eTap Rear Derailleur seems dead

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froze
Posts: 427
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:47 am

by froze

wootenlakeguy wrote:
Failures are never pleasant, but according to SRAM, there's far more in mechanical systems than electronic.


This is marketing BS, anyone with any experience with mechanical, which there are FAR more people experienced with mechanical than electronic will tell you this isn't true. I for one, with over 40 years and way over 200,000 miles of experience with mechanical have never had one fail, in fact one of my groupsets has over 150,000 miles on it alone and never once had a failure. Of course you have to replace cables once in awhile which then require readjusting, but once it's adjusted I've never had to readjust for the life of the cables. So when I hear someone who had nothing but issues with mechanical and now with electronic they're in heaven with never an issue...I mark those comments down as unadulterated BS.

It's funny that there are a ton of mechanical stuff around from the 60's still working just fine, but somehow mechanical are nothing but problems? Let's see how many of todays electronic systems will be around 50 years from now, I bet none will be unless they never were used.

maxxevv
Posts: 2012
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:51 am

by maxxevv

150,000 miles and nothing was changed except for cables ?

You've got to be kidding right ?

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AJS914
Posts: 5392
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

What are people going to do after the warranty period? Is it a $600 derailleur down the drain? Or, is SRAM going to provide some kind of repair service?

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cyclespeed
Posts: 1113
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2016 8:45 am

by cyclespeed

AJS914 wrote:What are people going to do after the warranty period? Is it a $600 derailleur down the drain? Or, is SRAM going to provide some kind of repair service?


That's a good question.

I do like electronic shifting; I have DA Di2 on both my bikes. But I think the public have come to accept a shorter life span for electronic items. Be it Iphones or LED bulbs (10 years? yeah right!), people are being trained to accept failure.

Personally if I get 5 years service from my Di2 without something completely failing, I'd be surprised.

This is NOT a good thing! Customer service from Shimano (in Europe at least) is poor (and seems maybe SRAM too). Given the high prices of this stuff, you'd think they'd back it up for 3, maybe 5 years. 1 is a bit of joke....If the customer demands it, he'll get it in the end - look at the success here with Kia offering 7 year warranties. If he sits back and accepts it, well, guess what, nothing will change.

AJS914
Posts: 5392
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

Early adopters probably aren't sensitive to warranties and things. I just know I'd be pissed if a $600 derailleur turned into a paper weight after 3 years.

Shrike
Posts: 2019
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:08 pm

by Shrike

Got the replacement back now and it's all up and running again. No explanation though, going to shoot SRAM tech centre an email in the chance they'll reply.

Also want to know if it's okay to use it it on a smart trainer like the NEO - maybe the magnets can affect it? Not too sure how robust it is now :o

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kgt
Posts: 8749
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:29 am
Location: Athens, Greece

by kgt

People are ready to accept many, many things that give zero advantage in performance. Electronic shifting in bikes is IMHO one of those things.
That is definitely a marketing success. Persuade people to buy expensive things that are not even as reliable as they should be.

Shrike
Posts: 2019
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:08 pm

by Shrike

Well, this little saga is at an end for the time being. SRAM tech centre replied to my email today, but ignored the question about what was wrong with it. Just said they replaced it whole. Guessing that either means they just quickly sent out a replacement and will find out later themselves what the issue is (that's cool), or they know and just don't want to give out the info for whatever reason (that's cool too, but a bit less so).

Either way they handled it quickly in the end and the dealer was spot on too so.. can't really complain.

They did sort of answer my question about the NEO's magnetic field damaging the hardware inside, but by copy and pasting a part of their FAQ's about radio interference and hacking being extremely hard as they use their own proprietary system.

Not quite what I was looking for but whatever :P

Time to put some proper mileage on it now :twisted:

drhex
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:49 pm

by drhex

@Shrike: used mine over the winter on the Neo without issue. Sample of one, so ymmv.
Florian

Shrike
Posts: 2019
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:08 pm

by Shrike

Reassuring thanks dr! Wouldn't be using it too often, have a winter bike for that, but on steady endurance or recovery rides then like to use the posh bike to get used to the fit. Winter bike is much more relaxed as both me and the missus use it on the trainer (has a 60mm stem on it lol).

Adamchinnyb
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jul 17, 2017 3:34 pm

by Adamchinnyb

Much to the credit of my LBS and SRAM, I now have a new E-Tap RD and after installation it's working perfectly. After my experience I'm still somewhat concerned about durability, but SRAM said this failure mode is extremely rare.


The team i ride for has etap and I'm now having the same issue. I'm the 5th member of the team to have a rear mech failure. I feel SRAM are trying to keep this under wraps.

Failures are never pleasant, but according to SRAM, there's far more in mechanical systems than electronic.[/quote]

I've had more failures with etap in 1 year than I have in 10 years of riding mechanical. I once again feel SRAM are 'jazzing it up' :wink:

colnagoc59
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 1:23 pm

by colnagoc59

My experience with electronic, who needs the extra complexity and uncertainty not knowing if this will be the ride it fails. I agree warranty should be longer 5 years at least but they probably know the stuff will not last that long. Had to sell frame and buy new bike because frame was electronic only had Campy EPS and experienced failure after failure had 3 year warranty (extended to 3 if registered). To make long story short fd they sent me one month before warranty ended failed itself after 40 shifts. Campy said take a jump would not warranty or good will it. Did not want to go to Di2 because do not trust electronic to much can go wrong very fast and then bike is done for weeks. Mechanical all the way no more worrying bike will not shift at which point in the ride. Brain, 1 rear der, 3 front dr, failed within 3 years. Would have gotten expensive staying with it. But each to there own. Like someone side I prefer to ride.

insightt47
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 3:02 am

by insightt47

My etap rear derailleur has failed on me after less than 200km of use. It randomly stops responding and then starts working again. yesterday it happened more than 10 times during one ride.

azmio
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 2:11 pm

by azmio

insightt47 wrote:
Sat Oct 20, 2018 9:00 am
My etap rear derailleur has failed on me after less than 200km of use. It randomly stops responding and then starts working again. yesterday it happened more than 10 times during one ride.
Have you got the replacement from SRAM? I got mine after 6 weeks, and the problem happened once more with the replacement during the 3rd ride. Now that I sent it once again to my LBS, the shopkeeper also do not know when I will finally get a good one. With all the hype with the next AXS, i doubt that SRAM will have any clue in producing good quality product.

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wheelsONfire
Posts: 6280
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:15 am
Location: NorthEU

by wheelsONfire

Overhere it's not easy to get anything from warranty. When i told another dealer that my bike i had ordered from them (this was in Germany), had several battery failures, they immediately behaved like a**holes and.... nothing, no help, no warranty. The did reply to one mail and told me i was a bad customer and didn't wish to hear from me again.
Bikes:

Ax Lightness Vial EVO Race (2019.01.03)
Open *UP* (2016.04.14)
Paduano Racing Fidia (kind of shelved)


Ex bike; Vial EVO D, Vial EVO Ultra, Scott Foil, Paduano ti bike.

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