Originally Posted by
MikeOK
I'm interested in this, I might spring for the newer battery just so I can have synchronized shifting. Can you give a better explanation of how it works? From my research it looks like when you are in the small ring and you get to say the 8th cog (smaller cog, I call the largest cog gear 1), it will shift to the big ring in front and shift the rear up 2 or 3 gears, say from 8 to 5. Is this anywhere near accurate?
Yes, there are 2 modes, semi synchronized and fully synchronized. Semi synchronized automatically shifts the RD when the FD is changed. If you are in the big ring on the FD and change to the small ring, the RD with change 1, 2, or 3 gears depending on you have it set up. The default is 2 so if you are in 3rd gear on the RD, changing the FD to the small ring will change the RD to 5th. Going from the small to the big on the FD does the opposite on the RD, 5th to 3rd.
Fully synchronized is similar but works but automatically changes the FD as the RD is changed. If you are in the big ring on the FD and click to go from 2nd gear to 1st, the FD is automatically changed to the small ring and the rear is changed from 2nd to 4th. Going the other way, I think the default is 6th or 7th on the rear, let's assume 7th. When you click to go to 8th on the RD when in the small on the FD, the FD is changed to the big ring and the RD goes from 7th to 5th. It pretty much changes your bike from a 2x11 setup to a 1x22. You can still change the FD but if you do, the RD is not automatically changed when in this mode.