Ultegra di2 vs duraace 9000 mech

[BMWBen]

SomersetWestie said:

okgo said:

Wrong on all counts. Weather makes little odds, I'll do 250 miles over 3 days this week and I bet it won't move off of the current solid green indication.

I plug mine in and charge it every couple of months or so. Not because i've checked it and it's run down, just because it's quick and easy and only takes half an hour or so :-) and i do lots of miles..... in all weathers.......

I do lots of miles on mine - probably have to charge it just short of every 2 months. Which is about how long gear cables last before shifting starts getting crappy in the winter.

[BMWBen]

Rich_W said:

SomersetWestie said:

okgo said:

Wrong on all counts. Weather makes little odds, I'll do 250 miles over 3 days this week and I bet it won't move off of the current solid green indication.

I plug mine in and charge it every couple of months or so. Not because i've checked it and it's run down, just because it's quick and easy and only takes half an hour or so :-) and i do lots of miles..... in all weathers.......

Question then

How much of a pain is it to carry a spare battery in a pocket/saddle bag?

mikecassie said:

You're obviously very anti Di2 and will have no good to say about it.
All batteries can be affected by cold temps, car batteries have been known to fail when the ambient temp drops, but that is usually the final sign that something else was failing.

I'm not anti, so much as unconvinced of a need. Seems an additional complexity for very little benefit. Plus the fact that more than once I've had a flat mobile phone when I need it, so what hope when I forget to charge the Di2 battery.

And the fact that when it does run out, there appears to be no failsafe option to manually put it into a middling gear to get you home.

I see WHY people like it, but do I as a reasonable rider NEED it and the added costs?

Edited by Rich_W on Friday 14th April 17:40

You get plenty of warning that it's running out. First it puts the front on the little ring and won't shift back, then you've got plenty of shifts left on the rear to get you home. I don't think anyone has ever managed to run one completely flat....

[mikecassie]

Rich_W said:

I'm not anti, so much as unconvinced of a need. Seems an additional complexity for very little benefit. Plus the fact that more than once I've had a flat mobile phone when I need it, so what hope when I forget to charge the Di2 battery.

And the fact that when it does run out, there appears to be no failsafe option to manually put it into a middling gear to get you home.

I see WHY people like it, but do I as a reasonable rider NEED it and the added costs?

Edited by Rich_W on Friday 14th April 17:40

Do people need aero wheels, aero frames, carbon frames? People want stuff, people buy what pleases/suits them. I'm aware of both sides of the discussion, I'll stick to mechanical on the CX bike but for the road bikes I'd be Di2 all the way and the next bike will be Di2 or even maybe eTap.

[Magic919]

Aside from not needing to, carrying a spare Di2 battery is possible, but a bit of a faff to exchange the internal one. The old external one is easy.

[Gren]

Got my Di2 bike last Autumn. Charged it up when I got it. 650 miles later the indicator still shows solid green. It's not going to run out any time soon

[frisbee]

BMWBen said:

You get plenty of warning that it's running out. First it puts the front on the little ring and won't shift back, then you've got plenty of shifts left on the rear to get you home. I don't think anyone has ever managed to run one completely flat....

I didn't get any warning when my rear derailleur cable snapped...

Oh wait, that's mechanical so it can't have gone wrong!

[Rich_W]

mikecassie said:

Do people need aero wheels, aero frames, carbon frames? People want stuff, people buy what pleases/suits them. I'm aware of both sides of the discussion, I'll stick to mechanical on the CX bike but for the road bikes I'd be Di2 all the way and the next bike will be Di2 or even maybe eTap.

WRT to Aero wheels, helmets etc (and I say that as someone who had Zipp 808s on my TT bike and also owns a Giro Synthe helmet) Is that they are a quantifiable performance gain. My mindset has always been that I'm not gaining anything from Di2. That like many, I can set up indexing. And it be fine. Di2 may give perfect shifts every time, but I've not had an experience where I've felt my shifting was sub par. It might need tweeking occasionally, but I imagine Di2 does too.

I suspect that I'll need to ride Di2 and see if I like it.

frisbee said:

I didn't get any warning when my rear derailleur cable snapped...

Oh wait, that's mechanical so it can't have gone wrong!

I cannot remember ever having a rear mech cable snap tbh. In probably 25 years of geared bikes. I guess it must have happened. But I can't remember it. Brake cables were common when they were ste in the 80s.

Maybe you aren't buying decent cables

[JEA1K]

I've had rear mech cables snap ... and only after a couple of thousand mile At the shifter end. This was on DA9000 and happened three times before I had the shifter replaced by a 9001 under warranty. There is/was an issue with 9000 shifters breaking cables but Shimano didn't make any noise about it!

Anyhow, I have 2 x bikes running DA9000 with DA cables and the shift perfectly ... I have yet to try di2 but rarely hear a bad word said about it. For me it's the added complexity I'm shying away from ... in fact I'm more tempted by etap than di2.

That said, the most benefit I can personally see is by having di2 on my winter bike, as it doesn't take long, even with new cables, for gear shifts to feel mushy all too quickly.

[okgo]

Not one single person, bearing in mind I waste a lot of time on forums, and hang around with a lot of riders, not one has gone to di2 and said they would EVER go back to cables.

[bigdom]

My boss did; although he is a prize bell end sometimes.

Couldn't quantify what he didn't like, and had a few issue's... he didn't charge the battery first time out so couldn't go out (so he got very angry) one of the cables wasn't in correctly and too fking lazy to take back the dealer to have it set it up properly. Also, it was a different colour to his other Trek, so he px'd it at road bike exchange in Kingston.

[JEA1K]

bigdom said:

My boss did; although he is a prize bell end sometimes.

Couldn't quantify what he didn't like, and had a few issue's... he didn't charge the battery first time out so couldn't go out (so he got very angry) one of the cables wasn't in correctly and too fking lazy to take back the dealer to have it set it up properly. Also, it was a different colour to his other Trek, so he px'd it at road bike exchange in Kingston.

Thinking about it, I reckon 100% of the negatives about Di2 I've heard are down to user error!

[del mar]

Will this end up like gearbox trends ?

This year everybody wants e-gear systems, yet give it 5 - 10 years and people will be reminiscing over the good old mechanical option...

20 speed manual for me....

[Eddh]

JEA1K said:

bigdom said:

My boss did; although he is a prize bell end sometimes.

Couldn't quantify what he didn't like, and had a few issue's... he didn't charge the battery first time out so couldn't go out (so he got very angry) one of the cables wasn't in correctly and too fking lazy to take back the dealer to have it set it up properly. Also, it was a different colour to his other Trek, so he px'd it at road bike exchange in Kingston.

Thinking about it, I reckon 100% of the negatives about Di2 I've heard are down to user error!

Except the fking dreadful ergonomics of the levers...

[PorkRind]

Got it, slightly underwhelmed when unboxing. Not a joy to look at like the duraace is it?

[okgo]

The new Dura Ace is the most ugly thing I've ever seen. Looks like a mountain bike groupset

[Teebs]

Eddh said:

JEA1K said:

bigdom said:

My boss did; although he is a prize bell end sometimes.

Couldn't quantify what he didn't like, and had a few issue's... he didn't charge the battery first time out so couldn't go out (so he got very angry) one of the cables wasn't in correctly and too fking lazy to take back the dealer to have it set it up properly. Also, it was a different colour to his other Trek, so he px'd it at road bike exchange in Kingston.

Thinking about it, I reckon 100% of the negatives about Di2 I've heard are down to user error!

Except the fking dreadful ergonomics of the levers...

Huh? Dreadful ergonomics? You should try the Di2 Hydraulic levers, truly shocking!

The new Ultegra Di2 is due out very soon, according to Weight Weenies

[IREvans]

100% Di2 every time..! I've never met anyone who's upgraded to Di2 from mechanical, and has gone back...

I ride several times a week in all weather, and have never had a battery on a Di2 bike go flat. Once when I didn't check the charge level before a ride, battery ran low 20km from home, so I just had rear derailleur.

[WindyCommon]

Rich_W said:

And the fact that when it does run out, there appears to be no failsafe option to manually put it into a middling gear to get you home.

BMWBen said:

You get plenty of warning that it's running out. First it puts the front on the little ring and won't shift back, then you've got plenty of shifts left on the rear to get you home. I don't think anyone has ever managed to run one completely flat....

You get about 150 RD shifts once the FD has stopped responding.

[Eddh]

Teebs said:

Eddh said:

JEA1K said:

bigdom said:

My boss did; although he is a prize bell end sometimes.

Couldn't quantify what he didn't like, and had a few issue's... he didn't charge the battery first time out so couldn't go out (so he got very angry) one of the cables wasn't in correctly and too fking lazy to take back the dealer to have it set it up properly. Also, it was a different colour to his other Trek, so he px'd it at road bike exchange in Kingston.

Thinking about it, I reckon 100% of the negatives about Di2 I've heard are down to user error!

Except the fking dreadful ergonomics of the levers...

Huh? Dreadful ergonomics? You should try the Di2 Hydraulic levers, truly shocking!

The new Ultegra Di2 is due out very soon, according to Weight Weenies

Less ergonomics more the HCI side of it, why has it got 4 buttons?! I really dislike the 'feel' of the buttons too when you compare it to SRAM etap which had one big paddle and a nice big click when you press it.