Electronic & Hydraulic Shifting (Di2, Ui2, customisations)

bike24 has them in stock... fine for me, maybe not so easy for you as I assume you're in the UK

Making under-bar climbing shifters from membrane switches: terrible idea?

looks like Shimano have a fully wireless groupset on the way

https://uspto.report/patent/grant/10,953,950

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/shimano-granted-patent-for-wireless-shifting-and-dropper-post.html

I'd been thinking the impending 12 speed dura ace would be semi wireless with the mechs connected to a battery but maybe not.

The patents show removable batteries on the mech just like Sram AXS.

The patent drawings seem to show mtb stuff with the dropper post. It seems they have teamed up with Fox suspension for the integrated control stuff on the forks and post.

The number of patents Shimano have for products they've actually released is far exceeded by the number of patents they have for things they've never released. Remember the jockey wheel charging system for electronic gear shifters? Patented. Not seen one yet.

The number of patents Shimano have for products they've actually released is far exceeded by the number of patents they have for things they've never released.

oh yeah for sure.

It's interesting though that this one shows removable batteries. The patents seen late last year for what looks like a 12 speed road groupset didn't have removable batteries yet this one does. I'd thought there was some Sram patent issue stopping Shimano having removable batteries on the mechs. The piezoelectrics seems to be present in both of these too and they must have worked with a fork manufacturer for the electronic damping control.

Theres no denying they have a metric tonne of patents that never see the light of day but I suspect this one will. Given their competitor sram has fully wireless groupsets and sram are clearly pushing a shift towards electric shifting through the tiers, GX AXS now and Rival AXS is apparently coming soon.

But who knows? I'd certainly like to see fully wireless shimano.

But who knows? I'd certainly like to see fully wireless shimano.

I'm not sold. It's easier to build and looks cleaner but comes with some other issues. Even on a really basic level, the limiting factor for my mate's tyre size is his front mech battery not frame clearance.

There is no wireless FD. MTB 1x and on the road not many people are running huge tyres.

MTB only... fair enough.

@thanksbye pm me. My Di2 gubbins are working - looks swappable...? Just imported a new shifter from US.

@kiskubai I've got a 350 and 400mm cable going if that helps you?

They should do fully wired MTB and plug everything to a central battery. Most people with a decent bike will be in an e-bike soon enough.

Lolz

Ebikes are going the way of curved oled tvs... Maybe

Got the grx front derailleur, extracted the junction box out the down tube and plugged it in and all seems to work with the 817 RD. But in the etube app it won't let me configure synchro (can enable it manually) is this because Shimano soft blocking using the 1x specific RD with a front mech?

Did myself a pair of diy Di2 climbing shifters. Working perfectly well but I'm not convinced by the position. Road test tomorrow.

Did myself a pair of diy Di2 climbing shifters. Working perfectly well but I'm not convinced by the position. Road test tomorrow.

Home made? how?

Am I correct to assume that for a seatpost battery holder I can go with any brand (Deda, Shimano, Pro...etc) for a standard 27.2 seatpost?
Thinking if its not a super fancy oval inside, aero..etc post they should all fit, right?

Edit for @Brun below: ive seen people use flat membrane switches and simply bond them to the handlebar as it comes out from under the bartape where the bar extends to the 31.8mm diameter. So no casing essentially. These have a longer, flat “cable” hanging out of them.

Have a feeling it doesn't apply to all shifters, but on the 8050s the lower of the three ports is simply a dumb switch. Had to buy and sacrifice a Di2 cable but you can use anything else on the other end.

These were some 12mm ones I had lying around, the encoluse I 3D printed.

Definitely worked well enough this morning, but as suspected I'm not happy with the position. Didn't want them too near the edge of the bar tape, but they definitely need to be closer to the stem than currently. Would also benefit from lower-profile switches, so I'm looking for alternatives.

Edit: Something like these look about right

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If you feel like making and selling any, I'd take a pair :)

3D Printing is out of my area of expertise but the rest I should be able to manage

Yeah, I'm aware of the membrane switches but worry they'd be a bit crap in terms of tactility. Bit of a lottery cos it's impossible to tell until you get hold of them. I'd prefer something with a definitive click.

Printing cost is negligible, it'd be a fraction of the postage. Especially since you're not in the UK unless I'm mistaken.

When/if I come up with a definitive solution (which will depend on what switches I decide on) I'll make the 3D file available so anyone could get them done locally.

I did something similar when I originally built my Cervelo S2, except I used the guts of a SW-R600 climbing shifter to connect the microswitches to as I was using 6770 shifters. I ended up removing them because (1) I never used them and (2) I switched to a Zipp aero bar with untaped tops. The internals from the SW-R600 switch now lives in my S5, connected to switches on the base bar and extensions.

I didn't have a 3D printer then, so I just glommed them together with some polyurethane sealant and then hid that under the bar tape.

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I've got one of my smashed Di2 TT shifters, pulled the innards out and taped it up.

I know nothing about Di2 but am planning on using it for an upcoming build. Am i correct in thinking the going price for Di2 parts is much higher than it was pre-pandemic/the world suffered a shimano shortage? Should I wait for a while before I start amassing parts?

I now have a set of membrane switches with flat flex cables (2.54mm pitch) and a female dupont-type connector at the end (see attached pic).

Unfortunately, the FFCs are way too long for an under-bar climbing switch. I'm looking at chopping them down and replacing the connector with one of these:

If it works, I'll share all the links / process.

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Yes, unfortunately. I nearly sold a well used hydro Ultegra groupset on here a few months ago to make way for something fancier, so grateful it didn't sell in the end!

Hacking complete, I now have membrane buttons for climbing shifters. Hooray!

The buttons are these eBay specials. The action is not very 'clicky' and one of the two I ordered is noticeably softer than the other.

First task was to create the connector leads. I crimped some male dupont connectors onto a spare e-tube wire and applied some heatshrink. The e-tube wires were a pig to strip because of the very narrow gauge wire they use. I'm sure there's a knack to it.

Worked great when I tested the connection, but the flex from the membrane button was waaay too long to position them where I wanted:

Solution to that problem was to cut the flex and push on one of these connectors (the listing is for a bag of 5).

Here's what the whole thing looks like when stuck to the bars.

Not invisible, but not too intrusive. I don't have the right diameter heatshrink to go over the connectors but probably won't bother fixing that until I replace the bar tape. The action feels fine when the switches are stuck to the bar. We'll see how well they survive bike washing etc.