Originally Posted by livedarklions

Bicycle enthusiasm itself is, to some degree, Luddite as even the crudest powered engine is probably more efficient ("better") than human leg muscles.

I have a similar visceral reaction against electronic shifting for a slightly different reason, but it is also a purist approach. OP identifies the "impurity" as being a computerization of part of the workings of the bike, mine stems from a sense that it is wrong to power any part of the actual workings of the bike. Up to now, all the movements of all moving parts were powered directly by the muscles of the rider and/or gravity/wind. To me, that's part of the romance of the machine--it's all human powered. The introduction of any powered motor, even if all it's doing is moving the chain from one gear to another, breaks with that. I realize it's irrational to differentiate between the effort needed to move a finger far and hard enough to move a cable and the effort needed to push a button, but I really want it to be my muscle power that's moving that cable, not some motor that's just obeying a command input.

When I say it's irrational, I mean it, but I'm into biking as opposed to other forms of fitness largely because I enjoy it. Enjoyment is not a "rational" thing.

BTW, those of you using Di2, you're not wrong, you just don't belong to my weird cult of one.