Confused as to how often people index their gears. Mine generally don’t need to be touched once the cable had a bit of time to seat.
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Maybe depends how much riding you do and in what conditions. My mechanically geared bike does about 5000 miles a year, including all my winter and wet miles, and on some pretty sketchy roads. I replace the rear mech cable every year because I find if I leave it much longer than that I risk it starting to fray inside the shifter (seems to be a known issue with 105 hydraulic disc shifters) and then it’s a real pain to sort out. If I want to keep the shifting really crisp on that bike I need to adjust it about once a month during the winter months when it’s getting heavy use. By contrast my wife’s bike has the same drivetrain, does maybe 1000 miles a year and all in pretty benign conditions. Her cables are 3 years old and I last indexed it about a year ago and still working fine.
When I had mechanical (R7000 and GRX 800), shifting was usually fine once dialed in.
One (of many 
) things I love about electronic now though is quickly adjusting the indexing when taking my bike on/off the trainer. I use my gravel bike with Force AXS shifters and Eagle derailleur on my trainer. I know the derailler is set at 16 on the trainer and 21 outside, so it always shifts perfectly in either case.
I know you can do this with a barrel adjuster, it was just always a bit more finicky for me.
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I was like you but really most modern frames with internal wiring aren’t really designed for mechanical shifting and shifting is just so much better after I was forced to upgrade my groupset (shifter broke couldn’t find a replacement)
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I’m really wowed by people saying mechanical is simple and only takes a second or two. I rode mechanical bikes for 20 years. I was adjusting or having the shop adjusting them at least once a month. Now you can say I just sucked at adjusting it, but never, in 20 years, did I find that I (or the best mechanics in the best shops in one of the largest cities in America) could get everything perfect in 5 seconds. Never. Not once. It’s more like several minutes. Clean the drivetrain. Put the bike in the stand. Shift around to find the gear(s) with the issue. Adjust. Get one fixed and another one goes off. Get it all correct, take it out of the stand, go shift under tension, or when standing, and you’d find another issue. I felt like it required constant tinkering and most of the time I had a gear that felt off and I would just learn to avoid that gear rather than deal with the problem.
Electronic is set it and forget it. Literally plug the values in the app and it just works. Maybe check it once every 5,000 miles or something.
I would never go back to mechanical unless I was going to do some epic, remote, weeks long event where I was concerned with charging.
Now, if you’re one of those people who enjoys the tinkering, I totally get it, but to say “oh, mechanical just works and you just have to turn a barrel roller one click every once in a while” is vastly different from my experience.
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I agree, after the first ride, cables should be set and good to go for the next 3000 miles. I never ever have to adjust my cables after that. Weird that people bring this up.
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I’m curious where you live? Just wondering because electronic shifting has been around for 10+ years and very popular where I am for at least half of that. I would guess I see it on probably 50% of bikes at a shop ride.
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I dare say it’s 95% mechanical where I live (New Brunswick, Canada). There’s just not very many people with electronic shifting, or higher end bikes at all. Heck - the physical stores in my region don’t carry a single eTap battery in store. They’re special order. Thankfully my bike mechanic (who is mobile) is sane and keeps one on hand for immediate purchase if someone needs one.
Oh, and I prefer electronic over mechanical. 
Even though my Rival derailleur is a paperweight right now.
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That’s very interesting! I’m in Houston, TX, and Trek and Spesh are so incredibly dominant here that I’m sure that skews the numbers.
I’m in the east of England, I would say that 95% of the people on group rides are mechanical, it makes it a nightmare having to stop every mile in order to fix cable stretch
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As I am pondering the same question as OP for me next bike, I have two questions:
- What about battery life? I like to ride long distance (10-20 hours or more). Do batteries last that long? Can you replace them in the field if they are low?
- User serviceability. One reason I like bicycling is because it gives me a sense of self-reliance. Are these systems self-servicable?
Comment of the day!
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Shimano batteries last around 1000km - usually 1 big battery in the seapost, not really serviceable in the field. I would imagine it’s chargeable with a power bank while riding. Unsure about the range of 9200/8100. I had 6800 on my bike back in the day.
Sram, around 500km, but it’s attached directly to the derailleur and can be replaced in about 5 seconds. Shifter batteries last at least a year.
Lael Wilcox races ultra events with AXS and carries a couple spare batteries with her. She won Unbound XL a couple years ago and is currently leading the women’s field at Tour Divide.
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I prefer electronic shifting. Over the years I’ve had Ultegra Di2, Rival AXS and X01 AXS.
Somehow in 2023 I’ve ended up with mechanical shifting on all my bikes, Shimano GRX and SRAM GX. It’s just what was included and I couldn’t be bothered to swap em out. No complaints.
Looking forward into the future, I could see myself getting back into SRAM AXS. The Drivetrain design is appealing.
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Depending on how much you ride, you’re going to get at least a month of battery with Shimano. As mentioned before, the 2 SRAM batteries pop off easily and you can carry a spare if you want. I just have a reminder on my phone on the 1st of every month to charge.
As for serviceability, the indexing is all done through apps on your phone. You just put in the teeth in the cassette, tell it how you want it to shift, and it works. If you need to micro-adjust, that’s just a click too. There is almost no mechanical work you would do.
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My wife was for a while. Then she tried my road bike.
(she raced pro nationals in 2019 on a mechy dura ace cervelo s5 and was called out by the race announcers for it when she off the front of the crit. by then, nobody else in the pro peloton was on mechanical)
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I gotta say, I feel like Sram’s new Transmission really takes it to the next level. No stop screws, no indexing. Literally screw it on, pair it, and go. That’s where electronic shifting should have gone much sooner.
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I’m no magic spanner, but this is very different from what I experience. Not trying to teach anyone how to suck eggs. Plenty of you have more experience than I, but for context my rotine is this:
I only put my bike on the stand when changing cables. When needed, the rest is done on the ground while on a ride.
The limit screws are adjusted once you install the derailleur or when you bump with the derailleur. No more fiddling with limit screws.
The only possible adjustment left is the cable tension… or washing.
If the chain doesn’t go down the cassete smoothly I have too much tension in the cable. If the chain doesn’t go up nicely I don’t have enough tension. Is that simple. 1/4 turn at the time
If I can’t fine tune, either I need to wash the derailleur or change the cables. No other fiddling required.
Like I said, I have a cassette well above the derailleur specs (11-40) and I still have reliable crisp shifting.
Tension adjustment is not something that needs attention all the time. More often you will find the derailleur is not moving freely (washing 
).
I don’t do anything different from this.
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N+1, I’m planning building myself - have to say despite not justifying existing bike upgrades, only having to face into internally running hose and not cables has pretty much confirmed it’ll be an electronic build (SRAM most likely).