In the UK. It might be a price thing, I don’t think there are many bikes over £3k either. What people on here are prepared to pay for their bikes seems mindboggling to me.
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I have had minimal time on electronic other than an ill-fated time on my Warbird GRX Di2. There were nice things about electronic, but things I also disliked.
I prefer the feel and feedback of mechanical broadly speaking. I also think the few times I need to tweak cable tension are minor and less frequent than even charging on my Di2 setup. Those with SRAM are doing that operation far more often than my adjustments (maybe a few times per season).
Sure, plugging in the batteries is easy, but how easy it that to “fix” on the trail or road when you messed up and forgot? I can tweak my shifting on the roll via upper tension adjusters on all my bikes.
For my current needs and preferences, I see mechanical as the clear winner. Electronic adds some major $ for benefits that aren’t of the same value to me.
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Can anyone expand on what they see as the benefits of mechanical (other than cost)? I honestly don’t understand why anyone would prefer mechanical other than that it’s a little cheaper. I know people complain about having to charge batteries, but you have to pump tires, replace bar tape, adjust brakes, etc… People will say it’s not a problem to charge an Apple Watch daily, but also say it’s difficult to charge a bike once a month or so, so to me, I’ve never really seen it as a “real” issue.
Not trying to argue here. I prefer electronic because I like the “set it and forget it and every shift is always perfect” approach. What is the reason you prefer mechanical (other than cost)? Asking because that was the OP’s original question.
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Do the batteries not just get charged with the Garmin, lights, (bone conductor) earphones, etc.? I kinda see with Di2 where I think you have to plug in the bike (effectively), but SRAM it’s removable?
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A buddy of mine described mechanical shifting like driving a manual transmission car…like you’re more in tune with it or something.
I can drive a stick and greatly prefer an automatic 
I know it’s not the best metaphor but it made sense to me.
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I don’t have personal experience, but that process is what I would envision.
The issue is that we know people forget because it gets mentioned in every one of these topics when they come up. I know people here who got stuck on rides with dead batteries too. It doesn’t have to happen, but it still does.
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With Di2 you plug in the bike. With SRAM, you remove the battery and put it in a charger. See the little indentation at the top of this? That’s the clip that holds the battery.
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Fair enough. That was not my experience, but I get that me and my friends don’t represent the whole of the cycling world.
Ditto, that relates to my “feel” comment above. I love manual transmissions in cars and that may relate to my preference on the bike. The Di2 was ambiguous at times with the short button throw and nearly hidden “click”. It is fine on smooth surfaces, but disappears on gravel with my experience.
There is just a massive difference in tactile feel and feedback between Di2 and cable for my experience. I have not spent any meaningful time (other than parking lot spins) on SRAM to form any similar opinion.
I also found the default Di2 shifting assignments confusing and messed them up for weeks. I ended up swapping to a pseudo-SRAM layout that made the large paddles run the RD and the small buttons run the FD.
I did enjoy the “smart” aspect of the semi-synchro mode where it made the rear adjustments to match the FD shift, but that was a minor gain for the other losses per my likes.
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For me it is not about “benefits” as much as “preferences”…I prefer the tactile feel of mechanical shifting.
And yes, being able to just grab a bike and go without worrying about battery charge is nice…last week, I rolled out to the Tues AM group, got a few hundred meters down the road and realized my battery was dead. Had to hot-foot back to the house, quickly swap pedals onto my travel bike and head back out.
Now, shame on me for not checking the battery sooner…but this also goes back to the good folks at Shimano who decided to remove the Di2 connectivity from Hammerhead devices.
But at the end of the day, for me is it mostly about the tactile feel / response of mechanical…especially Campag.
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What you and @FrankTuna said makes perfect sense. Thanks!
I actually completely agree with your point…and maybe this is why I feel strongly that Di2 is “better”. I would never drive a stick again if I didn’t have to. I don’t want my shifts to require thought. I don’t want to know when it’s going to shift or to have to “feel” for it to happen or have to micro-shift to get it in just the right spot. I just want to push the button and have it shift. I totally get why some people sit on each side of this argument!
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Oh god…I hate that. 30 years of shifting habits has me changing two cogs anyway, so I end up with a 4 cog shift. 
Luckily, I never touch my FD here in Chicago…maybe if I was somewhere hillier, I’d get used to it.
One of these days I just gotta go into the app and turn off that feature.
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Like I said, my friends and I complained about it all the time. I think to a person, everyone I know who made the switch thought electronic was the best thing since sliced bread! Just different experiences I guess, but if you go back and read all the reviews when electronic first came out, this was all anyone talked about. I think it probably does come down to the stick vs. auto thing.
This is my big one. I can forget to charge my computer, forget to wear my HRM, my PM might be acting goofy, etc…
But none of those affect my bike. Plus I’ve been burned before… a busted Di2 wire left me stopped at a Gran Fondo start line (I wasn’t about to attempt 100 miles on 34/25 gearing), dead etap batteries had me single speeding more than once.
I’m a terrible planner and mechanical fits my lifestyle much better.
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Yeah, I posted last year about the issues I had when I travelled to FL for work. Arrived and found out that the plastic clamp on my FSA derailleur had broken during transport. $500 RD dead over $.02 of plastic. And since no one carries FSA at a shop, I was screwed.
That is what led me to getting a my travel bike…CAAD 13 alloy frame, 105 mechanical and tubes inside the tires. Dependable, reliable and I can take it into any bike shop to get worked if necessary.
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I went electronic when 6800 came out and have had some version(s) of ultegra di2 on bikes since. Never did e-tap, but was early adopter of axs eagle and more recently AXS force and Rival.
But it’s not always perfect. I was on a group ride last year on my di2 road bike and it started jumping gears. I figured I bent a chain, somehow bent my RD hanger, maybe bent a tooth on my chainring or cassette. I looked at all that and couldn’t find an issue. It was skipping the entire way home. When I got home, I swapped out wheels & chain and checked my RD hanger alignment. Still skipping. Finally, I adjusted the RD and it was shifting perfect again. The lead story here is probably that I’m a shitty mechanic. But to me, the bigger story is that after ~10 years experience with electronic shifting, I had become so conditioned to it working perfectly without adjustment, it didn’t even occur to me that a bike/groupset with over 50k miles on it might need to be adjusted at some point. So yeah, it’s not perfect, but try putting that kind of mileage on a mechanical group without having an issue or adjusting it.
I do all my own bike maintenance and I treat my bikes as tools. I want to ride them, not work on them or clean them. I do not want to deal with mechanical issues out on the road. My bikes are ridden in the rain and grit and lucky to get cleaned a couple times a year. A road bike with an electronic groupset will run perfectly for 10’s of thousands of miles if you just keep a freshly waxed chain on it and maintain your tires/sealant/brake pads. I was lucky to get 5k miles between cable/housing changes on bikes with mechanical shifting. Not a huge deal to replace cables/housings, but it’s not a 15 minute job these days with internal routing, through the headset, etc.
I still have a few bikes with mechanical that don’t get many miles (like my TT bike). If $ were no object, I’d upgrade them, but they work and the maintenance is minimal since they don’t get much use.
If you like tinkering/tuning your bikes, I can totally see where mechanical can help scratch that itch. I can also appreciate how satisfying a well tuned mechanical group can be and get the nostalgia of it all. I still have a warm spot in my heart for that early SRAM Red double tap 10 speed groupset. Total game changer, it was so good for it’s time. That said, I have no interest having a mechanical groupset on any bike that I ride/race and depend on regularly. Maybe on a vintage bike that I pull out from time to time.
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For the price, yes (definitely upfront and over the service life if you are doing the wrenching). Actual performance, just different and I miss the tactile cue with my eTap. Maintenance, just different. Roughly every 6 months to > 2 year for Shimano (rear vs front, chewing through cables and not using Shimano cables anymore so no gunk buildup) vs >2 years plus for non-Shimano vs 2-3 months for my eTap (battery recharge, also for my PMs, so basically none). If I’m starting to adjust my indexing, it’s thx to Shimano for chewing through another cable. Luckily, I never broke a cable on a ride but have ran out of juice on my eTap (but was able to swap out front/rear to finish the ride before I picking up a spare). Only one of my five bikes (four road and one cross) is electronic and I wouldn’t change it. For road bikes, yes I prefer mechanical especially now I am not running Shimano shifters but don’t know if that’s true for MTB (don’t plan to own any in the near-term). If the price drops to a reasonable levels and I get to the point when I’m not doing the wrenching, the equation may change.
If price were no object, I’d be very torn between Di2 and Campagnolo Record. I think Di2 is objectively ‘better’, but it does lack a little feel, and I prefer Campagnolo ergonomics, sound and feel. I think it’s a classic heart vs head.
I prefer mechanical shifting but I think that because the integrated mechanical brake shifter and the opposite shifter are completely different and di2 every time I have used it has been too similar feeling button wise to my nerve damaged fingers. I’ve got used to Shimano/SRAM/Campagnolo/ Mechanical set ups ok but not electronic. The last time I used it though (di2) a couple of months ago was on a week’s hire, I think if it was my bike I’d reprogram di2 to work similar to SRAM or buy SRAM and my dislike would be overcome.