Electronic & Hydraulic Shifting (Di2, Ui2, customisations)

Nice little article about some of the custom bikes and customised Di2 shifting units..

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/10/electronic-shifting-is-here%E2%80%94now-what/?mid=5126173

Very cool.

Haven't watched the Parlee/Toyota video, but are they talking about using your brain to shift? I always thought that was the ultimate in si-fi gears, all wireless just thinking about going up or down.

I'm sure it would be possible but very tricky. I've seen brainwave-operated computers before so it'd be easy enough to wire the same impulses to servos. The trick is generating the right brainwaves to change the gear in the correct way. It's difficult sitting down and concentrating.. under the stress of cycling it'd be very difficult.

Mark Evans does it here: Brave New World with Stephen Hawking - Machines - YouTube

Look at how difficult he finds it and imagine doing that, on the rivet, about to black out, out of the saddle, climbing up Mt Ventoux! Or just about to kick for a spint and having it drop you in the little ring...

Nice little article about some of the custom bikes and customised Di2 shifting units..

http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/10/electronic-shifting-is-here%E2%80%94now-what/?mid=5126173

Yeah if you get rid of all that crappy electronics they turn into quite nice brifters !

OT, but earlier this week I saw one of Robs bikes in the flesh, his folding road bike. http://www.englishcycles.com/custombikes/folding-road-concept/
Amazingly beautifully made.

Yes! I love it.
Not that I'm in love with electronics for cycling, but Di2 is a rear break through.
Maybe not technically, but certainly on sales/marketing level in the bike branch.

2 things I couldn't understand (actually, I wrote it in my article in a dutch magazine that lays in the book stores from today onwards).

Why do people not store the battery in a nice and clean way?
In the frame tubes, inside the handlebars, etc.
Just BMC and Koga made nice attempts (and didn't do Scott a prototype with the battery in teh seat post?).

Why didn't anyone put it on an MTB yet.

Well, at least some people did something interesting with Di2.
Such a good opportunity for bike makers.

7/11 Campy press event.

Why didn't anyone put it on an MTB yet.

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=88609&hilit=merlin+di2

I was especially surprised that non of the bike manufacturers put something like this on display at the big bike shows (at least, I didn't see them).
Of course, there are always smart bike riders.
I'm not surprised that they in fact show up now.

BTW, are the cages of Ultegra rear mechs interchangeable (mechanical and Di2) ?
Then swap that cage against a longer one.

have no desire to enter the world of electronic shifting - it seems like it would just be another thing to faff/worry about.

Will happily watch purely mechanical groups become cheaper as 'tronic one's slowly take over.

I've not even graduated to brifters.

Downtube all the way

I like the self trimming front mech idea, that would be a nice feature to have.

A semi-automatic shift could be interesting, using a powermeter plus speed/cadence/incline information to decide when to shift- always in the right gear (potentially) without having to touch anything.

might aswel ride a motorbike

Why?

If everything is taken care of for you like that it slowly takes all the pleasure / skill out of riding a bike. Bit like driving an automatic car.

It may seem perverse, but I kind of like that if I fuck up on a climb and end up having to dump gears or change down to the little ring the front that I suffer crappy gear changes under pressure as a result - makes you a better rider in the long run.

bit of a pointless argument really:

Neil: I want the new, better stuff
Dan: I like things how they are

I like the integration of the battery in the stem. That's good. I like the idea of electronic auto shifting. I don't think I'd want it (sour grapes: I COULDN'T FUCKING AFFORD IT ANYWAY).

I think electronic manual shifting is fucking great and by the time I can afford a new bike, it should be trickling it's way down to my price point.

bit of a pointless argument really:

Neil: I want the new, better stuff
Dan: I like things how they are

Close, I'd say rather that I like and applaud advances in technology- it's interesting.

Whether or not I choose to upgrade to these new technologies remains to be seen- I waited for ages to find a manual version of my car, which was something like 10% of the production run (18 cars in the UK) as I wanted to change gears myself rather than let Bosch do it for me.

I thought your Butler was called Henry?

Electronic shifting doesn't really offer anything yet over mechanical shifting, and as I like the 'agricultural' feel of shifting on Campag, and don't want to have to charge my bike, I'm in no rush to try it.

Be interesting to see where they take it in the future though

Electronic shifting doesn't really offer anything yet over mechanical shifting

Err.. tell that to all the TTers with multiple shifter positions or Cav with his sprint buttons or the roadies like Backstedt that aren't planning on going back to mechanical because the electronic is better. No cable drag and self-adjusting too so the mechanics can set and forget to a greater degree than mechanical.

Granted you can set up mutiple buttons, but on the whole it doesn't really do anything different does it ? It still just changes gears by pushing/pressing a lever

It'll be more interesting when they incorporate auto-shifting when cadence/speed gets above/below a user set level. Say for example when a tester gets above 50rpm ;)

Why do people not store the battery in a nice and clean way?
In the frame tubes, inside the handlebars, etc.

Smallfurry came up with a good idea for this. Basically have mounts somewhere like inbetween the downtube and seattube, and then have colour-coded plasic covers. So if you have a electric group, you use/get one, and if you don't you don't.

The best thing about Di2 is the really cool noise it makes when shifting between the front rings

Campagnolo launch their electronic shifting gruppos;

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/campagnolo-unveils-eps-electronic-systems

Both a Super Record and a Record version, but no prices yet.