Talbot Path Racer

Crazy nice bikes, Dammit. Well done!

I would imagine it was highly irritating to have sudden autonomous shifts, you had not actuated yourself.
In order not to catch your legs and throw you out of cadence you'd had to incorporate a clutch mechanism as well. More complications often demand even further complications.

Depends how seamless you could make the gear changes without the clutch I guess? Having never ridden a bike with Di2, I can't comment on if it feels better or worse, but the whole point of automatic shifting via a computer would be so you could fine-tune that to your precise needs. You'd need to be monitoring all parameters though, wheel speed, power, cadence, gear, etc etc and it would be akin to mapping an engine, you take everything into consideration when changing gear. Perhaps elevation change could be factored in too so you could hold gear changes if breaking on a climb, have switchable maps for different situations. Touchscreen digi-dash maybe?

I love this shit, it's so advanced in cars and there's opportunities for bike tech to move forward.