has Di2 I had no feedback. Was probably hoping for a few horror stories to make it easier not to buyit but everybody seems to think it's almost trouble free. All I need now is a way to disguise another new bike

Fian

Di2 (ultegra) and hydraullic discs on mine.

I love both technologies.

Apart from anything else the sound of the motor when the front derailleur is changing is cool, it sounds like something out of a star wars movie.

more importantly it just works, all the time, I have never had a gear change not work or skip on Di2 since i started using it.

I did get caught out once on the battery, so that the front stopped working. Was irritating but it was on the "factory charge" - before I had ever plugged it in at home. It charges really quickly and lasts ages.

Hydraullic discs are also fantastic imo. Probably just as big an improvement for me. I trust them, and I love that I can go down any descent on the hoods braking with one finger, don't need to bother going down to the drops to get a better grip on the brakes if i don't feel like it. Of course in the rain they also shine.

Luxman

Damn this thread. Now I need a new bike.

Agent Smyth

Personally speaking, I have Dura-Ace 9000 mechanical on both my bikes could have gone electronic but don't like the look of them and felt the performance difference between the two didn't justify the price difference.
I got the groupsets in Jan 13 and they haven't been back for a service or a tune up since, except for the two cassettes I had to change under warranty due to faulty construction
All the people I know who have Di2 or Ui2, all swear by it but the same can be said for the people who opted for mechanical
As regards disc brakes on road bikes, while I don't have them or want them, I reckon in 5+years only the sub €1k bikes will have rim brakes

Deagol

PoorFarmer wrote: »

Deagol wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Am being offered a Propel at a pretty good price and dice nobody I the club has Di2 I had no feedback. Was probably hoping for a few horror stories to make it easier not to buyit but everybody seems to think it's almost trouble free. All I need now is a way to disguise another new bike

Hmm, you want a negative story then

I had my chain jump off the small ring once at the bottom of a hill. The usual trick of pushing the front derailluer up to bring the chain back on didn't work with the Di2. Had to get off and do it by hand. Not sure if it was just something I was unlucky with as it only happened the once. Was a pain at the time but probably my fault anyway

outfox

Deagol wrote: »

I had my chain jump off the small ring once at the bottom of a hill. The usual trick of pushing the front derailluer up to bring the chain back on didn't work with the Di2. Had to get off and do it by hand. Not sure if it was just something I was unlucky with as it only happened the once. Was a pain at the time but probably my fault anyway

Interesting. Does this happen much with Di2? And is there any kind of 'pick up' function on Di2 to return the chain to the small ring?

Deagol

outfox wrote: »

Interesting. Does this happen much with Di2? And is there any kind of 'pick up' function on Di2 to return the chain to the small ring?

For me, just the once. Have about 700km done on the bike so far. If there is a pickup function I'd love to know about it

Inquitus

outfox wrote: »

Interesting. Does this happen much with Di2? And is there any kind of 'pick up' function on Di2 to return the chain to the small ring?

I find if I shift to the big ring having dropped the front chainring that sorts it out on the very rare occasion it happens.

07Lapierre

How does Di2 compare to Campag EPS?

Inquitus

07Lapierre wrote: »

How does Di2 compare to Campag EPS?

It works just as well and costs a truckload less.

mossym

outfox wrote: »

Interesting. Does this happen much with Di2? And is there any kind of 'pick up' function on Di2 to return the chain to the small ring?

3 years, well over 10000 km on di2, could be twice that but i share time between bikes so not sure, and i've never dropped the chain on di2

Agent Smyth

I would suggest installing a chain catcher to protect your frame and chainset from any damage a dropped chain can do
I have them installed on both bikes and haven't dropped a chain yet in over 3 years, I would suspect its a combination of both the chain catcher and proper installation of the derailleur that have prevented this becoming an issue.

joey100

Only problems I've had with Di2 have been my own fault, not charging the battery. I wouldn't be the best for keeping my bikes clean or maintaining them but I've had no issues at all with it. Managed to get my 10 speed when they brought out 11 speed so paid the same for 10 speed Ui2 as the new 11 speed mechanical.

tunney

joey100 wrote: »

Only problems I've had with Di2 have been my own fault, not charging the battery. I wouldn't be the best for keeping my bikes clean or maintaining them but I've had no issues at all with it. Managed to get my 10 speed when they brought out 11 speed so paid the same for 10 speed Ui2 as the new 11 speed mechanical.

IM Frankfurt, descent on cobbles in 2014 - the amount of DI2 battery packs around. still 120km to go in one gear.......

Lumen

I have Chorus, SRAM Force and Ui2 on my current bikes.

Ui2 is brilliant when it works, which it does until it doesn't. And then it doesn't at all. My Ui2 bike has been out of commission since Christmas after it just stopped working. I need to book it into a bike shop because I don't have the tools/equipment/spares to go through a process of elimination, and I haven't found the time to book it in for various reasons

Also, I can't just drop it into any bike shop because not all of them are good with electronic shifting. In one shop that I trust for all my mechanical stuff the "Di2 guy" was out on leave and nobody else was confident enough to tackle it.

Chorus and Force degrade gracefully. They never work perfectly but they always work.

There is something lovely about a bicycle that you can fix yourself, or at least understand why it's broken. Di2 is a different thing, at least for people that can't be arsed to debug their bicycle.

Smalltom

All this di2 talk has made me even more excited about my new tt build. I'm waiting for the frame and have sparkly ultegra di2 grouppo sitting it various boxes around the house......funnily enough my Mrs has a pair of shoes in ever hiding place I put bike stuff and we never mention it to each other lol.

mossym

was thinking more about this since lumen's post, and the thought occured to me, as much as i like my di2, if it bit the bullet in the morning would i replace it with di2 again, and to be honest probably not. i'd buy mechanical and spend the money on something else. one thing if it comes on a bike, but i'm not sure i'd buy a di2 groupset on it's own

Inquitus

Lumen wrote: »

I have Chorus, SRAM Force and Ui2 on my current bikes.

Ui2 is brilliant when it works, which it does until it doesn't. And then it doesn't at all. My Ui2 bike has been out of commission since Christmas after it just stopped working. I need to book it into a bike shop because I don't have the tools/equipment/spares to go through a process of elimination, and I haven't found the time to book it in for various reasons

Also, I can't just drop it into any bike shop because not all of them are good with electronic shifting. In one shop that I trust for all my mechanical stuff the "Di2 guy" was out on leave and nobody else was confident enough to tackle it.

Chorus and Force degrade gracefully. They never work perfectly but they always work.

There is something lovely about a bicycle that you can fix yourself, or at least understand why it's broken. Di2 is a different thing, at least for people that can't be arsed to debug their bicycle.

Have you checked the connectors to the junction box under the stem? if nothing at all is working that's the first port of call. The only place where it can come unconnected that's a pain in the arse is at the junction box in the bottom bracket.

Humphries Cycles in Finglas are good with Di2 incidentally.

route66

I like the idea of automated shifting but I think it would detract from some of what appeals to me in bikes - my ability to understand how they work. There's lots of other stuff in my life I don't understand (family, job, car - even the telly ) so I really enjoy this aspect to bikes.

Having said that, a Di2 bike and a phone running Strava could be rigged up to talk properly to each other resulting in a fully automatic transmission. How nice would that be? Up and down changes could be triggered by a control program that uses

• GPS for position and speed,
• Strava's knowledge of the terrain,
• Di2's understanding of the current gear and
• An ANT-compatible program on the phone for cadence.

But no, despite how impressive the above sounds and how it is entirely feasible today with some integration work, no.

Maybe this makes me a philistine?

dragratchet

like this?

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/10/bioshifts-automated-shifting.html

route66

dragratchet wrote: »

like this?

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/10/bioshifts-automated-shifting.html

Wow, didn't know it had been tried. I like the fact that they mention a power meter. This would be a very important input in the gear change decision process and would make gear shifting more timely. And they have a "Stand Up" mode - don't want FD changes when you're struggling up a hill. I wonder how they "tapped" into the gear-change logic of Di2 - did Shimano share their IP or was it reverse engineered? I would guess Shimano own this and would be entitled to charge a license fee to manufacturers of such kit.

Hang on, this is sounding very complicated :eek: All I want to do is change the gears on my bike !!!

godtabh

route66 wrote: »

Wow, didn't know it had been tried. I like the fact that they mention a power meter. This would be a very important input in the gear change decision process and would make gear shifting more timely. And they have a "Stand Up" mode - don't want FD changes when you're struggling up a hill. I wonder how they "tapped" into the gear-change logic of Di2 - did Shimano share their IP or was it reverse engineered? I would guess Shimano own this and would be entitled to charge a license fee to manufacturers of such kit.

Hang on, this is sounding very complicated :eek: All I want to do is change the gears on my bike !!!

There is a video on the bike (or a similar type bike) by GCN

outfox

You could take the automatic shifting one step further, and make it Tiptronic by having gear change paddles/levers on the handlebars.
Oh, I see my bike already has them...

Unknown Soldier

Auto shifting.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/01/21/shimano-updates-steps-di2-e-bikes-with-auto-shifting-firmware/

Unknown Soldier

Lumen wrote: »

I have Chorus, SRAM Force and Ui2 on my current bikes.

Ui2 is brilliant when it works, which it does until it doesn't. And then it doesn't at all. My Ui2 bike has been out of commission since Christmas after it just stopped working. I need to book it into a bike shop because I don't have the tools/equipment/spares to go through a process of elimination, and I haven't found the time to book it in for various reasons

Also, I can't just drop it into any bike shop because not all of them are good with electronic shifting. In one shop that I trust for all my mechanical stuff the "Di2 guy" was out on leave and nobody else was confident enough to tackle it.

Chorus and Force degrade gracefully. They never work perfectly but they always work.

There is something lovely about a bicycle that you can fix yourself, or at least understand why it's broken. Di2 is a different thing, at least for people that can't be arsed to debug their bicycle.

If it is an external battery "type" you are more than welcome to borrow my "bike" to laptop "Di2 yoke" to investigate yourself.

It's actually very easy to use. You just need to download the software onto a PC/laptop and off you go.

The comments section in the following site can be quite useful with Di2 problems.

http://carltonbale.com/shimano-di2-everything-you-need-to-know/

Idleater

Idleater wrote: »

<snip to should have left credit card at home>

That's Saturday sorted. Sunday too, and probably next weekend.

I kid you not:
OH: What's that, shoes?
Me: Bike bits ... I opened a box (the blips)
OH: Huh?
Me: Buttons for the gears
OH: Oh right makes sense
Me: Really? *shows shifter and derraileur*: they're wireless
OH: What else would they be? wired?
Me: erm, you got me, I completely agree.
OH: You mean there are wired ones?

:P In your face Shimano Campag

Agent Smyth

Idleater wrote: »

I kid you not:
OH: What's that, shoes?
Me: Bike bits ... I opened a box (the blips)
OH: Huh?
Me: Buttons for the gears
OH: Oh right makes sense
Me: Really? *shows shifter and derraileur*: they're wireless
OH: What else would they be? wired?
Me: erm, you got me, I completely agree.
OH: You mean there are wired ones?

:P In your face Shimano Campag

Would it be this ??

Idleater

Agent Smyth wrote: »

Would it be this ??

It would.

I remember buying a stick of RAM before, and it being packaged in a shoe box. This is pretty close.