AFAIK that’s why Shimano introduced the option to upshift 2 gears on its mountain bike groupsets. (Although I think that feature was usually reserved for XT and higher, going from memory here.) This way you could do the comp shifts in both directions easily.
This. I’m always breaking stuff and wearing things out riding in sand (geology of where I live and my local trails). There is always a better wheel, better shifter, better…. But what I ride it makes sense to stay on the frugal side. I am also a guy who would forget to charge it. So I’ll stick with old school, knowing full well the new stuff is awesome
I love manual transmission in a car, I like paddle shifters with a sequential gearbox. I guess that comes from years of motorcycle riding. Takes the gear grinding out of the equation.
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Yeah, moto’s are fun and I’ve spent plenty of time on MX and road bikes to like that hard toe flick on the with a twisted wrist 
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I had Di2 on my ultra bike but after a couple of training rides I switched it out for 9sp bar end shifted drive train. Have not had electronic shifting on a bike since.
But you probably aren’t going to get a lot of ‘yes’ answers. Ha! 
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I like my wheels with hooks and cars with manual transmissions. Know what the problem is?.. the industry says otherwise. We can bicker all day about mechanical vs electronic, but heres my hot take… Within 5 years, there wont be a mid to high end mechanical drivetrain available on a new road bike. Everyone seems to want internal routing of everything and its getting near impossible for good mechanical shifting on any of the new crop of aero bikes. Sram is down to its 4th tier getting electronic, shimano presumably has something in the works. Similar to hookless wheels, the electronic stuff is cheaper to make, higher profit margins, and you best believe its getting force fed to ya!
That said, I’ll die on this sword…nothing beats a well set-up campy mechanical drivetrain!
2nd hot take of this post…Honda makes the only affordable manual transmission equipped car worth buying anymore
I know this is OT, but which Honda?
Civic Type R! But even going back to the S2000…. Magical
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Got it. Agree on the pick but I consider the Miata and BRZ/GR86 twins right in that air as well. Not as practical as the Civic sedan, but oh man… the fun to be had in any of them
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hard to fault the miata as well! good call
Havnt driven a new gr86/brz but the manuals in the scions/yota’s from the early-mid 2000s left a lot to be desired. The new gr86 has reviewed very well though
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All my manual was under powered except for my 964 but all werefun to drive compared to my automatics. I regret getting not getting a manual for my current ride (to much complaining from the DW). The paddle shifters on my 2016 340i just doesn’t cut it with an idle left leg.
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I get the analogy, but to me manual is akin to friction shifters, trigger shifters, mechanical annd electronic, both feel like using paddles in a car.
I prefer not having to charge any batteries on my bike, I have been out cycling with people before and their shifting has stopped because the batteries have run out, its nice not to have something else to worry about. I have a 2013 era SRAM Red groupset on my bike (still one of the lightest groupsets ever made), and it works just fine, the hassle of charging for me does not outweigh the very marginal benefits.
I do wonder with Shimano/SRAM jumping towards electronic shifting if a hole in the market will appear for smaller groupset manufacturers retain / develop their mechanical groupsets (e.g. Rotor), I am sure they wont necessarily be cheap but I suspect there would still be a market there.
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I’m not sure where the idea of better shifting performance on electronic came from. I don’t remember seeing that claim from the manufacturers, even in their marketing. Electronic has some nice features but the quality of the shifting is no better than mechanical.
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I think, like others have mentioned, that electronic will be the norm on mid-end bikes and higher before the end of 2028. Whether any high(ish) end mechanical will still exist beyond that point is, I think, dubious.
Campagnolo would be the obvious ones to carry the torch, but they have said they aren’t committing indefinitely; rather they will ‘let the market decide’. It would, to my mind, be a great shame if Campag goes all-in on electric. But then there are signs that they are losing the plot at the moment in my view, so who knows (and it’s OT)?
If 105 does ever come out in mechanical 12sp, that would also suggest Shimano may see a future at that level at least.
Having said all this, if Campag would come out with a Chorus level electronic drivetrain at UDi2 pricing, with thumbshifters, they’d have my money immediately.
Interesting interview with brand/product managers from Shimano and SRAM on the advantages of electronic shifting.
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eTap since 2016. No maintenance. No mis shifts especially under load. The eTap sprint shifters do suck however. SRAM Red mech was the best for sprinting due to the engineering of the shift paddle imho (bring it in your grip while in the hooks).
A totally anecdotal reflection, which may or may not have significance:
I occasionally ride with 3 people who I would class as genuinely quick: a male ex continental pro (now in his mid 40s, but still very fit), an elite amateur woman (early 30s), and a national standard junior (17) mtb racer. All run mechanical, the first two out of choice. Their rationale is it’s wholly dependable when travelling to events and you don’t have team support, and that outside of tt-ing it does anything you possibly need. Both the ex-pro and the elite female noted that they’d rather not worry about charging, crash modes, etc, and have gearing systems that they could fettle in their hotel rooms if needs be.
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I have a Roubaix with Ultegra Di2, and bought a Cervelo Aspero with mechanical shifting, and really can’t tell the difference. Well, except for the price difference, but it wasn’t such a massive difference, but still paid a premium for the Di2. Why did I buy the Di2 setup? Always wanted one. It is nice, but a properly adjusted mechanical rig can be just as good, and ‘cable stretch’ is largely a thing of the past with the ‘new’ more capable manufacture of those cables.
There are reasons to only consider Di2, and that being TT setups, and using climbing shifters. You can literally put a shifter ‘switch’ almost anywhere, and have multiple switches where mechanical is obviously much more limited. Electric shifting opens up way more flexibility, but I get the romance of the ‘mechanical age’. I remember my first ‘real road bike’ and its 105 SIS shifting, and it was so much of a market changing (for me) innovation. Sure, there were issues, there always is and will be, but it worked 90+% of the time just perfectly. It made riding long distances easier, it just made riding in general so much easier. Di2 works 99.9% of the time, and it’s perfect spot on which is amazing. But I like the mechanical on the Aspero. From that early 105 to the GRX, shifting has made improvements by leaps and bounds. And adjusting mechanical shifting has gotten easier as well. Di2 is ‘perfect’, but not without its idiosyncrasies. And the idea that the battery likely has less of a charge than you think it has is iikely somewhere in any owners mind. I thought the battery level on the Edge wasn’t necessary, but having started a ride with a low battery and waiting for it to fail (it didn’t) took away from the ride. It’s another consumable that has to be taken into account or it bites you.
Charging, crash mode, cost; mechanical shifting doesn’t have any of those. I feel, melodramatically sure, a weight off my shoulders of the battery potentially dying when I take off on the Aspero. It’s not in the forefront of my thinking, but it’s in there somewhere on the Roubaix. Unless you HAVE to (want to) go electric, there is no need to go electric unless that is all they sell in that quality/price range.
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As someone not that mechanically minded, the SRAM rep pretty much points to why n+1 (if I build myself) will be SRAM. No cabling, no internal batteries. Only the brake hose for me to feck up!
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