MikeOK

Well my new bike arrived from bikesdirect and I already have a couple questions (stupid questions)
-there is a wire coming out of the seat tube part of the frame How do I get the seat tube in without messing up that wire?
-there are two wires coming from the bars and only one wire coming from the front frame. What do I connect the two and how do I connect them? All the wires have identical plugs on the ends, I can't figure out how to connect them.

Thanks

blamester

Can't help you. But if you add photos someone may be able to.

Marcus_Ti

I'd strongly suggest just going to YouTube and watching tutorial videos.


And buy the E-Tube tool if you weren't provided it. Also the charger.

Steve B.

The seat tube wire connects to the battery. The battery (assuming an internal unit) mounts inside the seatpost. Did they send you a mounting kit for the battery ?, if not you can search on Amazon, find out what seat post size you have. You install the battery, connect the cable and let any excess lengths drop into the seat tube. Buy the Shimano E-tube tool at the same time as it's the only good way to get thencables to seat into the junction box. Yes and a charger. You are dead in the water in short order without a battery charger.

The 2 shift cables are supposed to connect to a 3 or 5 way junction box that mounts under the stem, usually with zip ties, etc.., that junction box also connects to a single wire coming out of the downtube. That DT wire itself connects to a junction box inside the bottom of the downtube, usually right near the b-bracket. That internal junction box connects the shifters to the battery, the F derailer and the R derailer.

At this point I'd be doing a Google for information as to how Di2 systems go together. Probably lots of tips and tricks on You Tube as well, as you are going to need to do an initial setup.

Did not Bikes Directs send any instructions?

MikeOK

I discovered the j box from a you tube video so that solves the two wires coming from the bars.

Now I still have that one lead coming out of the tube on the frame that the seat post slides down into. I assumer it comes from the battery. But you can't get the seat post in because of that wire being there. Is it supposed to go up into the seat post? Then where would it go from there?

MikeOK

I posted before I saw your post, thanks.

MikeOK

The seatpost has a plastic piece inserted into it, I assume they shipped it with the battery already in the post. I got one of the special tools but can't for the life of me figure out how to attach it.

Marcus_Ti

Watch tutorial videos. Seriously.


I hate to be short and rude...but this is the most bare bones basic stuff of Di2 that has been publicly documented on the internet for 5 years. All of us were Di2 newbs once, but at a glance you don't appear to have done any homework at all before spending big bucks on this project.

MikeOK

I expected it to be more assembled. I got it figured out. My main problem was the front j box wasn't in the same package as the other parts. I had to dig around and finally found it in the bottom of the box. YouTube to the rescue again.

MikeOK

Well I got it all put together and the battery was dead. At first I thought I had wired it wrong but after an hour on the charger and it had enough juice to light the battery indicator. It shifted too. The instructions that came with it had such small text that my 54 yo eyes couldn't read it. It was a bit of a pain to get it all together but I think it will be sweet after charging it overnight. I also made the mistake of cutting the packing material with a knife and I accidentally cut the left wire that goes to the shifter. I soldered it back together for a short time fix but I'll replace that with a new one. I've built several bikes from the ground up and rarely have I had a challenge like this. When I first started I didn't even know where the battery went lol.

sch

And nowhere in any Shimano lit I have read (some times 50+ pages of it) does it say that any
female connection is that same as any other, it doesn't matter which female socket you use
when assembling, the internal intelligence sorts things out. If a female socket is left unused
and is exposed best to use one of Shimanos dummy plugs to protect it.

corrado33

Soldering the wire will be 100% fine. No need to replace it.

Lanceoldstrong

I feel your pain there, I'm also 54. These days I keep a pair of 1.25x, or 1.5x, reading glasses in almost every room of the house. In the garage I keep a pair of 2.0x for working on some of the tiny allen screws in dark places that lurk around some spots on the bike.

The good news is the reading glasses are cheap and come in multi packs at a lot of stores.
My wife had me buy one nice pair of Foster Grant reading glasses to meet and please her aesthetics.
Other than the need to do that, the cheap ones work fine.

MikeOK

Probably but it is ugly so I went ahead and ordered one. Cheapest place I found it was $18 for a little wire! I contacted bikesdirect thinking they would score me one for free but they wanted $28. For a 14" wire, man I thought Jeep parts were expensive.

corrado33

Welllll... I'll try not to be mean here, but you were the one willing to pay $18 for a wire just because yours was ugly. The market will charge what people are willing to pay. For example, for years Intel overcharged on their CPUs, but recently AMD released competitive CPUs at much lower prices, so Intel had to slash prices. And I'd imagine most of the people who own DI2 shifting are also willing to pay that extra money.

That wire probably only cost 5 cents to make, and you could have easily fixed it and made it pretty with 20 cent heat shrink tubing from the hardware store.

But then again, I'm a "usefulness over prettiness" type of person. My fastest bike is also one of the ugliest.

Marcus_Ti

All the e-tube harnessing is similarly priced. Specialist waterproof interconnects that are rated as such will cost some money. And in comparison to the $1800 or so a full Di2 groupset retails for...it is chunk change.


The problem with kludge fixes...Di2 is very sensitive to (bad) grounding and it can result in battery drains and missed shifts. You're right to buy a new cable.

fietsbob

People bring Boxed bikes to bike shops to have someone trained to do so, assemble them, for a fee..

MikeOK

Probably. But when part of the sales pitch is "90% assembled, anyone can assemble in 30 minutes" I expect exactly that. I've built several bikes from the bare frame up, but this is my first experience with Di2. After doing one I could probably do another in an hour or so but it definitely took me more than 30 minutes to put this thing together.

squirtdad

head lamp to provide work light is also a huge help

Steve B.

Hate raggin' on you, but this whole thread reads as if you did zero reading ahead of time on Di2 and how it all functions.

I've built up 20 or so bikes over the years and when I contemplated a Di2 group, I did a huge amount of reading and YouTube watching so as to understand what all is involved. I ended up not going electronic but still and seemingly have a better grasp of what's involved.

But best of luck with it.

MikeOK

That's exactly the problem. I expected it to be more assembled. This was kind of a last minute purchase. My first choice was the Ti bike with mechanical but they were out of my size so I bought this as my second choice.

evan326

This should almost be a rule for this sub-forum.

corrado33

No offense to bikes direct here, but you get what you pay for. (I own one of their bikes, but I've also assembled many bikes.)

Glad you got everything worked out.

Lanceoldstrong

I mentioned I'm cheap right?
$5 at my local Ace Hardware, I have used it for a couple years now.
Clips securely on any old baseball cap, and takes AAA batteries.

MikeOK

My replacement wire finally arrived today. Ive been riding this thing with only the rear gears with the front in granny. I wasn't necessarily looking to buy Di2 when I was first in the market but now I'm glad I got it. Very smooth and crisp shifting. No cables to have to mess around with all the time. I probably wouldn't spring for this as an upgrade since I heard it was $1800. I just paid $2,000 for the whole bike.