On 2/25/2018 9:56 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-02-24 14:51, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 11:57:38 AM UTC-8, Joerg
wrote:
On 2018-02-23 10:01, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 08:29:16 -0800, Joerg
wrote:
On 2018-02-18 14:21, Tim McNamara wrote:
Since stopping racing, though, I've converted
everything back
to DT shifters. I use a handlebar bag on two of my
bikes and
the extra cables interfere with that. Since I'm not
racing,
the minor inconvenience of reaching down to shift is a
moot
point for me. Plus- maybe this is a function of my
generation- I prefer the looks of DT shifters due to the
reduced cables sticking out the front. Once we have
wireless
shifters that are reliable, ...

Then one sunny day it don't shift no more and the display
bluntly scrolls "An irrecoverable error has occurred.
Please
can 1-800 ..." :-)

LOL! Funny because it's true. "Hang on, dudes, I have
to reboot
my bike."


Almost. IIRC a guy had to bring his bike back to the shop
because
new software had to be loaded to cure some suboptimal
shifting
behavior. In the good old days pliers, wrenches and 15
minutes in
the garage sufficed, as it does on all my current bikes.

I'd rather upgrade software than have to toss out a POS
friction-shifting derailleur like an old Campy Rally or a
lot of the
Simplex. Many derailleurs were suboptimal out of the box
back in the
supposed golden era of cycling. And it's not like DT friction
shifters were immune from problems. SIS levers failed a lot.


Maybe I was lucky all those decades of my life. When I was
young our parents bought us catalog store bikes, the
equivalent of what would be Sears in the US. Those were
bargain-basement road bikes. The shifters worked great. Same
on all those cheap department store road bikes I had as a
student. I wore out about one bike per year and the shifters
and derailers were never an issue. Same today, Deore XT on
the MTB and ye olde Shimano 600EX on the road bike.

The old MTB has Alivio where they messed up with the grease
they put in the shifter lever assemblies (gunks up and
hardens fast). After flushing all that out and using
Tri-Flow oil it works great.

The only time derailers fail is on the MTB when they are hit
by a sizeable rock and get bent. I assume a Di2 derailer
would suffer there as well, except when it gets whacked one
might not always be able to hammer in back to working order
out in the field.


I just got back from a ride on my UDi2 equipped Synapse --
which is
my fast rain bike. Worked like a charm. However, if I
hadn't gotten
the bike with a crash-replacement discount and insurance
money, I
wouldn't have bought Di2. The price differential is not
worth it to
me. Cable STI works beautifully, although with the bizarre
internal
cable routing these days, it can be a little stiff
shifting on some
bikes.


Since my two main bikes have a big central battery I could
probably use Di2 without ever worrying about running out of
juice. However, given that the Shimano mechanical stuff
works great I don't see a need, plus I like the very fast
shift across have a dozen cogs that the friction shifter on
my road bike affords.


Well, duh. Of course a regular rock will wreck your Di2. You
need a Di2 compatible rock:
http://www.luckymojo.com/lodestone.html

and just 130 miles form Cameron Park too!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971