On Friday, July 12, 2019 at 12:39:13 PM UTC-4, duane wrote:
On 12/07/2019 12:13 p.m., Tom Evans wrote:
On 10/07/2019 21:19, Tom Kunich wrote:

I am sure that electronic shifting will get more reliable. But again -
is there any advantage to it? There can't be more than 20 grams weight
advantage to the electronic stuff.

Long term it will probably be cheaper than mechanical.

It simplifies quite a few things. Simpler shifters, no gear cables, no
need for frame additions to route gear cables. The electronic components
will be dirt cheap.


The people I know that have this like it but I haven't heard anyone say
it's a game changer. Well one guy had a crash that mucked up his
derailleur and he was telling me that it was able to adjust itself
enough for him to get home.

My concern was the battery maintenance, given the battery fail mode but
I haven't heard of anyone with issues. Charges don't seem to be
required very often.

I agree that this will probably become standard at some point. One of
my friends that have this only have it because it came on a bike she
bought. And this was an entry level Tarmac. Not that expensive of a bike.

My concern is that unlike mechanical systems, electronics are a black box. I can
look at a conventional derailleur system and figure out what's wrong with it.
Usually I can fix it with very simple tools, even out on the road.

I can't do that with my cell phone, my TV or even my TV remote, my CD player,
etc. They're reliable, but when they're not, they usually need replacement. I
wouldn't want that to happen to my shifters when I was 30 miles from home.

- Frank Krygowski