It seems Di2 is here to stay.
I tried Di2 on a friends bike a while ago. It seemed like a solution just looking for a problem.
Don't get me wrong. It worked flawlessly.
I think I just don't get it. It was like the Twitter or G+ of bicycles. Nice, but not worth the hype. I felt disconnected from the bike. It just wasn't there. No tactile feed back. No "being one with the machine." Just...nothing. Like a part of the cycling experience just wasn't there anymore. Touch, resistance change. Nothing more.
The thought actually crossed my mind: "This is why luxury car drivers & big vehicle SUV drivers drive so fast...just to feel something."
What's so wrong with plain ol' mechanical? Am I alone in my view that bicycles are the embodiment of efficiency? Cable shifting is the lowest energy state solution to the need for multiple ratios. Objectively then, from an engineering stand point that makes it best solution...Or does it? Why the need for batteries, stepper motors, circuit boards, connectors, radio, public spectrum allocation, protocols, proprietary IP, buttons, and all the other Rube Goldberg complications to move a chain ~5mm to the left or to the right?
I really, legitimately just don't get the attraction to the unnecessarily complicated or solutions to non-problems; The need to be removed from the experience. Even if it is in a field others usually consider me an ultra-enthusiast about.
Maybe the engineering fold in my otherwise smooth brain sees all the failure modes & dependencies as a liability to be avoided where others see "Oooh, shiny!" Magic is cool too, I guess. I'm just not sure what to do with that. (Not judge others, obviously.)
As an all-round bicycle enthusiast of the new & novel, I feel genuinely stupid. Like everyone else sees "it" but me. Seriously. What tangible, real world benefit does electronic shifting offer the end-user over well tuned mechanical? What design criteria or priority makes all the cost & complications of the system a fair trade? Or...is having part of the experience, the needs of the machine, the bicycle itself subtracted...Is that the benefit people seek?
Obviously what ever "it" is, it's mature enough to filter down to 105. That much I understand. All I see though is a big conceptual donut hole. Can someone please explain the "Why" of electronic shifting. Please?
Last edited by base2; 06-30-22 at 01:20 AM.