McBTC

After introduction of sealed bearings in the '70s (e.g., Phil Woods). Even today, you're pretty much stuck with friction shifting-- given that and the utility of a wide range triple, a 5 speed hub is about all you really need. The biggest innovation in the TdF since the '70s, for example, was better drugs.

indyfabz

Another success story, but I need some relief from all the arguing. Think I will hang out in the A&S forum.

fietsbob

Cannot nail down the year for your convenience , but if you overspent on your bling bike and have a breakdown in a place with just a cash stressed Local shop ,
that does not sell any bikes that expensive, ever..
you have to wait for replacement parts to be special ordered and shipped air freight long distances...

where I live the LBS has a trophy plastic Gates Crank belt sprocket, it broke, but as its a town full of brewpubs, bars, restaurants and hotels & motels
it is not boring to hang out ..




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elcruxio

How long do the batteries last? What are the charging possibilities? Does one need to carry extra batteries?

These are the questions I would ask if I was considering e-shifting. Of course all of those are dependant on shifting frequency but it's sometimes hard to predict. On our last tour just last week we were doing a homeland tour and due to the peculiar geography and road conditions of ours we were doing hundreds if not thousands of shifts per hour. That has to have an effect on battery duration

Marcus_Ti

TA...Yes please. Particularly for disc brakes.

IRL (and per Shimano's official rating), a Di2 battery lasts about 1500km. Depending on how much FD shifting one does-as the FD is the main draw of power. I just toss my Di2 charge brick in my pannier as a precaution, along with my 20Ah USB battery I also use for my phone/Garmin. A Di2 battery can go from zero->hero in 90 minutes.

chrisx

Best chuckle today

Trevtassie

Gotta pleeze tha Squeeze

linus

They said Etap does about 1000km. The charger has USB plug so you can recharge with your AUX. battery or you can carry extra batteries if you want. It takes about one hour to recharge from empty to full(Timed it myself).

alan s 

My 11 speed chain with 1x gearing seems to last much longer than 2x or 3x systems. Less bending of the chain with no front shifting, perhaps? Still wouldn't use it for fully loaded touring due to lack of gear range, but for commuting and weekend rides, 1x11 works fine.

Squeezebox

I'ld like to hear more about the electronic shifting. Do you want to post here or start a separate thread?

fietsbob

since you are also talking electric powered bikes elsewhere, here..


With a Mid drive Motor , you can run a whatever rear hub.

making an electronically shifted Alfine 11 a possibility,

and in addition to the Australian made stepper motor kit, available now, Rohloff is working on their own E shifter, in Germany..

But as an aside; mid drive and a cable operated Nuvinci CVR rear hub would be quite the combination..


maybe the donor frame can be a cargo bike,?, so room for dual batteries for longer range..




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veganbikes

Thru axles are great. I hope they become more popular because it is a neat idea. The one issue is standards and different threads and all the normal nonsense but hopefully they can figure it out. Being able to put your wheel back in the same spot each and every time and having a larger stiffer axle seems like a good thing.

As far as Di2, it is so much fun and quite nice. All the little microshifting it does and the ability to synchro shift so you don't cross chain or sit in a bad gear combination is nifty. I don't know that I personally want it for world touring or more rural touring but I love it on my road bike. Plus you can use mountain and road stuff pretty much totally cross compatibly which you cannot do mechanically.

The other neat thing is you can build a pretty nifty bike for someone who is missing an arm or has limited to no functionality in a hand or something like that.

elcruxio

The issues I have with through axles are mainly to do with maintenance. With QR you have the ability to use the NBT-2 tool to remove the rear cassette in order to replace a drive side spoke or to just access the freehub for maintentance. I am not aware of a similiar tool for through axles and such tool could be difficult to create simply because of the host of different thru axle standards available. Now it's not THAT big of a deal to carry a chain whip, cassette socket and a lever for it but i took off little under 2 pounds from my touring tool set when I replaced those tools with the NBT-2 which weighs 20 grams or so.

There's also the availability issue. Quick releases can be found practically everywhere and in a pinch a threaded rod would probably work. I'd wager one could limp to the next maintenance possibility with a smart use of brake cables in a pinch. (not the safest option obviously, especially in the front). On top of that quick releases are very compatible since there's only a few sizes. A too long a skewer won't hurt and a too short one can be made to work in the right conditions.
With a thru axle while breaking one is not really probable, if it does happen, finding a replacement can be extremely tricky even in a big city with well stocked bike shops. They may have one standard on the shelf but do they have your standard? So worst case one needs to carry extra or mail order.

Also I'm not sure if the benefits are there for touring. I've developed a method where I can get my wheels and discs centered perfectly every time I put them on. I have a hex skewer and with 7Nm of torque the disc is centered within the caliper. I can get to pretty darn close to the 7Nm without a torque wrench on the road by just torquing the skewer until the disc is centered in the caliper. Of course the bike needs to be in a position which allows for straight alignment.
I also doubt touring has that many situations where one would really need the added front end stiffness. Depends on the type of touring of course but I've gone pretty fast on road with my fully loaded tourer, leaning into hairpins with as much grip as I was comfortable with and front end stiffness was not the thing on my mind at the time.

Thru axles work for mountain bikes where the front and rear suspension can make the forks a bit flexy. A thru axle stiffens this combo significantly.
On road it helps with disc brake use especially if one wants to use different wheelsets, needs to change a flat on the road (much more common than on tour since thin tires and all that) and I suppose on sprints or other hard efforts the increased stiffness helps with better tracking of the bike.
But I don't see those things in touring.