Rotor mechanical and hydraulic shifting groupset

[prendrefeu]

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/The_ ... _5299.html

(via maggierose, from the EuroBike 2015 thread)

[FreaK]

I am curious, anyone who really feel they would buy Rotor over any electronic based shifting system?
If yes why, if no, why?

100% I would. Lots of reasons. Maybe the first is my loathing of the very idea of electronic shifting. In that sense it's a somewhat emotionally driven cause.
But i have better reasons too.
-The pragmatic advantages of hydraulic are wonderful, in that the transmission of force in a properly designed hydraulic circuit should be indistinguishable from a solid connection, and in the case of Hope brakes and more pertinently, the 5Rot cum Acros 4GE system, this is exactly the case, IME.
-Not having a battery, just that, all day long, is reason enough to choose the one over the other.
-inherently lower friction than cables. I don't think having a computer tell a servo to do the work for you counts against the friction losses in such a system.
-Lifetime, I can't see an electronic group being a long term investment, 10yrs outdoors seems to me a stretch, but a hydraulic system has the potential to be at least as reliable over the very long term as the bowden cable based systems we're most used to.
-this applies maybe less to the Rotor product so far, but the size of a hydraulic front der can be much smaller not having to convert rotational force into linear motion. Acros definitely managed it. All the electronic front deraileurs are hideous beyond belief! I don't know how anyone allows those things near their baby!!
-Acros also managed to integrate a genius simple method of adapting the system between different cassettes, and maybe if we're lucky so did Rotor?

[prendrefeu]

+1 to all of that.

... adding in:

-It can be tuned. Electronic can as well... barely.... barely, and most people will never touch it.
-It is inherently lighter in weight.
-All of the issues of mechanical that made people 'switch' to electronic are addressed here, yet the system is set-it-and-forget-it-for-years. No batteries, no charging, no "I had to finish the rest of the ride in this gear because of an electronic failure" or "battery lost juice" stuff.

I believe this will be my drivetrain of choice for future builds.

[9734344]

I think a hydraulic system sounds perfect.

I used to work in a furniture shop and we had a both electric and pneumatic powered orbital sanders. The pneumatic powered were much more powerful and weighed about half as much as the electric. It was a joke. A system where the outer does as much work as the inner is ideal, if not perfect and I think Rotor has to be applauded for this effort.

I can't believe some guys are slamming a system that could perform like an electronic group, isn't tied to rechargebles and weigh less - Genius.

An electronic (e.g. SRAM) cycle is heavy for a thousand clicks then it becomes an overweight singlespeed. A mechanical (inc hydraulic) cycle is a featherweight until it wears out. IMHO.

cos you know the plane will never take off

[aaric]

Great potential for maintenance free, smooth shifting. Hopefully the promised weight savings translate into the end product. Realistically, its got to have a couple years of hard use in the real world to verify it works properly, and they sell enough of them to continue manufacturing the groups and parts for it.

Its going to come down to how well the engineering is done. Its real easy to make mistakes in the design or manufacturing that won't manifest themselves initially. I'd rather have a well supported electronically or mechanically cabled groupset from any of the big three over a finicky hydraulic system.

I hope they sell tons of them, and the reviews are positive. I'd love to have more choice, and being able to route everything internally without concern for bends is appealing.

[ipenguinking]

The only thing I don't like is the bulky Magura rim brake calipers. A slimmer and less plastic-like unit would look a lot better on the bike.

[TurboKoo]

I had a chance to test group set on display during show. To be honest I was not impressed, it felt like there would have been worn out cable. I was not sold but I can be biased having ridden Di2 for so long.

[KWalker]

I've heard from a few people that have gotten hands on it that it doesn't shift very nice/smooth. Lots of effort, like a group with a sticky cable. And can only shift up the cassette 1 cog at a time, which is a bit unfortunate. Weight looks great, brakes eh, but the hoods look atrocious. I was excited at first until I heard about its shifting capabilities/qualities

[plpete]

Actually, you can shift up the cassette up to 4 cogs. There is a small allen bolt on the RD that allows an adjustment from 1 to 4. There are small rings indicating amount of cogs you can shift up based on adjustment. Missing this makes me think that whoever installed the system might not be too familiar with it. I'd be very curious to ride the system to get a feel for it. Hydraulics should usually provide a smooth and effortless operation. I personally don't like the very light action of Campy or Shimano and like a bit of the raw mechanical feel so it might be up to a personal preference. Let's hope it was just a shoddy install of a new system. Re. the hood and lever shape, I agree. Pretty ugly IMO.

[goodboyr]

Lol......the orbital sander analogy just made me spit my espresso all over the keyboard........

[Mario Jr.]

There are two versions on display in Eurobike. One with the single shift setting, one with 4 cog shift setting. The latter feeling more smooth than the single shift version because of the slightly different shifting action.
Mind you that some of the elements in the system is still made by rapid prototyping. So with a couple of other refinements, a slightly smoother action can be expected on the final group.

[krusty]

I expect I will be an early adopter. I really like the idea of this groupset.

[KWalker]

I probably will go next gen electronic over this especially if Shimano ever does wireless, but the low weight is pretty cool. Its interesting to think that putting on some low profile carbon wheels, the Rotor group, some carbon bars, and I'd have a bike in the high 12lb range with 0 effort not that that would really help the kind of riding/racing I do but still neat.

[motorapido]

most in depth reviews i've seen so far looks ideal for a cross / gravel bike. apologies if the links already been posted.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2015/08/26/eb1 ... h-details/

my only concern would be the Magura rim brakes, having had a set of the RT6-c they were a pig to set up with narrowish rims.

[ferrarista]

I think they should have done the brake levers with the option to use regular cable rim calipers. Not everybody needs or wants hydraulic brakes. Those magura caliper brakes are too porky at almost 500 grams.