Yeah, but one could hardly complain about performance when used in an environment that it is not designed for. I wouldn't complain my sports car can't go off-road due to its ride height because it would be silly. Same deal.

True.

Just watched stage 2 of the TdCali...didn't see one electronic shifting system.

Why have anything. Just save your money and die with it all in your mattress. Life is suppose to be fun. We all spend money on stuff that people think is stupid. If there was not marketing we would all be on single speed bikes with coaster brakes. Sometimes there is no good justification for buying something except that it makes you feel better.

My money is waitng for Campagnolo's electric shifting. Why, because I want to. Good enough reason for me and I could careless what you you all think.

You didn't look very hard. Team sky and Ben swift, the guy that won, were on di2.
Edit: Looks like jens and leopard are also on di2:
https://velonews.competitor.com/2011/...rnia-stage-2-3
Also team highroad:
https://velonews.competitor.com/2011/...hment/p1000652

As the bikes are rolling past the camera, all the groups look surprisingly similar.

How does Shimano make any money with Di2 when they hardly sell any of the stuff? I'll never get that. Here I am considering upgrading a bicycle to that from 7900, and the best price domestically is like $2500 for the upgrade parts. That really is off the hinges. No thanks Shimano. They are friggin nuts.

Yeah F it. It'll take a little longer and probably cost more but I'll try it. Trickle down is going to happen.

In a couple of years BF crapstorms will be between the electros and retros on cable pull gears.

They aren't nuts.
You just want the latest thing and so you'll have to pay dearly.
I remember someone buying one of the first CD players for $3000 and over a decade later someone buying one of the first DVD players for $2500 ... both can now be obtained in one device for $50

You're right, that's not the word.

Idiots. That's a more accurate term.

Certainly a lack of skill

Where are the battery packs? They're supposed to be above the BB.

Some companies have started hiding them in the frames.

I think I read somewhere that a lot of the pro teams are using Calfee's battery pack that fits inside the seatpost: https://www.calfeedesign.com/product/...ernal-battery/

That makes sense. I was looking for the big, fat battery just above the BB. Guess I was wrong. Seems like it's going to be the next big innovation in cycling, it's just not priced for recreational riders at the moment. Give it 4-5 years and they will come standard on most mid-level and above bikes.

1) Higher margins = more revenue per sale. E.g. if Shimano makes $1000 in profit off of a single Di2 groupset sale, but only $150 off of a 105 sale, then selling one Di2 groupset produces as much profit as over 6 sales of the 105.

2) At the moment, they are largely recouping the R&D. Once that is largely covered, they can reduce the costs, and thus the price. In Shimano's case, they usually do this by trickling down advancements over the year, e.g. the upcoming electronic Ultegra.

3) A super-expensive item in the lineup often makes other items seem more reasonable in comparison. Similarly, the initial high price may act like an "anchor," which will make less expensive iterations seem more reasonable.

4) They don't need to sell millions of Di2 groupsets right now. Although many companies are obsessed by today's bottom line, you don't get into a multi-year R&D project like this for short-term gain. So, they may be aiming for higher-margin sales and/or a competitive selling-point 5+ years down the road.

5) Just because you choose not to spend a large sum of money on parts (an eminently reasonable position), that doesn't mean no one else will. A $350,000 hand-crafted Swiss watch is well beyond my means, but that doesn't mean no one in the world is willing and able to buy one -- or that the people who sell them are "nuts."


I do agree that releasing a high-priced Di2 is a risky move, but it isn't crazy -- certainly no more than SRAM jumping into the high end of the road market....

Very good stuff...and if the pros are winning with this system you better believe that many amatuer riders are going to buy them regardless of price. Seriously, I ride with two guys in my neighborhood who each own $6000 bikes and I am sure it is only a matter of time before they both get Di2's. New technology is always expensive. In 5 years we will all have electronic shifters.

The battery isn't very big at all.

https://www.trisports.com/shimano-dur...-groupset.html
It's pretty sizeable.

Like it or not, the future of road cycling just arrived with Di2. I have test-rode a bike with it, and nothing in road cycling drivetrains is remotely close. I am waiting for it to be affordable for me, then it's Di2/electronic shifting for me.

And Shimano, as always/most of the time, has done it's homework on this one.

I think the only dislike right now is price...which will go down dramatically in the future. I have a sneaky feeling that the actual technology involved is very simple and probably very inexpensive to design and build...but since it represents a significant change over the established norm that it demands a high price at the moment. Meaning it probably doesn't cost Shimano much more to put one on the shelf that it does other shifter systems. The technology itself is not new, but applying it to a bike IS new.

At the moment they have no competition. I see little reason to make it affordable until someone else makes one, or they believe they can corner SRAM with it.

I also wonder if they price it high to keep a smaller set of units out there. If they sell 10,000 (total, pros included) and have 50 failures that's a small issue that's easy to deal with. If they sell a million and have 5,000 fail they have a huge problem. Not only to service those broken parts, but to regain trust with all of those customers (and their friends).

Yea, I have serious doubt that that special servo in the derailleurs costs more the build than their shifters do. When they get this thing down to normal group prices I'll be likely to switch back to Shimano.

Of course most recreational cyclists and even many pro cyclists would not be caught with clenbuterol in their blood.