... and how many others intend on sticking with good old mechanical shifting?

As you all are no doubt aware, electronic shifting has been in the pipeline for well over 5 years now...



For me, although it looks cool enough, I entered the sport over a decade ago when it wasn't too technological. Speedometers were the only pieces of digitized cycle equipment around. No integrated displays, HRMs, powermeters, etc. I already feel old... the dreaded 30th birthday is coming up in July. Yikes!

Personally, I'd like to keep my electronics and my bike as separate as possible I think... while computers have their place, everything else seems to have a chip in it these days... sometimes I think life is getting too complicated... I'm even almost ready to ditch the ergobrain(s).

Also, I'm curious to know on another level, 'cause with the vertebrae project I'm working on, I expect the demand for my ceramic housing will plummet once it comes out.

Thoughts?

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Vertebrae. Precision braking and shifting.

Ultimately we probably won't have any choice.

Batterytime will be an issue... When that is good enough, then why not?

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Hell yeah!

yes, i would buy one.
if the gear changing was as quick as that with cables and as reliable. the only thing is that if gear tweaking on the go is not possible then thats a poor thing. i know there wont be any cable stretch, but things can still need adjusting...

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J EURO

It's one more thing that's bad for the environment and totally unnecessary.

I haven't really followed it that much because of previous failures. Boardman tried it with the Mavic set-up which was an ugly looking thing. What he have now with Shimano and Campagnolo is very good. It's so much better than compared when I started riding a bike in the 60's with downtube shifters. Changing through the levers now is great; much slicker and also safer not having to look down.

I would be happy to use what we have now. I'm not against it, but wouldn't endure having an ugly powerpack on my bike.

Definatly no!

Whats wrong with "traditional" groupsets? Even in my car I prefer to have a manual gearbox than an automatic.

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my canyon

When i was living in Lanzarote, there was, and still is a bike shop there. I cannot remember the name, and its not important. I just knew the owner as 'The BH Guy', because he sold BH bikes. Anyway, one day some of the lads went into his shop, and guess what was in one of his workshop drawers? a full brand new mavic mektronic gear system. The lads couldn't believe what they were seeing. I wonder if he still has it in the shop, or if its just rotted away in a lump of battery acid

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J EURO

Have you ever had trouble with a powermeter or a hr monitor? Well, just think what would happen if that was your shifting. I'm all for new technology but I just hope it works ALWAYS. Thats a lot to ask for, maybe the big S and C can eventually reach that goal but I wont be the first to jump on the wagon. As for not having a choice, the old stuff will be around for a while. You can still get 9spd parts and look on the MTB side - Shimano realized that they cant dictate what we use and now offers choices including all the old stuff (rapid fire, dual control, disk, V, low normal, regular). DuraAce-e will not replace DuraAce. That my say anyway.

as i've said before, hydraulic shifting interests me (less friction and better leverage than cables, but still powered by fingers/thumbs), but electronic seems dangerous and dumb. the only advantage i can see in an electronic setup would be automatic trimming of the front mech depending on the position of the rear, but the potential benefits seem far outweighed by the risks.

if the engineers at shimano and campy are bored maybe they should go work someplace else.

i dont like the idea but we will see. just i like bikes for being powered by me not batteries.
tikka

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I'm all for advancing tech...

But I want it to be and advance / advantage in function, and not simply in ease of instalation or some crap like that. I want it to function in the 99% of a bikes life when it's off the stand and off the scale.

I like Nokon housing with Jagwire cables inside as they shift easier and smoother (and I like the way they look more than any minor weight savings). I don't mind the set up being a bit tougher as the end result is better performance.

Same goes with electric.

If they're better / quicker shifting with less effort, and they have rock solid performance and are made simple enough to not break down (and perhaps with a manual index, so when it does crap out, you can manually select a gear to get home in) and without a weight penalty, bring it on.

That it's electric means nothing to me. I want it to be functionally better and so much so that the threat of malfunction or battery life is outweighed by the benefit.

I see it more useful on the MTB side than the road. I probably touch up the tuning on my road bike a couple times a year because cables stay cleaner, parts don't have as much stress put on them, and I have yet to bend my derailleur hanger on my road bike. That said, when it happens, I want the ability to adjust my trim enough to get down the road. Hopefully they'll build in some on-the-road trim adjustability.

For the MTB, I see it as pure genius if they can get it to work in the wet. In the muddy, dusty, dirty environment of MTB, I'm dying for a truly sealed system; either hydraulic or electronic. Just give me something that doesn't go to 'ell after a day in the mud and I'll be jumpin' for freakin' joy. Just make sure there's a back up system for when something goes wrong that doesn't just leave you with your easiest or hardest gear (ideally, something you could just take a screwdriver to and dial in the best single gear for the terrain you're in).

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2001 Bianchi SL-2 Reparto Corse
2006 Rocky Mountain ETSX 70
2006 Scott Genius RC-LTD
2007 Rocky Mountain Element 70

I'm with PezTech on this. I'm all for new technology but it has to be functional and reliable.

I'll buy it as long as the cost and weight are reasonable. I really hope there's a backup way to manually shift in case the battery dies or something falters. And I hope they won't discontinue manual shift gruppos so we can still have a choice.

*shrug* I won't spend money to do it anyway. I still remember the Zap, even before the Mektronik. Heck, I wanted a Zap equipped bike till all the problems started. I like my current setup

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shut up and ride