I know very little about Electronic shifters.
Is it worthwhile... I know it works very smoothly but what happens if you need an adjustment or repair

Probably only want to hear from supporters , not skeptics ..

Big Bike Buying Budget , like the latest Stuff?


this is where you buy from a professional bike shop , which will service what they sell ..

It might be worth it, depending on what problem you are trying to solve.

Yes it is worthwhile. Near magic shifting properties. Especially for less experienced riders; more experienced riders say they can shift as fast or faster than e-shifting, but for most, it is revelatory. Don't ride it if you can't afford it because you will want it.

They need proper set up, but are nearly set and forget regarding adjustments, since most shifting adjustments are based on cable tension which does not exist with e-shifting. If adjustment is needed, it is a simple process to dial it in with a forward control.

Repairs, whether mechanical or e-shifting, are usually a replace, rather than repair kind of thing, and e-shifting units are significantly more expensive. And there's battery charge to worry about. Not to mention a wiring harness -- only an issue if you are considering the build yourself.

I just saw a YouTube vid of wireless SRAM e-shifting. Sexy!

It really depends on what you're after and a personal decision regarding $$$ v. functionality. Some say it's worth the money and any associated hassle regarding the electronics, others refuse to pay a premium when you're getting nearly the same performance cheaper with top line mechanical setups.

On Saturday's ride, I'm hearing about how Jonathan had to ride his single speed bike on the Thursday ride that I don't go on.

I asked when he got a single speed bike.
Oh, he didn't buy one, just forgot to charge his Di2 battery!

I have ~9100 miles on my 30 month old 10spd Di2 set up and have had to do a micro adjust of the cassette/RD chain position twice in that time for minor
noise from chain position. The battery got flaky at about 28 months, not holding a charge. I would expect a charged once/month Li battery to last
longer than that, we will see with batt II. External wiring done on first frame and this is a real dirt magnet. Cracked frame allowed transfer to frame
with internal wiring and this is much nicer. The very attractive 11-32 cassette/11spd compact option and the fact that the 9770 (10spd) brifters can be
software modded to 11spd means I can swap to this setup from the 11-28 I now have for ~4-500 but as I will need a new rear wheel it will run closer to
$750. FWIW I have seen 9770 brifters for under $200 as a clearance thing. The 'old' RD will be mounted on my recumbent. If you shop around you can
find a complete ultegra Di2 11spd groupo for ~$1100 or so about double what the mechanical groups costs. Don't ride one unless you are prepared for
the siren call of the electric shift, it is very addicting. As to battery charge, expect at least 600 miles out of a charge, I just top mine off the first of
each month, no big deal at all as the external battery tops off in 15-20 minutes.

The wireless SRAM is really attractive but clearly is a top end offering MSRP at $2200 with possible price online ~$1700 or so, this is ONLY the brifters and
RD/FD and battery charger not the complete groupo. Install is a piece of cake disregarding removal of old components.

Only you can decide if any given acessory/technology/product is "worth it". Based on my experience (2 1/2 seasons riding a Di2 Ultegra road bike side by side with a CX bike with manual Ultegra), Di2 will shift more accurately, be more reliable, be easier to shift with gloves, and will generally be more pleasant to ride. For me, it was "worth it" enough that when I upgraded my road bike fro a Defy to a Propel, I had Di2 installed at the shop.

YMMV, but for me it was and is decidedly "worth it".

FWIW, Di2 adjustments are rare (MAYBE once a year, in my experience), but are very easily done, and can even be done while riding, if you know the system. I haven't had any reason to have mine repaired, but I can't think of any reason it would be more difficult to repair than a manual system.

The biggest differences for me:

Rolling, hilly rides
I can shift the front chainring quickly and easily, even for very short roller hills.

I have the buttons set to "shift 3 cogs" when holding down the button for 1/2 second or longer. So at the base of a hill, it's two long presses of the bottom button on each side--to drop to the small chainring, and go 3 cogs smaller in the back. Then a long press of both top buttons at the crest of the hill goes big chainring, 3 cogs bigger.

Keeping up with fast group rides
I'll be shifting a lot to stay in a good cadence when I'm trying to hold on with faster rides.

~~~

The auto trimming of the front derailleur is nice, too. No rubbing when cross chained.

You can check the charge level while riding by holding a shift button for longer than a second. The junction box under the stem lights up with four levels of charge.

It's very simple to micro adjust the rear derailleur to get the chain perfectly centered. (by holding the adjust button for a few seconds, then each up or down click of the shifter buttons moves the derailleur a tiny amount.) Then the derailleur stays at that setting every ride.

My favorite quote on the topic is something BikeSnobNYC wrote when Di2 Dura-Ace first came out: "Electronic shifting will completely change the way you think about bicycles--assuming, of course, that you previously thought of them as being relatively inexpensive and easily serviceable."

Electronic shifting sounds nice. With the current systems, I'm most impressed by SRAM's wireless eTap.

But, I prefer a system I can easily afford, easily tune, and customize to my heart's content. Mechanical shifting does all those things for me.

I also prefer my bike to operate independent of batteries if possible. I don't think you can charge Di2 off a dynamo.

Not to me.

I try to avoid additional complexity, especially on my bicycles...

seriously. I don't want to plug my bike in. I can't be trusted to top off my blinky lights, or even my cell phone.

Ha! I know what you mean, but it didn't happen with me. I borrowed my sister in law's new Domane with Di2, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a game changer for me. Sure, it's superior in every way except for cost. My guess is that it will prove to be more reliable than mechanically controlled shifting, but the failure modes can be worse, as has been pointed out. Maybe the next generation will have an alternate shifting mode for the eventuality of a dead battery.

[MENTION=5802]sch[/MENTION], is it a LiIon battery? Normally they last three years, but 28 months isn't unheard of. Stuff happens. One of the biggest factors in their ability to hold a charge is age, not whether you charge them fully.

I think electronic shifting is interesting technology and I like the option of shifting from multiple places. The Di2 TT shifters on the brake levers as well as aero bars and the climber and sprinter buttons for regular bars are cool options. I haven't actually ridden Di2 or similar yet but I think there is a lot of unrealized potential for automation. Currently XTR Di2 is the only electronic group I know that automates front shifting, and I'd like to see a way to program a "macro" to dump a bunch of gears for a climb, or up shift for a sprint.
On the flip side you can't fix Di2 with a screwdriver and a pair of cable cutters so you need either a bike shop or expensive kit.

I'm sure it's great but I am morally opposed to any bicycle that requires firmware updates.

I love how most of the people who criticize Di2 for being complicated, hard to work on, or a pain to recharge haven't had any actual experience with Di2.

FWIW, my current bike was last charged in mid October, has been ridden an average of 7 hours a week since, and is currently still holding somewhere between a 25 and 50 percent charge.

For a lot of us I think the criticism is more a matter of principle than anything practical. It comes from the same impulse that drives people to singlespeeds -- the love of simplicity. It may be simple to set up and simple to maintain and whatever else, but the fact is that it isn't fundamentally simple. The complexity is just hidden from you. I don't like having complexity hidden from me. I like to know what my bike is doing and understand how and why it is doing it.

Also, it irritates me that there are holes drilled in my frame that I have no intention of using. It's 2016 for crying out loud. What's with all the wires?

for me it was worth it... my wife was starting out and with her smaller hands was having a hard time with movement on "normal" shift levers. I threw 9070 on her bike and it was so much easier for her to master. I took a cold chilly uphill ride with her bike and with frozen hands shifting was no big deal for me and I was sold.. my bike ended up with 9070 too.

it's really easy to adjust and customize as well...

+1 the only remotely interesting electric shifting to me is a wireless design, but then (as we've seen with etap) there's FOUR batteries to worry about.

It depends on how much you ride, how ADHD you are about shifting, and how you feel about bike maintenance versus charging batteries. Remote shift buttons may be a killer app.

I get 8-10 weeks out of rear shift cables before breaking strands with contemporary brake/shift levers integrating a tight 90 degree guide for under-tape routing using hoods hoods level with the bar tops.

Electrical cables don't fatigue with each shift or go high-friction like mechanical housings.

I'd buy electronic shifting in a heart beat if I didn't do my own maintenance or was building a time trial bike.

In other words the user interface works almost as well as mechanical Campagnolo ergo levers made since 1992 apart from the maligned Escape units and their second coming as Power Shift.

Push both thumb buttons down, stopping at the 3 cog position on the right with no long delay required. Newer ones have a 5 cog limit, older ones could sweep the entire cassette if you have really long thumbs which was nice for rear wheel removal but not useful riding. 5 cogs are needed to get the next gear moving to the small ring on a 50-34 compact with a tight cassette (ex: 34x15 follows 50x21 when separated by 16-17-18-19).

Push both levers all the way out, no delay needed.

Works the same, although 2009 and newer Ultrashift levers eat cables when you shift like you have ADHD. I replace my rear cable after 2000 miles every 10 weeks because they're guaranteed to break strands within 500 miles.

Campagnolo levers trim in both directions.

They make front hubs with generators which can power lights and even other devices with USB interfaces.

Does anyone know if you can charge a Di2 battery while riding?

I've got one for my commuter that I never bothered to install. Tons of drag, and weighs more than my crank. Wouldn't dream of installing it on a race bike. For some people though, a front hub that powered a di2 system would be ideal.

I learned on Campagnolo 10 speed, and loved the multiple cog shifts. It wasn't completely perfect. I learned how to rebuild the shifters to replace the frequently worn G springs, and twice had broken a frayed shift cable during a ride. I did find it hard to consistently shift one thumb shift for a smaller cog from the drops--I'd sometimes get two when I wanted one cog.

My other bike still has Athena 11, and I occasionally wave my thumb toward the non-existent thumb shifter when on the Di2 bike. I thought I'd dislike the new single cog thumb shifting, but it's actually pretty good. Di2 is still easier and faster than Campagnolo, and it's hoods are almost as comfortable as Campagnolo.

Dynamo hubs feel like they make a lot of drag when you feel the axle with your fingers, but in practice, the drag is completely imperceptible.