At the risk of flying off topic, I had not heard anything good about the solar on the garmin units–yours actually charges? Maybe I’ll reopen my mind about those. I think my 530 gives me about 10-15 hours of riding if the screen is on. Arizona is hard on batteries.
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Can check the Di2 battery level via the app or via your head unit. I have a screen on my garmin showing battery levels for all my connected devices. The alerts mentioned above trigger when Di2 battery hits 40% (=Low) and 20% (=Critical). I get somewhere close to 1000 miles before hitting 40% so once you get that alert you’re in no real danger of running out of battery before you get home.
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If you have a FD, you ride with a second battery. You temporarily lose front shifts. Or you could pack a spare.
My preference actually lies with the shape of the shifters and SRAM’s buttons. I never liked Shimano’s road shifters, neither mechanical nor Di2. Brakes feel is better, too. I prefer SRAM’s wireless approach, but if it were reversed, it wouldn’t be a deal breaker and I’d ride what I preferred otherwise.
My mountain bike has XTR M9000 mechanical FWIW.
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Speaking of ergonomics, SRAM’s now-official new RED has very different ergonomics, an improved FD and (apparently) hugely improved braking. Too $$$ to be worth upgrading for me, but if/when this trickles down to Force or Rival I’d be interested.
Fact that this new halo group is fully backward compatible with their whole 12s ecosystem (including T-type MTB) is really nice, and something Shimano would obviously lose with hypothetical 13s wireless DA. TBH Shimano is so in the wilderness in the MTB/1x space at this point, this may not even enter into their thinking.
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That’s about right from anecdote from Paris Brest Paris which is approx that distance. Thus riders will burn through a fully charged DI2 battery between 2 to 4 days. Obviously depends on how much you shift over the period.
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And that matters more than batteries or Dot fluid vs. mineral oil 
The best feature is full backwards compatibility IMHO.
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I of course should not be on this thread , as I run friction shifters which work with everything from 5 speed to 12 speed. May even work with 13 speed but haven’t tried. No batteries required
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I dont see this happening because their current wireless battery performance is abysmal. I can’t even finish a ride if I get a low battery warning at the start
I have a 4 battery SRAM charger in my garage. 2 batteries sit on it at all times. 4 more are across several bikes. I never have to extend a cable across the garage. Never have to have multiple chargers going. Can charge in my car vis USB while the bike is on car. It’s the easiest charger I can image. And lest you say “see you spend so much effort charging because the batteries don’t last long”. No, I don’ think I’ve ever had a battery die. It’s the opposite. And if I ever did find that my battery is dead, I can swap one from another bike in less than 10 seconds.
I’ve had both. Everything about the SRAM electrical setup is superior.
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the wireless shifters cause a bigger drain on the system than if they were wired directly. If you wire the shifters to the system, the wireless transmitter turns off and better battery life
Yes, I’ve noticed that on my Ultegra Di2. Yes its MORE than when wired, but not crazy more. I could see them making it optional on MtB as well since it would only be one thin Di2 wire from the shifter to the mech, IF you wanted to set it up that way.
Ultimately, deciding which battery system is “better” is fruitless because it just comes down to preference. I’m a Di2 guy. In terms of having to find an outlet near your bike, I’d suggest a portable battery pack like you’d use when traveling as an option if you are in a pinch.
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You are technically correct, but the drain on the shifters is near zero. I’ve had my force brifters on the same coin battery for 2+ years without ever changing the battery.
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I will say though, if you don’t check them and have to change the battery in the wild, it’s a real pita.
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Im talking about the derailier’s battery. receiving a wireless signal has a power cost as well
It does, but it’s nearly zero while not riding the bike. That’s why the SRAM app tells you to “shake the bike” when you are using their app to adjust it. Vibration wakes the derailleur up and powers on the radios among other things. That’s why it is advised to remove the derailleur batteries before going for a long drive. If you drove 1/2 across the country with a low battery, you might exhaust battery. Never happened to me, but it’s a thing.
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where was I claiming THIS was the problem.
I made a statement that 12sp battery usage is higher than in 11sp due to wireless receiving.
I just dislike Shimano as a company. Despite previously owning several Di2 groups. I think that the intentionally make things incompatible and have poor customer service. Examples:
- About 10 years ago I had to replace a dead Di2 front derailleur. The new generation had just come out so I bought the new version. Everything worked fine and shifted perfectly. Shimano updated the firmware for the system. Once I did that I got a message saying that the FD and RD had to be from the same generation. And my whole bike stopped working. I had to get the new RD to make it work again. And this was a system that, before the firmware change, had been working perfectly. So, this is clearly a case where Shimano CHOSE, for no good reason, to make parts not compatible that should be compatible. SRAM is the opposite- backwards compatibility is always supported as much as possible.
- Shimano forcing Hammerhead to remove Di2 gear info from the Karoo after it being there for several years. Why? This is information that is publicly broadcast and contains nothing proprietary. Why force the issue? The only people it hurts is their own Di2 owners.
- Microspline?? Why? There was already a 12 speed freehub standard in XD and XDr. Why introduce a second system that has no advantages? It just makes wheel sets incompatible between systems. Again, why?
- And, finally, the crankset debacle. Continuing to sell defective cranks for years without fixing, or even admitting, the problem. Then, finally, they require inspections to see if they’ll replace it and, it turns out, that a bunch of people pass the inspection and then have the crank break. Why can’t they just take care of their customers?
Compare that scenario to a decade or so ago when SRAM had hydraulic brake problems in cold weather. They helped their customers with temporary solutions, fixed the underlying problem, and replaced all the brakes with no questions asked.
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- That’s a fairly new thing for SRAM since 12 to 11 etap is not compatible as they operate on different protocols. Agree recently though they have completely turned into a customer centric brand.
- It sucks but once SRAM acquired hammerhead you can assume this was a business/data decision as they didn’t want their competitor getting hold of their IP…also a pretty unique example since Garmin obviously doesn’t produce groupsets.
- Again competitors are not going to adopt each others standards…see: bottom brackets, freehubs, etc. What made XD better than microspline? Shimano have been running 12 speeds on that since their new groupsets were released.
- Agree with you.
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