eTap Rear Derailleur seems dead

[Shrike]

Only had a few rides since installing it and it seemed to be working perfectly. Today it just died, inexplicably, over night. Tried 3 different batteries with it and no light will come on when using any of them.

Is there a way to hard reset it or am I out of action all weekend?

Can hardly find anything on Google and SRAM's manual doesn't have any troubleshooting.

[sungod]

try pairing it again (i resisted the urge to say re-pairing), if that doesn't work i think you need to contact dealer or sram to get a new one

[Shrike]

Shot the dealer off an email. Couldn't re-pair it, holding the button down doesn't do anything

[caballero]

Death to electro groups ! I'd not ride electric groups even if the cost was less than mechanical. I've seen far too many issues with them that are non existent with mechanical.

Cables. For people who like riding their bike(s)

[clipsed]

Death to electro groups ! I'd not ride electric groups even if the cost was less than mechanical. I've seen far too many issues with them that are non existent with mechanical.

Cables. For people who like riding their bike(s)

Hmm i have put ~ 34,000km in the last 24 months on my Dura-ace di2 emonda, and... i would never look back to mechanical.

Each to their own mate.

[wootenlakeguy]

My E-Tap RD also recently failed. It had been installed as part of the upgrade kit about two months ago and had accumulated about 500 miles. My RD failure mode was exactly the same as yours. Charging and replacing the battery did no good. Since the function light wouldn't even illuminate, repairing wasn't possible.

After calling SRAM and determining there wasn't a hard reset option or secret handshake available through the included dongle, I was told to take the dead RD to my local bike shop. Apparently SRAM won't deal with private individuals and insists on having repair or replacements handled through their dealer network.

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.

Additionally, with the way I was treated and SRAM's inclusive two year warranty, I continue to be thrilled with the E-Tap system.

As a counter to the previous comment, at least with this failure mode the RD ended up mid range so I was able to struggle home without too much difficulty. That's as opposed to the last time my RD cable broke on my Dura Ace 9000 mechanical gruppo. When that fails the RD is spring loaded to automatically revert to my 11 tooth cog. That made the remaining 48 miles of my trip impossible when gradients exceeded about 8 degrees. Needless to say, there was a lot of walking and delay involved.

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

[Nefarious86]

Well that makes sense being that they sell 100x more mechanical groups.

[GambadiLegno]

I always have the same opinion with new items like this. Let other people try them, and after 2 years decide if it's a good idea to buy it. Every new system coming on the market has issues, and we're the "testers". There's nothing new that you put on the market and works with no issues and problems in the 1st or 2ns gen.

And Sram eTap isn't the exception. Katusha riders are continually complaining about eTap issues, especially those involving batteries. Some of them train with a pair of new batteries in the jersey pocket, so there's still work to do. IMO groupsets like eTap are definitely the future, they're a good idea, but let the brands solve the many problems they have before buying them. In my case, I still ride a Sram mechanical groupset, although in the future I'll buy for sure an electronic one.

[oldnslow2]

11,000 miles on eTap and not a single problem.

"S" happens, nothing is 100% perfect.

Last year a friend installed a brand new Chevy crate small block. 400 miles later it spun a rod bearing, It was replaced under warranty.

[SL1]

As a counter to the previous comment, at least with this failure mode the RD ended up mid range so I was able to struggle home without too much difficulty. That's as opposed to the last time my RD cable broke on my Dura Ace 9000 mechanical gruppo. When that fails the RD is spring loaded to automatically revert to my 11 tooth cog. That made the remaining 48 miles of my trip impossible when gradients exceeded about 8 degrees. Needless to say, there was a lot of walking and delay involved.

If your ever in this situation again, and the cable snaps but has more than 10cm left intact from the nipple end. Remove it from the shifter and feed it directly into the RD. The clamp it at whichever gear you want.

If the nipple snaps off completely, tie a loop in the cable so it that acts as a make shift nipple. Then feed it directly into the RD.

[Calnago]

I can honestly say I have never ever once seen or experienced a cable break that wasn't long overdue for replacement. Meaning it was visibly frayed etc, long before it broke, and at the time of breakage was usually only being held by a few strands of steel. And under those conditions then shame on the user for not taking care of that long before it got to that point.
But, in the event that it did happen due to neglecting it for that long, the problem was immediately apparent, as was the solution. Very unlike the situation the OP finds himself in now.

[uraqt]

Weren't there some bad DA shifters that destroyed cables in the shifter body or at the exit of the shifter body ?

C

[Calnago]

Yes, not some... but all. It's the way the cable exits out the lever then immediately makes an acute right angle. Shimano came up with a rather lame attempt at a fix in 9001 but really didn't stop the problem. But the cables never just suddenly snap. The strands slowly break one by one. Shifting gets bad as if it needs an adjustment when it's really the broken strands causing binding and bad shifting. If left long enough all the strands of the cable will eventually break through completely but the shifting gets unbearable long before that happens.

[cyclespeed]

Yes, not some... but all. It's the way the cable exits out the lever then immediately makes an acute right angle. Shimano came up with a rather lame attempt at a fix in 9001 but really didn't stop the problem. But the cables never just suddenly snap. The strands slowly break one by one. Shifting gets bad as if it needs an adjustment when it's really the broken strands causing binding and bad shifting. If left long enough all the strands of the cable will eventually break through completely but the shifting gets unbearable long before that happens.

I had this problem with my 9000 shifters - they broke 2 cables in fairly quick succession.

Saw the 9001's and asked Shimano what the deal was; they denied it was to fix the breaking cables and said it was just an 'improved model'. No financial assistance.

Anyway, doesn't help much with Etap rear mechs failing....

[Calnago]

Ha! Yes... it's tough to get a manufacturer to actually admit to a flaw, but the "fix" was simply a redesigned plastic thingy/grommet which I suspect was intended to ease the stress on the cable at that point, I suppose maybe it did a tiny amount but not enough to alleviate the problem.
And you're right, nothing to do with eTap failing but I hate when people say "well, cables can break too" as a defense to the types of issues that can happen when electronic systems fail.