everyone I know with electronic talks mostly about the times it's failed them or they forgot the battery on the charger.

this is like powermeters, where word of mouth and anecdotes color it so much.

my arms look super weird to me today, and I missed a ton of spots.

Do you know how many races I have won on electronic? :)

So they say, I'd really like to test ride one, not around the lbs parking lot but on an actual 20-30 mile ride with the Cat 4 climb mixed in.

This is my concern about electric, and how slowly it seems to shift when sprinting. I'm not the most meticulous guy out there, I don't spend hours prepping my bike, I just ride it and clean when people start commenting 'Nice brown bike'.

Although when I'm suffering up a hill, and the guy ahead of me is pressing a button to shift, I wonder how much easier my life would be with that :)

Right now all I know is Campy 10 speed and going to Campy 11 is a major hassle unless you get an Italian brand.

Slow shifting during sprints? Not my experience at all. Exactly the opposite.

Maybe it the slow brr-erk sound it makes that gives that impression.

To properly evaluate electronic shifting speed in a sprint you need to test a bike equipped with sprint shifters. Only the top of the line have them OEM. Maybe you can test ride a friends bike that has them.

My girlfriend makes sure to point out every single hair I miss on my arms.

my shaver ran out of battery about half way through. and the lighting in my shower is awful, and arms have a bunch of crevices I hadn't previously ever thought about.

As far as shifting goes electronic rear derailleurs need the cassette ramps just like mechanical. I guess they can push the derailleur down as well, whereas mechanical relies on a spring (and it's weakest going into the smallest cog). However the ramps are good, the upper pulley is close to the cogs, so a mechanical rear works really well.

For the front there's no beating electronic. The acid test is going into a steep hill in the big ring and then shifting into the small ring as you run out of momentum. With a mechanical derailleur you'll fail that shift pretty frequently as the spring isn't strong enough to overcome the chain tension you create by desperately pushing the pedals so you don't fall over. It helps to have the lopped off teeth but it's pretty normal for the derailleur to simply fail to move over. With electronic that was the selling point they presented at the trade show. Push a big gear slowly, like 30 rpm, on a trainer, and shift at some random time to the small ring. Don't let up on the pedals. The chain drops at the lopped off teeth every time.

Of course no guarantee if you have non-round rings or a dying battery.

My Bastognes (Ardennes rims basically, 23mm wide) are toast. Front is really toast, like one spoke has zero tension and the wheel is true (and I didn't true it or anything, I just noticed the wheel could sort of collapse to one side when I was sprinting out of the saddle), rear is getting there (I've had to true it to adjust for a bent rim and the spoke tension is uneven now).

My options are the same rim, the Ardennes+ or similar (25mm wide outside), or a wide carbon clincher rim. If I got a carbon clincher I wouldn't get a narrow one.

Same rim: lace over? Otherwise it's a known quantity. Brake barrel thing is only drawback.

Ardennes+ or other 25mm rim: closer to my Stingers in rim width, less brake barrel turns when I change wheels. Right now it's 5 full turns. Not sure if a wide base clincher tire will clear my stays. On the Stingers the tubulars are 23mm and rim width doesn't affect tubular tires. Clinchers it's different.

Carbon clincher 23mm: Same disadvantages as Ardennes but at a much lighter weight. 23mm aero, perhaps good spare race wheels, especially in raining or super windy conditions. Cost is a factor since they cost more than is comfortable for me to spend.

Carbon clincher 25mm: closer to Stinger in brake adjustment. Not sure if the actual tire will clear, but if it has the not-so-wide bead width it should be fine. Cost is a factor since they cost more than is comfortable for me to spend.

For now I'm riding the virtually unridden Jet 6 front (I got it spring 2010) and the slightly more used Jet 9 rear.

Turns out the pedal was shot.

Did you shave your arms for aero improvement or and weight reduction?

The biggest issue with your decision will be frame clearance. I've never seen a bike that tight.

curiosity, mostly. and for sunscreen, show off my scars, future crashing, maybe some aero?!, and last was weight but I was surprised how much hair there was so I measured it.

i've been riding electronic since 2010. when i first got it, i felt like front shifting (little to big ring) was a bit slower than mechanical. spent a bit of time thinking about it and here's what i came up with: with mechanical, you push the lever and the chain jams against the big ring. it takes a second to shift, though, until the chain hits the right spot on the rings.

with electronic, you hit the button and don't get that immediate feedback (which doesn't really DO anything). the actual shift happens as fast or faster w/ electronic (and is perfect)...but you just don't feel/hear the clammer of jamming the chain into the big ring.

for a while after first getting electronic i would have to look back to see if a rear shift had happened...it was so fast and quiet.

agree with shovel--satellite shifters rock and are a big benefit of di2. love it for the TT bike and love the sprint shifters in particular.

yeah, but they're masters races. surely they can't be competitive. ;-) (not my​ opinion.)

Get off my lawn.

Another thing about electronic. It is extremely forgiving with chain alignment. It will shift wih a bent hangar. However you won't get the true electronic experience until the hangar is aligned correctly. That's when it shifts silently and perfectly, every single time.

Many carbon clincher rims aren't that much lighter than the aluminum options.

And if you want to stick with aluminum, you also could look at Velocity, Pacenti or Kinlin. All offer wide rim options. The Hed and Pacenti rims are pretty pricey, the Velocity and Kinlin are more affordable.

I had PowerTap wheelset built up with Kinlin rims. I rode them exclusively for five years. They held up great.

As the other thread was locked regarding lock keo blades. I've struck my pedals several times in crits and you actually contact the pedal outside of the carbon spring unless you are doing something very strange (or there is a curb involved)

Got the BB30 bearings. No race tonight but so exhausted from family stuff over the weekend that I don't know when I'll do them. Maybe Thursday. I also had to organize my tools a bit for fun ride support so I want to get that done for real. I'm thinking some kind of a flat, multi layer tool board that is pretty portable and unfolds or something to become an easily accessible kit.

Also bought a second set of 175 Cannondale SI crank arms. I've been swapping arms between bikes and so my backup bike isn't really a true backup bike (170 arms). This means I can put the black bike back together. I'll need to order another stem for that (already bought the bar). I have an SLR saddle to put on that one also, then my two bikes will be set up again.

Someone remind me - I can't find it. I'm working on collecting parts to upgrade my bike to DA 11 speed electronic, but I think I saw somewhere that the DA cassette is no good. what's the best cassette to use? reasonable weight, great performance? Ultegra?

You can use 6800 Ultegra or 5800 105. Ultegra seems to shift better with Di2 for me. The DA9000 cassettes have carbon carriers which have had some failures. Shimano has made a running change in the design but the jury is still out on longevity. They are quietly replacing DA9000 cassettes without a recall.

Thanks. there's a pile of DA Di2 and an ultegra chain and cassette sitting in a box in my garage now, installation is next week.

I'm going to have my frame drilled to get the front half of the wiring inside. Anyone want to talk me out of that? I don't care about the warantee, just don't want it to uh... asplode. wow, finally a context in which to use that word.

as far as torque wrenches go, anyone have experience with this:

Shimano PRO Torque Wrench

or would something from the hardware store do the job just as well?

Get one that reads directly in nM. I posted what I use in the training thread.

I have a couple of Craftsman torque wrenches.

They work well.