For those of you running electronic groupsets, what's the benefit?

I have Etap on my TT bike and it makes position/front end changes super simple. I have Di2 on both road bikes, what I really like is the front derailleur auto trim and shifting under load when climbing/sprinting.

Auto-trim. Simply amazing.

Would def be into an electronic groupo. But, def cannot afford it. Might be able to piece together a group through Ebay for somewhat reasonable though.

I second the cold weather riding benefit of E-shifting and the hand mobiltiy benefits.
With the Di2 and the wifi unit you are able to see how many shifts are made during a ride. I’m not familiar with Etap.
I never really thought about how many shifts are made during a ride until I saw the data on my Wahoo App. There must be some level of benefit in reducing the effort it requires to shift.

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Forgot about the hood buttons, that is really nice to switch between screens, shifting between all your ride information to shifting to power, etc.

I have both:
2015 Specialized Roubaix Pro Race Disc with Shimano Di2 11 speed
2019 Specialized S-Works Tarmac w/SRAM eTap AXS 12 speed

I have 20k+ miles on the Di2. I only have a few rides on the Tarmac so far in addition to pre-purchase testing, but here are a few initial comparative thoughts. I’d be happy to share more later as I get more miles on the Tarmac:

Speed of shifting: +1 Shimano Di2. When I went from mechanical to the Di2 in 2015, it was nothing but amazing. Tap-tap-tap as you shift from gear to gear to gear at incredible speed. SRAM e-Tap had a well documented irregular shifting in their prior generation wireless e-Tap. The new design available in the 2019 is supposed to fix that (there’s a super technical YouTube video showing this to be true). So far it has been “mostly” a great experience, but not the same level of confidence/speed as Shimano Di2.

Intuitiveness and ease of shifting: +1 SRAM eTap. Left side moves up the cassette. Right side moves down. Both together move the chain rings. Incredibly simple. I have been so accustomed to the Di2, that I forget the complexity. Perhaps it doesn’t matter when you get used to either. But where it makes a difference, is that you can’t make a mistake with SRAM (pushing a button vs a lever). Also, in cold weather it is easy to find the lever to shift with SRAM. Much more difficult to click buttons with frozen fingers on Shimano.

AXS 12 speed: The new drive train design - 13 tooth separation in the chain rings and 12 cogs in the cassette - will be a game changer in performance cycling! If you want to understand further, there’s a Forum thread on this topic and a great GCN video (both below). If you want some specific experiences I have had thus far to highlight this, LMK.

Being on lowly 11 speed Dura-ace doesn’t appear to be holding Quickstep back one bit.

Mike

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eTap AXS has only been commercially available for a few weeks. Although I would suspect that several pros were involved in beta testing, I don’t think any of the pro teams have used them publicly yet.

Once you dive into the math on comparative mechanical advantage of the gear ratios between the group sets and the cadences necessary to match each incremental shift and particularly at the upper end (50-10 vs 52-11 on a hilly road race with a sprint finish), it becomes more clear why 12 speed will be preferred.

I’d imagine that both Shimano and Campy are working really hard now on their 12 speed designs. We’ll see in 2 years from now if QuickStep sticks with 11 speed or moves forward.

btw: IMO, for most use cases, including most amateur road racing, the 11 speed Di2 (Durace or Ultegra) is and will remain an amazing groupset.

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I know about the ratios - I did the maths…

I just don’t think it’s a game changer, otherwise it would have changed the game already. Better? Perhaps, but only an incremental improvement.

Mike

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There is one team sponsored by SRAM on the world tour, Katusha, and they are running AXS. Yes, all the teams sponsored by Shimano or Campag aren’t running it… because they can’t, not necessarily because they don’t want to.

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I didn’t realise that number was so low.

Mike

12 speed Campagnolo was released last year and the sponsored world tour teams are already on 12 speed EPS??

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Thanks for pointing this out. I had heard about it but haven’t checked into Campy’s offering. But in addition to the tighter spacing offered by a 12 vs 11 speed (or broader range), is that AXS has the 10 tooth rear cog. So a mid compact 52/36 with an 11 tooth cog still would have a lower mechanical advantage than a 50/37 with and 10 tooth cog.

Whether this is a “game changer” as I have called it or not, of course is a matter of the use case. My personal experience thus far has been a “wow”. But admittedly it is hard to separate some of the advantages I have experienced thus far of the AXS over the Di2 setup I have on my endurance bike vs. the “screaming fast” feeling of the Tarmac :slight_smile:

Trek Segafredo as well I think

You never have to buy another shift cable or index gears again.

Just changed my mtb from mechanical 10 to 11 - gears still aren’t perfect after at least 2 outings.
While on my di2 road bike worst case is you press the button to adjust your shifting and then press a paddle once or twice and done.

You can but a lot of shift cables for the difference in pricing between elex and mech…

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A related question.
Are Shimano ever likely to introduce Di2 for 105?

thats my conclusion too. I’ve ridden a bike with Di2, shifting is awesome. Too many other things in my life competing for $$$ right now, so I’m gonna pass on upgrading and just wait to buy into elec on next bike.

The benefit it sanity…I am the type of person that will fiddle with indexing my gears for hours to try to get it perfect. With Etap, I don’t have to, thus I feel less stressed in terms of avoiding having my OCD kick in.

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What’s the difference in cost for Ultegra groupset - $500? If you were buying a $4k bike I see it pretty worthwhile. If you’re buying more of a 2k bike then yeah it’s a bigger addition.

I was lucky enough to get it as I bought the bike off a friend, so yeah I agree I’d never have had it otherwise as the new bike I would have purchased I would have been trying for highest spec possible in mechanical