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ETap WiFli

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ETap WiFli

Old 01-06-17, 09:18 PM
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ETap WiFli

Picking up a new group set next week. I am wondering if anyone is using this on their tandem yet. If so what chain ring/cassette/roadlink configuration are you using?
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Old 01-13-17, 03:15 PM
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The first bike in our fleet to get eTap WiFli has been my wife's Seven and that was installed a few days ago after receiving it from Bike24.
It works brilliantly and my wife finds it more intuitive than the Di2.
SRAM say that the WiFli version is ok for a max of 32 but after setting it up I would think the upper limit is more likely to be 36 although I haven't tried this yet.
I'll be interested to hear how you like the SRAM eTap on your tandem as that will be the next upgrade for us. 50-34 to 10-42 should be ok for us when we credit card tour.
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Old 01-21-17, 11:14 AM
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Might want to check with House of Tandems in Texas, they're selling a setup and I believe they can use the Standard three ring crank by just use the middle and small spiders. I forget the size of rear cassette but it was pretty big. Have not ridden a bike with this setup so I cannot comment on how well it shifts.
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Old 02-05-17, 12:16 PM
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I have it on my Cannondale T2. Have not been outside with it yet to see how it works under load but flawless in the stand. I have the WiFli kit and a wolf tooth road link running an 11-40 xt casette. On the front I have a 36-48. This gives me both a higher and a lower ratio than the stock 30-39-52 and 12-30
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Old 02-05-17, 02:43 PM
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I am in the same boat - its on and worked flawlessly on the stand but am waiting for the weather to cooperate. This coming weekend looks promising.

I installed the road link and an 11-42. Went with a 50-34 up front. We had been running an 11-36 with a 28-40-52 so we are shorter on the top and close on the bottom.
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Old 02-05-17, 06:29 PM
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Does anyone know if you need the front derailleur for the system? i.e. could you run the wireless shifters for the rear and then a front triple cable derailleur and bar end for the front?
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Old 02-06-17, 10:45 AM
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Originally Posted by bwebel
Does anyone know if you need the front derailleur for the system? i.e. could you run the wireless shifters for the rear and then a front triple cable derailleur and bar end for the front?
I don't think this would make sense. In order to use eTap, you need to be able to use both left and right shifters to operate the rear deraileur (one for up, one down). Then you press both at the same time to move the front deraileur.

So I am not sure how you would make all of that work AND be able to use a front deraileur. I suppose you could figure something out, but why bother?

my .02.

By the way, the 2x etap works great!
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Old 02-07-17, 11:12 PM
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Originally Posted by colotandem
I don't think this would make sense. In order to use eTap, you need to be able to use both left and right shifters to operate the rear deraileur (one for up, one down). Then you press both at the same time to move the front deraileur.

So I am not sure how you would make all of that work AND be able to use a front deraileur. I suppose you could figure something out, but why bother?
I understand how eTap works, what I'm trying to describe is using eTap only for the rear shifting and then using a cable for the front.

Why would you want to do this? Well, eTap only works with a double front derailleur. About one week a year, we travel to do some high mountain riding, and adding a third chainring and triple front derailleur is by far the easiest/cheapest way to get the gearing that we need to handle the long and steep climbs. It's pretty easy to do with the cable setup that we have and I was wondering if it would still work as easily with eTap, so we could enjoy the benefits of the electronic shiftin the other 51 weeks of the year.
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Old 02-08-17, 08:18 AM
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Originally Posted by bwebel
I understand how eTap works, what I'm trying to describe is using eTap only for the rear shifting and then using a cable for the front.

Why would you want to do this? Well, eTap only works with a double front derailleur. About one week a year, we travel to do some high mountain riding, and adding a third chainring and triple front derailleur is by far the easiest/cheapest way to get the gearing that we need to handle the long and steep climbs. It's pretty easy to do with the cable setup that we have and I was wondering if it would still work as easily with eTap, so we could enjoy the benefits of the electronic shiftin the other 51 weeks of the year.

Sure why not? Set up the SRAM WiFli and mechanical front derailleur with a bar end shifter for the front and use the SRAM shifters for the rear? Don't see why that wouldn't work unless the front derailleur has to be within the network. Worst case you could put the front derailleur in a seat pack and just not use it
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Old 02-16-17, 07:29 AM
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Blips might work for this ...
https://www.sram.com/sram/road/products/sram-etap-blips


Originally Posted by bwebel
Does anyone know if you need the front derailleur for the system? i.e. could you run the wireless shifters for the rear and then a front triple cable derailleur and bar end for the front?
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Old 02-16-17, 07:37 AM
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I just tried to order from Bike24 but they can't ship this to the US (I believe this is a sram policy). I selected Australia for grins and they won't ship there either. Curious where you had your wifli shipped to. Great price.

Originally Posted by geoffs
The first bike in our fleet to get eTap WiFli has been my wife's Seven and that was installed a few days ago after receiving it from Bike24.
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Old 02-19-17, 05:57 PM
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Originally Posted by BNB
I just tried to order from Bike24 but they can't ship this to the US (I believe this is a sram policy). I selected Australia for grins and they won't ship there either. Curious where you had your wifli shipped to. Great price.
SRAM changed their supply agreements with all the retailers at the end of January. We had an email from Sram advising of this which is why I bought eTap for my wifes bike from Bike24 as it was cheaper than I was able to buy from the local wholesaler.
Some friends who I told also decided to lash out and buy eTap as well.
I notice that the price for eTap Wi-Fli has gone down on Bike24 and we can't even buy the Wi-Fli version here yet. Standard eTap has gone up in price though here. We'll wait until we go to Europe in May to buy a set for the tandem
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Old 02-19-17, 08:43 PM
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First and second ride this weekend and it worked great. Big change over the 10 speed mechanical.
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Old 02-19-17, 08:56 PM
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Originally Posted by p2berg
First and second ride this weekend and it worked great. Big change over the 10 speed mechanical.
Great to hear that you like it. What brakes are you using?
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Old 02-21-17, 09:44 AM
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What cranks do you have on your tandem? Did you convert a triple to double? I just ordered the group but need to convert my triple chainring to double. Also, from the pic I can't tell if the front derailleur comes with a clamp. Can you send a pic of your setup?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by p2berg
First and second ride this weekend and it worked great. Big change over the 10 speed mechanical.
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Old 02-23-17, 05:17 PM
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Originally Posted by geoffs
Great to hear that you like it. What brakes are you using?
We are using TRP HyRD. Have had good luck with them including loaded credit card tour through northern Vermont. Had a long 8 mile wet descent with no issues.
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Old 02-23-17, 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted by BNB
What cranks do you have on your tandem? Did you convert a triple to double? I just ordered the group but need to convert my triple chainring to double. Also, from the pic I can't tell if the front derailleur comes with a clamp. Can you send a pic of your setup?

Thanks!
We converted the triple. The LBS had a 110BCD 50 tooth and ordered a 34 t 74 BCD from Peter White cycles.

We have FSA SL-K carbon cranks. I picked up tabs to use the same bolts which worked okay but the crown on the inner half of the bolt was touching the chain when on the small ring. I touched them up with a grinder (flattened them just a bit) and had clearance. I have since found some flat ss bolts on ebay and picked up a set of those - still need to install.

The front derailleur did not come with a clamp so I just reused the one that was on the bike (the clamp was set up to bolt on a braze on type derailleur).
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Old 03-11-17, 11:35 AM
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Originally Posted by p2berg
First and second ride this weekend and it worked great. Big change over the 10 speed mechanical.
Wow, 34/50 in the front and 11/42 in the back? Impressive! Can you please let me know when you're in the small ring in front, how far down can you go in the cassette before the chain starts to rub the big ring?
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Old 03-12-17, 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by ringkingpin
Wow, 34/50 in the front and 11/42 in the back? Impressive! Can you please let me know when you're in the small ring in front, how far down can you go in the cassette before the chain starts to rub the big ring?
Not the one with this particular setup, but rubbing on the big ring will depend on chainline, chainring size, chainstay length, and rear spacing. We are using 50/34 with 11/40 and only rub on the extreme cross chain combo 34/11.
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Old 03-12-17, 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by ringkingpin
Wow, 34/50 in the front and 11/42 in the back? Impressive! Can you please let me know when you're in the small ring in front, how far down can you go in the cassette before the chain starts to rub the big ring?
Maybe just a little in the 34-11. SRAM seems have gotten this right. We did put in a longer B screw to take up all the chain slack but that made the shifting when on the 50 slow to the 11. So I have more slack in the chain than I should in the 34-11 but with the solid shifting I find that I don't need to plan my shifts like with the mechanical. Also on the other end with the 50-42 there is a tab that is on the inside of the front cage that rubs when in the biggest sprockets - runs fine but reminds me it is time to shift. I had the front high enough when first installed so there was no rub and work fine on the stand. We dropped the chain when we hit a bump so I took a closer look at the setup marks on the front and sure enough it was up to high. After lowering it we have had no issues.
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Old 04-26-17, 06:45 AM
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update: we've done 5-6 rides now with our etap wifli - and LOVE it!!

Make sure to either download the installation manual and/or watch sram's wifli specific video. The adjustment of wifli requires the chain to be on (I spent hours freaking out about the rear derailleur hitting the spokes before reading that the chain must be on).

If anyone wants the details of converting to this system, including converting the triple chainring to double let me know.
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Old 04-26-17, 11:36 PM
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Thanks for the update BNB. On paper the WiFli doesn't seem to have enough chain wrap capacity for a 34/50 and 11/42. Does your system actually work in the 34/11 and 50/42 combinations? These combinations will make the chain the most slack and most tight.

House of Tandem in TX has a modified eTap system for tandems. Does anyone know if their system has more chain wrap capacity than a stock WiFli? It appears so but if the standards WiFli works without modifications there's no reason to pay more for a modified eTap.

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Old 04-27-17, 06:41 AM
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I kept the 52t chainring from our FSA triple and bought a 34t 74 BCD chainring from House of Tandem (they also provided the shorter bolts needed for mounting the 52t chainring.)

Our cassette is an 11-28; shifting works flawlessly. I am going to put on an 11-32 for a hilly trip coming up.

I am curious about the total capacity spec for the rear derailleur - haven't found it yet but that would define the drivetrain's total capacity.

As far as I know, the House of Tandem setup is using the short cage derailleur with a road link. The road link should add to the total capacity as it would be more like a longer cage derailleur.


Originally Posted by pdlpsher
Thanks for the update BNB. On paper the WiFli doesn't seem to have enough chain wrap capacity for a 34/50 and 11/42. Does your system actually work in the 34/11 and 50/42 combinations? These combinations will make the chain the most slack and most tight.

House of Tandem in TX has a modified eTap system for tandems. Does anyone know if their system has more chain wrap capacity than a stock WiFli? It appears so but if the standards WiFli works without modifications there's no reason to pay more for a modified eTap.
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Old 04-27-17, 09:00 AM
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The road link should add to the total capacity as it would be more like a longer cage derailleur.
All the Road Link does is drop the RD down so the top pulley clears the cassette cogs. The length of the derailleur hanger controls the chain wrap.
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Old 04-27-17, 11:06 AM
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Originally Posted by DKMcK
All the Road Link does is drop the RD down so the top pulley clears the cassette cogs. The length of the derailleur hanger controls the chain wrap.

I think you meant to say cage, not hanger.
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