Electric gear shifting?

[Samuel D]

In one sense I agree but the same could be said about any new innovation in cycling,disc brakes,dérailleurs,STI's,etc.

Some of those things do detract from the simple beauty of cycling, but none of them use a power source other than the human in the saddle. That to me is an important distinction. It’s my ‘red line’.

They'll have their own reasons for preference as I have mine.
Mine are battery life both short and long term,breakdowns by the roadside and both initial and replacement lever/mechs/battery cost which though very costly ATM will I'm will come down.
But you just can't get away from the fact that with an electronic shifting bike,a roadside breakdown kills the ride stone dead.
As I cycle for pleasure,whilst a breakdown isn't pleasant 99.9% are repairable within minutes.

In addition, this is what can (will?) happen a few years down the line. It’s a sucker’s game, but I suppose the people who partake are rich enough and thoughtless enough not to mind. The sheer waste of that would bother me even if I could afford it.

That said there's a lot of money sloshing around,whatever the politrickians keep telling us,and with cycling becoming the 'new golf' with lots of people spending upwards of £3k on a bike and most of those having never raced in their lives,there'll be a market for electronic shifting,silly rear cog numbers,crazy servicing costs,£200 shoes,etc,etc.

And £281 cassettes – on sale, that is!

[reohn2]

It's an entropic slope into the arms of dealership Di2 disasters,
with Rapha wrapped,roadies rooted to the spot
....Ah the beauty of the smart phone,
a 4x4 driving assistant to scoop them up in their ever loving arms.......

Elsewhere Bowden cables,sometimes broken,quickly mended...
...unruffled partners free to tend their own hobbies in peace,
one more 4x4 kept off the road as cycling continues uncharged,
and bank accounts remain in a black state


Flippant me?

[Freddie]

I know I'm a pain in the saddle contact zone because I keep saying this, and I'm steadily making myself a laughing stock, but I'm still using friction down-tube gear change levers, and despite all that's been said otherwise on the Forum - what the hell's wrong with them?

They are a long way down, if you ride a big frame and I don't think taking your hands off the handlebars to shift is ideal. That's all I have

[JohnW]

I know I'm a pain in the saddle contact zone because I keep saying this, and I'm steadily making myself a laughing stock, but I'm still using friction down-tube gear change levers, and despite all that's been said otherwise on the Forum - what the hell's wrong with them?

They are a long way down, if you ride a big frame and I don't think taking your hands off the handlebars to shift is ideal. That's all I have

When you say : "That's all I have", do you mean all that you have for changing gear is down-tube friction levers? - I'm not clear what you mean.

If you ride a big frame, then you're a big bloke - presumably - and you'll have longer arms in proportion. Is that not so? I appreciate that "it ain't necessarily so" (as the song goes) - my upper leg is slightly long in proportion to my lower leg, and that's why I need a long saddle lay-back, so I'm not ignorant of the issue.

I have cycling colleagues who have problems with 'reaching down' and until STIs appeared they used bar-end shifters with no issues - in fact a couple of them still do and one, when it came to replacing parts and having compatibility issues, changed back from STIs to the bar ends.........the problem was that the cassette that he'd been using (I think 7 speed) had become obsolete and he'd have needed new levers, rear changer and (he was told) chainset and front-changer. Putting his bar end shifters back allowed him to upgrade to an 8 speed cassette, and a new chain (chain and cassette he needed anyway) for a saving of over £200. I think that sums up my feelings about STIs, and it sums up manufacturers' approach.

I know I've beefed on and on and on about this before - I know I have - and it's boring - but I just don't see the NEED for them. What people want is up to them - but there does seem to be the beginnings of a turn-around back to simplicity and one LBS which had stopped stocking down-tube levers has started again.

Spa, of course, never did abandon common sense.

[robc02]

but none of them use a power source other than the human in the saddle. That to me is an important distinction. It’s my ‘red line’.

And mine.

In addition, this is what can (will?) happen a few years down the line. It’s a sucker’s game, but I suppose the people who partake are rich enough and thoughtless enough not to mind. The sheer waste of that would bother me even if I could afford it.

That (the incident described in the linked thread) was entirely predictable. The waste would bother me as well.

I like high quality engineering that's no more complicated than it needs to be - and I realise there's room to argue over the "needs" bit. Durability and repair-ability are very important to me. Electronic kit tends to work properly or not at all, with poor or corroded contacts causing random swapping between the two. I need a very good reason to do things battery powered/electronically when there's a viable alternative.

[andrewjoseph]

Apart from specialisded uses such as the case of arthritus ........

That's one very significant plus that's been aired before by CJ when the subject has come up on here before,and has got to be worth it for such sufferers.But if people have so much trouble with gear changing the question arises as to how such sufferers find braking

won't necessarily cause problems. depends on what causes the pain, gripping or sideways pushing. i'm starting to get a bit of discomfort in my middle finger of my left hand when on my road bike. doesn't bother me on my mtb. i think it's due to front upshifting with my sram shifters. braking isn't a problem on either mtb or road because i'm using my index fingers only. i have cable disk brakes on the road bike and hydro disk on the mtb.

[reohn2]

Apart from specialisded uses such as the case of arthritus ........

That's one very significant plus that's been aired before by CJ when the subject has come up on here before,and has got to be worth it for such sufferers.But if people have so much trouble with gear changing the question arises as to how such sufferers find braking

won't necessarily cause problems. depends on what causes the pain, gripping or sideways pushing. i'm starting to get a bit of discomfort in my middle finger of my left hand when on my road bike. doesn't bother me on my mtb. i think it's due to front upshifting with my sram shifters. braking isn't a problem on either mtb or road because i'm using my index fingers only. i have cable disk brakes on the road bike and hydro disk on the mtb.

It depends on where the problems are in the hand.
I have joint problems in my thumbs though not enough to cause shifting problems with MTB STI's.Shimano road STI's don't give me any trouble either as I can use all three fingers middle,ring and little,for the downshift/lower gear/brake lever and any one of the same three fingers to upshift with the paddle.
Braking isn't a problem with any type of lever for me but I can envisage some people may have trouble with certain conditions.
I've never used hydro disc brakes(nor feel a need to) so can't comment if they don't need as much pressure on the lever for the same performance.

[Mark1978]

Perhaps if I had electronic gears I would have avoided the situation today where the roads were so rough they've pushed both the front and rear mechs out of alignment!

[andrewjoseph]

Perhaps if I had electronic gears I would have avoided the situation today where the roads were so rough they've pushed both the front and rear mechs out of alignment!

the mechs actually moved on the frame or the play in the system caused ghost shifting?

i've never had the former and only had the latter on the rear on really rough ground on the mtb.

[Mark1978]

No idea but the front is grinding a bit and the rear won't shift into some gears. I'm sure it just needs a tweak tbh

[reohn2]

Perhaps if I had electronic gears I would have avoided the situation today where the roads were so rough they've pushed both the front and rear mechs out of alignment!

I've never had such a thing happen in fifty years of cycling,and I ride some pretty rough roads and tracks,etc.

[Mark1978]

Maybe dodgy gearing (Ultegra 10 speed) then.

[RickH]

... none of them use a power source other than the human in the saddle. That to me is an important distinction. It’s my ‘red line’.

I'm just wondering what equipment you use to do the liposuction in order to get a fuel source to burn in your bike lights?

Rick.

[Samuel D]

Maybe dodgy gearing (Ultegra 10 speed) then.

More likely dodgy set-up, surely?

Electric shifting isn’t immune to problems from rough terrain either. A few days ago Pinot saw his Tour de France GC chances go up in smoke on the cobbles (Stage 4) because his Shimano electric shifting stopped working (a battery or power problem of some sort).

I'm just wondering what equipment you use to do the liposuction in order to get a fuel source to burn in your bike lights?

Lights don’t contribute to the bicycle’s operation (they actually hinder it). Though if you were fussy about that you could use a dynamo hub, as most serious night-time cyclists do.

I accept other people couldn’t care less about these subtleties, by the way. Just putting my own view forward by way of discussion.

[Mark1978]

[quote="Samuel D"]More likely dodgy set-up, surely?

Yes that's what I mean. I suck at fixing this stuff. I always make it worse and in some cases make the bike unridable. So it'll go into the LBS. I wonder if changing the cables is of any help they were last swapped out April 2014.