Originally Posted by grolby

You have the same problem that the STI nay-sayers had 20 years ago: lack of imagination. Look, it's impossible to see all of the potential benefits opened up by a major shift in technology. STI might seem like it solved a 'problem' now, but that's the benefit of hindsight for you. Take away STI and suddenly the fact that you can't shift without taking your hands off the bars, while standing on a climb, while sprinting, etc, is a problem. But when STI appeared, it wasn't solving any problems, because downtube shifters were standard and they worked fine. Reach down, move lever, shift gear. Perfect. It may have been easier for people to see it coming, since handlebar-mounted shifters on upright bars had been around for a while, but it's clear just from this thread that there skeptics. But lo and behold, STI came out and suddenly people were saying "Holy *****, I can shift in the middle of a sprint! Whereas before, that probably wasn't on most riders' radar. And so STI came to signal a paradigm change in cycling.

Well, it's the same deal with electronic shifting. We have yet to discover all of the implications for it, but 20 years from now we will be looking back and talking about the massive shift in technology and the way we ride bikes that electronic shifting represented. We will shifting gears in ways and under circumstances that we simply would not have conceived of today but that, thanks to the march of progress, we cannot anymore imagine living without. Just as modern riders see DT levers as a massive step down.

It's impossible to say whether electronic shifting will have as significant an effect as did STI, but the significance of it will definitely be more obvious in retrospect.

As for "Maybe for a racer," it would appear that you are missing the point. What the racers use means everything to what recreational road riders use. What use does a recreational rider have for STI? You're not at a competitive disadvantage, since you aren't competing. Recreational riders have adopted STI for the same reason that anyone adopts the use of a newer and more advanced technology: it's easier, more pleasant and more fun to use. That's absolutely it. THAT is the problem that STI 'solved', and it is the problem that electronic shifting will 'solve.' It would seem that the way of the retrogrouch (and this does go the other way, so the Road Nazis aren't off the hook) is to renounce whatever new technology as frivolous and impractical while deluding themselves with the belief that they ride the gear that they do because of objective, practical reasons. The Riv-fan, Grant Petersen-types ride their lugged steel bikes with the twine and leather and mile-high head tubes because they enjoy those bikes. Roadies ride what they do for the same reason. It would do everyone a lot of good to realize that we ride the way we do because it's fun.