I think at this point your just picking and being a chronic complainer. All the benefits have been posted above by many, including me. You’ve shown you won’t be happy with any answer, just to continue the nonsense this has turned into.
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Wait a minute, here’s what you said:
Do you mean to now imply you never used Di2? I’m not sure how you could make the above assertions than. Unless you mean to say you used Di2 but didn’t buy it? If so, high five, that’s the best way!
I love the debating on cycling components, but the conclusion always is: “it depends”. Cycling components are on such a high technical level now, that many further developments lead to upsides and downsides.
It’s like the endless discussions on disc or rim brakes, or clincher or tubeless.
In the end, you can write down nice pro and contra lists that lead to nowhere. You have to try it and make your own decision.
Look…either you can say what the benefits are and how much each are worth to you, or you can’t. If you can’t just say so and move on. It’s cool.
Pretty sure this is trolling at this point, would explain a lot
Who are you anyway that we owe you an explanation for how we spend our money? 
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I think you’re trolling in all honesty, but for the sake of entertainment…
The discussion was about Di2 and whether not it’s worth it. I offered my opinion. I explained a few posts ago that I’d chosen something different for my current bike. I didn’t want to derail the discussion with the details about why I’d chosen Ekar, though I’m happy to explain to anyone seriously interested.
You made the assumption that there was ‘prima facie’ evidence that I had bought ‘it’ - by which I assume you mean the Di2 groupset - because someone else ‘told me to’. Not correct. My previous bike indeed had Di2, but it was part of a whole bike which, as a package, best suited my needs at the time, which is why I bought it. Di2 was nice, but wasn’t a deal breaker or a deal clincher.
Now I have come to build up a bike from scratch, I have thought about what I need from the bike as a whole, and chosen what I believe to be the most appropriate solution for my current situation, both in terms of cycling and financial. I still like Di2, a lot. What is it worth to me in my current build? $0 - it doesn’t do what I need it to do. What might it be worth to someone else? Who knows? Why does it matter?
Exactly. This is beyond rediculous. You have to be careful starting any discussion with @Brennus. Always turns sour. I should’ve known better 
I’ve rented Di2 bikes since 2016 (?) and recently purchased a new bike with AXS eTap 12-speed. With 6 weeks of riding I’d like a do over and pocket the $1500 saved if I had gone with GRX 2x mechanical build of same bike. My previous bike had Ultegra 6800 and 8000 and I changed shifting cables every year (~5000 miles), the only adjustment was after a few weeks due to initial cable stretch.
Right now this feature:
is mildly amusing and one of two benefits of having gone eTap - the other is that dumping or grabbing a bunch of gears is slightly easier. Guess I like the shorter throws of electronic shifting, so there’s that. Personally I don’t care about putting shift buttons on the bars. Maybe I’ll add blips or whatever they are called to help justify having dumped $1500+ over mechanical. Not sure how I let a few friends convince me that I’d regret not getting AXS 12-speed eTap. Outside my cadence varies from roughly 82 to 96, and so far I’m not noticing the gear ratio benefits of SRAM.
Honestly I like TyreWiz more than Di2 or eTap. I’d rather have wider tires than electronic shifting. Di2 is not some fundamental change like going from a manual to automatic transmission in a car. Never had a problem with Ultegra, and renting Di2 bikes simply reinforced that belief.
And to your point… Going forward I’d say a little nicer shifting and no annual cable replacement is worth about $500 uplift on a new bike build.
Thanks for adding some wheat to this discussion!
@bbarrera what about full synchro shifting (not sure if SRAM has an equivalent)? I would put that near the top of my list. For me I felt like that is a feature that actually makes you faster. Here’s my list:
1.) Cable routing. $150
2.) Full synchro shifting. $50
3.) Flexibility in shifter placement. $40
4.) Front derailleur shift sound. $10
So like for like I’d pay a couple hundred extra bucks for electronic shifting. At least the first three, in my opinion, can make you faster. But what I found out is that the advantages probably aren’t enough to win the race…but the disadvantages will sure end the race! 
But if the cost difference comes down & I just want a bike to putt around town doing little 50 mile rides or so…I’d consider electronic shifting.
But I’m probably never going to ride a group that gives me a 10 cog so I can have smaller chainrings. That’s just paying up for inefficiency on both ends. Can’t do it!
I’m mildly interested in Compensating mode with automatic 2 rear shifts after I manually initiate a front derailleur shift. Will set that up soon.
Ironically syncro shifting is something I don’t especially like with electronic gears, especially dropping down. It is abrupt and it takes the rear mech a second or 2 to catch up. I also believe it’s a big factor in complaints about AXS chain drops, though I have no hard evidence to back this up. That said, it’s easy enough to turn off. But that is definitely an aspect I wouldn’t pay for.
Also, the efficiency loss of a 48-10 vs a 53-11 has been estimated at between 1 and 10w, depending on your output [c.5w at 250w]. But here’s the thing: to be using that kind of gear, you’re travelling >60kph at any remotely normal cadence. And at that speed, aero’s the thing; like almost totally. Yes, I can see it being an issue for a really high level time triallist, and you wouldn’t use a 10t cog for an hour record {Campanaerts used a 63-15}. But for 99% of us it just doesn’t matter.
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@RecoveryRide I didn’t really like the ‘half syncro’ or whatever they call it that auto adjusts the rear derailleur when the front derailleur is shifted either. I guess I’m thinking about the full synchro shifting that automatically selected the most efficient gear combo as I downshifted or upshifted. Just because it saves watts.
I wouldn’t pay for half syncro either. But if auto-selecting a more efficient gear change saves me a couple watts avg over the course of a race I’ll pay for that. Especially at hour 20 of a 25 hour ride.
Here is Jason’s data.
There are a couple of distinct advantages of di2, but they apply in only a few use cases:
- less force to shift - if you have arthritic hands, this may be a big deal. If you are young and fit, who cares?
- multiple shift points - climbing shifters, sprint shifters, aerobars, base bars
I had been perfectly happy with mechanical 105 for years. But I chose Ultegra di2 for my current road bike, as I wanted to be able to shift from my clip-on aerobars. And I love this aspect.
I am currently looking at gravel bikes, and will probably go mechanical 2x for this.
That said, there are a lot of people who say “I am never going back to mechanical shifting”, and very few who say “I have and hate electronic shifting, and will go mechanical as soon as I can”. And I think that is something that speaks volumes on the user experience of electronic shifting, regardless of how crammed you think people’s posteriors are.
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That’s SRAM 1x vs Shimano 2x data: the worse chainline of the 1x will be a fair part of that difference {hence 14 vs c.5}. I agree it’s not zero though.
Here’s what the industry told me about why I need electronic shifting. It shifts more consistently than mechanical (same way every time no exception), no chance of shifting a bit too far and having your chain rubbing and clicking on nearby gears, able to shift from more positions on the bars, shifting performance is not affected by poor conditions due to contaminated housings, no need to ever change cables, can remove my RD and clean it and throw it back on without having to reset anything, better FD shifting, crash mode for the RD to have more of a chance of survival in an accident, ability to change shifter configuration for which button does what.
But the REAL reason I got it is so I can flex on everyone at the group ride when they hear my FD go “zip-zip”
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I would consider Di2 if I didn’t have a bike with full external routing. I am not competitive in my roadie riding (any road racing is for a random challenge). So the gains of a modern bike (mine is a 2014 I think) is just not worth the investment.
On my MTB, I have ZERO interest on my trail bike, but I would consider it on my XC bike.
I have both, di2 on my outdoor bike and mechanical on my indoor trainer bike. I prefer electronic- I upgraded a Tarmac SL6 myself with di2 by watching Youtube videos. For me the biggest upside is the lower maintenance requirements (indexing gears) and switching gears under load. Will it make you faster? I doubt it, my climbing (lighter components) and short sprints numbers are better (I have a remote switch) but that’s about it.
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Since everything has been said already, but not yet by everyone, I‘d like to question the why behind the DI2 urge a bit more.
As I mentioned, these discussion are a loved part of the sport and it’s awesome to talk about these things. The cool thing is: nearly every part of the bike allows these discussions. So we can continue endlessly!
Carbon bikes are not necessarily faster than alluminium bikes, same for disk vs rim brakes, etc.
In addition, bikes that clearly are faster aren’t alway ridden by the winner.
(Spirig for example won Gran Canaria last weekend on a roadbike, when everyone else was on a TT).
So I’d probably get faster, if I use my time for training/recovery instead of hanging around in the forum or upgrading my bike.
Nevertheless part of living the love for the sport are these talks as well as buying new stuff that is somehow better than the old stuff, or somehow not, at least it looks better or just feels better to have it or ride with it. 
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My favorite thing about shifting with Di2 is out of the saddle being able to slam shifts with just my pinky finger.
Make me faster. Probably not. Make me feel good. Definitely. And if I get more enjoyment riding my bike. Worth it.
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Bike bling is the real thing 
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