Stranded by Electric?

[Bridgeman]

Has anyone been stranded out on the road, or unable to ride because of electronic shifting failure?

I really like the idea that I can always ride with mechanical, as it is nearly completely reliable. I don't like missing getting out on the road for any reason.

Would like to hear of electronic problem observations.

[mimason]

Stranded but with the caveat that you can still ride in 1 gear and hopefully not user error from failure to charge the battery??

Personal experience is a battery died due to user failure to charge but that was early on with first 4 months. I have been using Di2 for 18 months otherwise without issue.

[11.4]

I've had broken derailleur cables and had to jerry-rig a workable gear. Honestly, electronic shifting is more reliable than mechanical and the backup systems in the rare instance that you run out of power will still let you ride home better than if you broke a mechanical wire cable. Anyway, Di2 lasts several months between charges. If you just recharge quarterly, you'll never have an issue. Learn how to reset the system if you fall and it goes into safety mode (which mechanical doesn't have, by the way) and you're safely home again.

[Calnago]

I ride mechanical, so not me personally, but I know of and have been out with people who have. It is indeed very frustrating because there's usually nothing you can do except scratch your head and limp back home in whatever gear you can then take it in to the shop and hook it up to the diagnostics, then buy a new component to replace the one that failed. It does seem pretty rare however, although one guy I know went back to mechanical because of his particularly bad experience of getting caught way out on a not so nice day. Never again, he said. So even though it might be very rare, if it does happen it can be particularly frustrating depending on when and where it happens.

It's kind of like riding tubulars with no spare. Probably at some point, you will find your self in a situation where you need that spare and kick yourself for not having it. But that's your own damn fault. With electronics, assuming everything is charged and for no fault of your own, you are still susceptible to an inexplicable failure that is unrecoverable from on the road, whereas with a well maintained mechanical system, that is extremely rare except if you crash out or something. And the broken cable argument doesn't work for me because a decent cable does not just break suddenly... it will usually (actually always in my experience) start fraying and breaking individual strands long before it breaks completely, and you can feel that, and see it, so that should be taken care of long before it breaks. If not, then you should probably be on electric anyway.

But at least on electric you will likely have perfect electronic shifting in the interim, versus a mal adjusted mechanical system, which is more common than not. So pick your most likely. If you hate working on your bikes mechanically anyway, then electronic is the way to go. If you enjoy tinkering with mechanical stuff, then there's nothing nicer than riding a perfectly tuned mechanical system. But I think I'm in the minority these days.

[Kayrehn]

Just learnt a lesson on this - I always keep my chain on the small ring-cog combo when not in use (not sure if that helps in reducing chain tension for the rear derailleur but well), and when I tried to shift it to a usable ratio before heading out I realised that the di2 was dead (thankfully it just needed a battery charge). So, something you might want to do to prevent being stranded.

[Calnago]

Maybe I'm missing something. How does keeping your chain in small/small when not in use prevent something from happening when out on the road?

[mrlobber]

Have had a battery die on me 20kms into a 100+ km planned ride. But, since the ride was almost pancake flat anyway, I just continued and rode 80+ that day singlespeed In different circumstances, especially mountains, that would have turned out to be a different story, of course.

[rpenmanparker]

Poor connections between the cables and the control box on the stem can cause inability to shift. I have a riding buddy who experienced that several times until he changed out the parts.

[KarlC]

Been on Di2 for almost a year now and about 3000 miles, never had an issue, battery charges last for months.

[jmaccyd]

Control box played up on my mine causing intermittent gear problems. I just wiggled the wires a bit and everything was fine. Eventually got worse and I was trying to get through to the end of the season until on the way back off a ride lots of wiggling produced a gear change or two. Put it into the shop and a new control box was fitted under warranty. Run out of juice once on a ride leaving me with just the rear change available. That was my own stupidity though.

[joeyb1000]

Three years on Campy EPS. Never stranded. Battery charges last for months.

I did have an early production V1 power unit go bad on me.

[Kayrehn]

Maybe I'm missing something. How does keeping your chain in small/small when not in use prevent something from happening when out on the road?

I have to shift it into something reasonable like 54-15 before I step out of the house, hence indirectly testing the battery charge.

Once out on the road, I assume only an accident will do something like disconnecting cables etc, which is easy enough to fix.

[prendrefeu]

I ride, for now, mechanical throughout all of my setups. However I have been out with friends who were let down by their electronic shifting setups. They continued to ride, so I wouldn't say there were "stranded" at all... just a bit bound to what gear they were stuck in.

1. Wiring issue on this sramagnoloimano from my buddy Al. This was a completely custom set up, so the wiring is his own undoing (or doing). Continued to ride the remaining 150 miles on the day (we had already done 50).

2. Friend riding amongst a group of us heading up Fernwood, Di2, full bling, batteries fully charged... Would not shift at all. Finished the day, slowly, at 53x18. I don't have a follow up to this.

3. Some dude in a group, don't know him so I can't say he's a friend necessarily, riding EPS. At some point along a flat piece of the route it shifted small-small and stayed there. It was like a strange auto shift not by choice, and it would not shift out of it. While not stranded, he abandoned and spun his way back home. I have no follow up to this.

[nismosr]

happen to me on a bad Athena EPS battery died on me .. rode half way of the ride on small/middle .

[mimason]

We need a thread for this prendrefeu.

Campimanoram
Shimsramalnago