Originally Posted by
Campag4life
Where you are wrong is if you deny auto shift tech you deny the existence of Di2 and EPS and Sram's forthcoming wireless shifting tech. It is here. Auto shift is basically just software + PM. This tech will accompany virtually every Di2 bike in the next 5 years and be part of the price of the package.
No question.
So you don't see the big picture. A kid or adult can still build a fixie with no brakes. He/she can also ride one of these when the time comes. Not everybody can afford a Corvette, Porsche or BMW. This will cost much less. I like mechanical shifting btw but when this hits the market after two years, I will probably buy it for the simple reason there is very little downside to electric shifting some up side. And when cruising through town or on a long leisurely ride, I would have no problem letting the bike shift. I may prefer if in the heat of the battle to shift manually but even then would depend on how good auto shifting gets and I believe over time it will be excellent.
Btw, I also see a future of integrated motors in the 500-1000W range that can also be integrated right into the bike based upon improved battery technology. This will turn an average rider into a CAT1 or a very old man into an average rider. That day will come as well.
You should read many of the rants online about electronic shifting. Specifically updating firmware to enable features. It is plain and simply a nightmare, with more exceptions to rules than rules. And to make matters even better, the official documentation from Shimano (I've read it to help a roadie mate with Di2 firmware) is laughably horrendous and unmaintained (the manuals for E-Tube have not been updated since 2012). The software toolset for Di2 for example is written for .Net 3 and no later. To put that in perspective, you need an unpatched un-updated Windows machine from 2008 (IIRC) just to run the Di2 toolset according to Shimano's own instructions.
And to make matters better, Shimano has been through firmware updates bricking people's setups to force them to buy entire new gruppos and not just parts.
Very little downside. My. Foot. After a long while helping the roadie mate figure out how to update his Di2 firmware, I promised myself I'd always stay with mech shifting.