No it's the next WORST thing, not the next best thing. Think about it, more stuff to go wrong, batteries could die on a ride and leave you shift out of luck, and more difficult and more expensive to repair when it does break. Next thing they'll do after the electronic shifting is computerize it with sensors so if it breaks you have to take to your LBS's technician so he can hook your bike up to a scanner...does all this sound familar to any of you? hmmmmmmmm....oh, that's right, our freakin cars we can't repair ourselves anymore because the manufactures don't want the backyard wrench to fix their own car anymore they want you to take it to the shop so you can spend more money and that money will go back into their economy-just not your economy! It appears the biking industry is slowly learning from the auto industry.

PS: just as I have now converted all my cars over to older cars-pre 80's (that I can fix myself) instead of post 2000's as of last month because of expensive repair hassles, not being able to find a mechanic that knew what they were doing except to replace parts until the problem was corrected, not too mention major depreciation you get hit with on a newer car; thus I will never buy any bike with electronic shifting.