Originally Posted by
eriku16
Laugh and make the funny retro grouch comments all you want...
'kay
The reality is that the bicycle took a VERY long time to evolve to be the simple, light HUMAN powered and operated machine it is today.
It still is human powered. In case you missed it, electronic shifters do not add a single watt of power to the drivetrain.
Adding electro-servo motors to replace muscle power is the antithesis to what a bicycle is all about in the first place.
Do you really not understand how electronic shifting works?
Di2 does not "replace muscle power." It improves shifting, and that's pretty much it. You might as well say that integrating the brake lever and the shift lever is a vile debasement of cycling, because it makes it easier to shift.
IMO, electronic shifting is just a FAD, get it?
So says the guy who is outraged that it exists in the first place.
Because if the fails don't make you quit it, planned obsolescence of the systems will.
Mechanical shifting faces just as much "obsolescence" as electronic shifting.
In a few years, you'll have the same problems replacing Di2 components as you will 9-speed components.
Saw a quite a few fails in the pro ranks over the past few years. No one wants to talk about them though.
Uh, in case you missed it, the pros have had lots of "fails" with mechanical shifting over the years -- the most notorious in recent memory being Andy Schleck dropping a chain during the 2010 Tour de France.