Electronic & Hydraulic Shifting (Di2, Ui2, customisations)

I stand to be corrected but AXS is not, as far as I know, clockwork.

Mechanical gear cable in case you get effing SRAMed?

Success report: Last week switched my steel steed (tm) from Ultegra mechanical to SRAM Force AXS (with Red cranks/cassette and Quarq spider PM) and it was easier than expected. Sourcing parts was 2 months but upgrade itself took about a day. About 170km in so far (in 2 separate rides), no gear issues/dropping with the FD or anything, and I was expecting some. Impressed with the silent drivetrain and extended range on 10-33.

(The right pedal decided to unthread itself at the cafe stop yesterday, but found a pedal wrench onsite -Coldharbour Park Tool phonebox FTW- to put it back in. Checked the torque on both sides when I got back, it was more than adequate. Not sure how that happened, maybe I forgot to torque that side)

Mechanical gear cable in case you get effing SRAMed?

I unbolted the rear mech but left the internal cable routing and the shifter in place whilst establishing that my wireless, electronic XX1 AXS parts were going to work.

I've since removed the cable, shifter and so forth.

This has the benefit of reducing the cables under the BB by 1 - shame I can't get wireless braking.

shame I can't get wireless braking

Tbf, your brakes do mostly consist of air

Spent some time tooling around Dulwich park yesterday- shifts are perfect and fast, but I have a nagging feeling that every now and again there’s a stutter, as if for a fraction of a second the chain doesn’t engage correctly. May be my imagination.

I don’t believe I have the B-Screw in the correct place though as I set it with the suspension fully extended- I’ll deflate the shock so it sits at the 30% line and set it properly, see if that does it.

I’m actually a little taken aback at how well it’s worked so far tbh.

Wireless shifting is very cool- removes a lot of clutter from the bike in terms of a long cable run and removes a potential binding point in the rear suspension at the same time.

I’m actually a little taken aback at how well it’s worked so far tbh.

I was too with first gen etap; I didnt believe @andyp but he was (and is) always right

DOT5.1 is step too far though.

You probably haven't heard this (I keep it very quiet) but I'm using Magura brakes, which are mineral oil.

XXTR AXS plus Magura, with Kogel pulleys. What else can I throw into my drivetrain cocktail?

My new MTB is going to be sram axs but with Shimano brakes to avoid dot fluid or magura issues. I wonder how long it’ll take me to go for the axs dropper post to eliminate another cable from the bike.

Given the current availability of AXS Droppers, 2022.

My hand was forced into axs when Bird ran out of Shimano cassettes and their oem license means they have to sell complete bikes so they can’t build any Shimano bikes until they get more 12spd Shimano cassettes - eta unknown.

Am getting the bikeyoke dropper so can’t see any hurry to upgrade.

I've got a hydraulic Reverb currently, which works very well - but removing a hydraulic line that could leak would be beneficial. It's also a bit of a pain to route through the frame, but of course that doesn't happen very often so not really an issue.

I'm more thinking that having a spare battery on the post would be useful incase I forget to charge one for the mech, but then they're so small and I have spares from my travel bike (original Red AXS) so that's probably a non-issue also.

I have PTSD from routing dropper cable on my mtb

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

this is why mountain biking will forever be uncool

Anyone got a spare axs battery?

Reverb droppers are such a nightmare. I had a friend a few weeks ago lose pressure due to a bad installation and kinked -> split hose. There was no way of putting the saddle down so she had to ride a 7km downhill trail with her 170mm dropper at full height. At least electronic stuff normally has some kind of crash recovery mode, hydraulic is 100% ∨ 0%.

The levers do make excellent DOT pistols though, I managed to hit a colleague in the eye from 5m completely by accident a few years ago.

soooooo I took my fairlight with the dodgy di2 to my LBS and they were really confused by it too. They then tried a brand new derailleur and now it works perfectly; suggesting the rear derailleur is faulty which is fine as obviously covered by warranty

except of course Madison won't be getting any more derailleurs until May 2022. fucking great

Welcome to 2021.

So presumably you legged it out of the shop with the new derailleur still attached?

some retailers actually seem to have them in stock so can probably fix it pretty quickly. will see what Fairlight say

just buy it and sell the warranty replacement when you get it

yeah it's not a big deal at all..... just coming on here to moan as usual. and to flag that faulty Di2 derailleurs do exist

oh yeah of course; shimano arent saints

Global shortage of components is becoming a massive problem, at all levels…..

Small/independent bike shops that rely on workshop for cash flow are struggling as they just can’t get any parts that need replacing, so are losing money on labour, and losing profit on any parts that they would have replaced. Many independent mechanics are resorting to buying parts at full RRP from Wiggle etc just so they can get repairs/services done and at least make some money on the labour.

Big brands have warehouses full of frames that they are unable to build into bikes and fulfill orders, which is starting to cause big cashflow problems for the ones don’t have millions in the bank to dip in to.

The huge surge in demand for bikes/parts last year, combined with factories being closed due to lockdown has meant not only are they trying to catch up with the back log, they also have to deal with a much higher demand. Combine this with the fact that global shipping chain is totally fucked as there are still so few planes in the air, and it’s no wonder there is basically zero stock of anything currently, and it is impossible to buy bellow RRP, and RRP on everything will be going up a fair whack over the next year if it hasn’t already.

Shimano factory in Malaysia shut down again due to local COVID lockdown a month or so back - not sure if it has opened again yet, but this will only add to the knock on effect.

Things won’t be back to pre-covid ‘norm’ for a LONG time unfortunately! I think it’s fair to say the old norm of being able to buy groupsets from Merlin at 60% of RRP are probably gone for good. Or for a good few years at least anyway.