Hi All,

Your thoughts would be appreciated…

I am in the process of getting a custom made bike made for DI2 and will have it in Sept/Oct….

I had planned to put DA Di2 on it. I have this setup on my TT bike and love it.

Now the recent announcement of the new DA DI2 has thrown a spanner into my thinking and presents a number of options that I am weighing up; it is price and timeliness.

My thinking is to have the groupset for about 5 years and with that in mind I have the following options:

Now of course I could wait to the new DA DI2 is available and purchase that…. But that could be 3-6months of having the bike lying around and the new stuff could be “a lot” more expensive than current DA DI2. The other issue is 4 sets of wheels that will be used across 10 and 11 speed bikes and what that may mean.

I could purchase the current DA DI2, which is essentially not upgradable down the track to the new DA DI2, however could be a source for parts for my other bike’s DA DI2 if something breaks and you can no longer readily buy it.

I could purchase Ultegra DI2 (half the price of current DA DI2 in Australia), essentially the cables are the only bit that can be reused if I upgrade to the new DA (correct?). It is a fair bit cheaper and from all reports just as good as the current DA DI2. The wife would be most pleased and may be able to upgrade earlier.

As clarification: I am only talking about Sti's, cables, front and rear derailleur of the groupset.

So….. what option would you go with!

Thanks for your thoughts.

Depends how badly you want to ride your new bike? Do you have other bikes that you could ride in the mean time? Ultimately it seems your end goal is to get the new DA Di2. That is what you really want it seems. So if I was you, and my end goal was the new DA Di2, I would wait out for that to be released as I hate spending money on redundant parts. Always feels like a waste to me. I know you have a brand new frame that you like and really want to use, but I guess it just depends how patient you are. In the end do what you have to do. If money is no problem, get the current DA Di2 now and then upgrade to the new DA Di2 when you get a chance.

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"Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will -- it's only action that can make a man."

Is the new Di2 really that much better than the current version? Do you need that extra cog? Do you feel it's worth it having to buy new wheelsets or modify existing ones so you can have that extra cog? Are you planning on internalising the battery?

I'm building a new bike up as well and I'm just going to go with the existing Di2. Sure, the new Di2 will be released in the next 6 months, but I won't be able to afford it until probably another 12 and by that time I'll most likely be building a new bike anyway! Plus, think of the bargains when people move to 11 speed!

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CAAD10 Di2

im with u... im more than happy with the exiting DA Di2... has many advantages... one being is hackability, which will be largely eliminated with the new DA Di2 (as it has been with Ultegr Di2)
I plan to buy up on the existing DA Di2 now that prices will come down... having an extra gear, and the ability to program shifts doesnt rally bother me much to encourage the very large, extra $$$$ outlay, not to mention the wait....

If you have other bikes to ride, wait.

What is an extra 6 months of waiting?

As you wrote, you plan on using this new set up, including the group set for 5 years. The additional cost of the new DA DI2 and wait time will be amortized over 5 years.

If I got the old DA DI2 and saved the roughly $2000 price difference and got the bike 6 months sooner, I would be suffering buyers remorse after about a year when the new DA DI2 is out. Then, upgrading would end driving up the total cost of ownership.

I went through a similar hard decision six months ago trying to decide between the new and old Red - I waited for the new Red. And, I can see a lot of people who did not wait going through buyer's remorse and would bet that they would be upgrading soon.

Mark

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2011 Cannondale Quick CX-1
2012 Lynskey Helix OS with SRAM Red
2013 Lynskey R330 with SRAM Red Quarq
2013 Parlee Z1 with DA 9070

Out of interest, what do you mean by the hacksbility of DA Di2 and how is this different to the systems used by Ultegra Di2 and the new Dura Ace electronics?

6770 and 9070 use a canbus system inside their switches, while 7970 buttons really just close a circuit and you can solder on as many as you like.

I wouldn't call 7970 "hackable" as the firmware is fixed. I got to ride one of Fairwheel's sequential Dura Ace di2s, and while that was freaking awesome, they had to make both their own software and hardware. It was not like some nerd just changed some 0s and 1s.

To the OP, remember that 9000 has a different entry point for the FD cable, so if you are going for a custom frame and want the build to last for what is basically forever, personally I'd want to have it perfect.

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"Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of a bike ride," said John F. Kennedy, a man who had the pleasure of Marilyn Monroe.

True... I really meant "customizable"... Although if your smart enough, ie the fairwheelers, then it's all very hackable...

I guess the canbus system will be nutted out sooner rather than later as well... Just isn't yet...

I'd be very surpised if the CANBUS was "hacked" before Dura Ace 9000 comes out.

And you have to wonder what the point would be. Shimano is pretty much offering all the buttons you need and you know they are properly sealed.

All in all, Shimano appears to be catching up to Fairwheel.

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"Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of a bike ride," said John F. Kennedy, a man who had the pleasure of Marilyn Monroe.

One reason is so that anyone can do their own WW mods etc, at a fraction of the cost... I'm sure a lipo battery will be a fraction of the cost and weight of the internal battery options...

Another reason would be so existing Ui2 owners can do the internal battery mod without having to use the original battery holder somewhere in-line...

Its great that the shimano guys have incorporated some of which FW have devised... They should start putting them on the payroll!

The magic words are "custom".
If I was going to the effort of building a custom bike, I'd wait and get the 9070. Maybe at a pinch I'd buy 6770 and 11spd wheels to tide me over and then move it over to my wife's bike.

The only reason I can see for buying into 7970 now is if (like me) you're waiting for a specific 2012 'off the shelf' bike to be discounted as the 2013 models are announced/released and don't care about going 11spd for a long time.