Seattle Forrest

dbf73

Bought first gen Di2 in 2011 w external battery and it has been flawless. At least 1000 miles between charges until this month when the battery only held a charge for a hundred or so and then totally died. Nice thing about living in same city as QBP is that LBS had a new battery the same afternoon

Psimet2001 

Q actually had something from Shimano in stock??!!! Stop the presses!

Seattle Forrest

These kids today, they don't know what presses are. I tell them we used to have smart phones made of paper, we'd buy a new one every day, sometimes they had to stop a production run to update the content. It's not like now where you buy a bike that pedals for you.

Psimet2001 

As a shop owner and mechanic- I would say that Di2 doesn't wear out any faster than a mechanical derailleur. The shifters actually tend to last longer. Not unheard of to have to replace the battery but there's also been some updates to new batteries that are also the brains of the system allowing for more versatility to be added to an old group just by updating the battery.

Also saw an old comment about not going wireless - as most of you know by now a semi-wireless Di2 Dura Ace group is expected to be announced soon. I have absolutely no inside scoop on that but seems to be the chatter. Wireless levers but wired for the derailleurs.

Psimet2001 

I thought of that right after I typed it...

DaveSSS 

I've been through 8-9-10-11-12 speed drivetrains in 25 years, so extreme longevity doesn't concern me. I've already had both Campy and SRAM 12 speed drivetrains. I've never replaced worn out drivetrain parts, other than chains and once a cassette with several Ti sprockets. Never a warranty issue either. Having two bikes in play nearly always helps.

robbyville

Almost but not quite a zombie thread but I’ll add that the guy who bought my bike is still going strong with the DI2 that I installed in 2013 despite the bike having fallen off his bike rack at speed last year and all parts being transferred to the new frame!

dbf73

update - turns out battery not bad. New battery dead after a day. Operation on charged battery fine but quick drainage guess due to partial short somewhar. Since this is my trainer bike now, I’ll wait til outdoor season a regular thing and then investigate further. For now will remove battery when not riding

Kimmo 

As a mechanic, I can tell you that quality mechanical derailers can hold adjustment very well, but it's rare for cables and housings to be installed as well as necessary for solid reliability.

Much like cup and cone bearings being regarded as inferior by many, due to them rarely being sold properly adjusted...

Cables, particularly the RD cable, need to be die-drawn and completely free of kinks. Even the tight curl imparted by badly installing a cable can be problematic (SRAM shifters do this despite your best efforts, but it's okay since they opted to sacrifice low shift effort for high signal-to-noise; they're less affected by this stuff). When this signal-to-noise ratio is too low, the indexing in the shifter doesn't have enough say in the position of the derailer to work crisply (looking at you, 1st-gen Shimano 10s). But the biggest offender is housings, and one issue in particular leads to adjustment going out over time, which folks incorrectly attribute to cable stretch, which is. not. a. thing.

What the thing is: poorly-seated ferrules, generally. Also, when you cut shift housing, the line across the ends of the strands is more or less perpendicular to the axis of the housing, until you bend it. For the RD loop, it can be worth holding it in the shape and hitting the ends with a dremel. Anyway, seating the ferrules - with the cable installed but before adjustment (try to clamp the cable tight enough not to slip but don't mangle it too much), grab the exposed cable at the downtube... just kidding lol, you can't do that these days. The chain should be in the small cog and ring. Now, shift the shifter without turning the cranks - this loads up the cable beyond its normal operating tension and gets the housing bedded into the ferrules, and the ferrules bedded into the cable stops. Plastic and metal ferrules both deform somewhat in this process; you want this to happen before adjustment.

Careful now - you have all this stored energy in your shift system it's not designed to take. Escapement shifters (Shimano, SRAM, some Campy) really don't like releasing a cable that's under a lot of tension and can suffer damage from that - turn the cranks to release that cable tension. Now unclamp the cables and continue from the point most mechanics jump straight to after installing the cables. Hopefully you don't have a munted section of cable just near the pinch bolt, but if you do, oh well, at least it'll stay in adjustment and the ferrules will still be bedded in when you replace the cable. Some folks reckon you should change the housings whenever you change the cables, but I reckon that's going overboard. Friction does increase as the linings wear; you want to replace them now and then. Thankfully, the RD loop is easy to swap and is responsible for a lot of the friction.

Beyond that, there's wear in the derailer pulleys (easy sorted), pivots and FD cage (sadfase). Not to mention drivetrain wear, which can sometimes be missed as the cause of poor shifting. I think it's possible for a chain to show minimal wear lengthwise while having a lot more lateral slop than new, which will definitely affect shift performance, so it's worth considering if everything else checks out. Folks forget to check hanger alignment too.

Just out of interest, have you used mechanical SRAM?

ETA: lol, just realised this is a zombie thread I've already replied to

Kimmo 

Like that FSA vapourware! Makes a lot of sense, sleekest way to do it.

noodle soup

FSA Electronic shifting is real. I've built CF frames that were used by FSA (at Interbike and the NAHBS) for display/demo bikes..

Psimet2001 

Someone just put out a review after having ridden them for a long time. Can't remember who or where but it was well done and the group seemed of interest.

popeye

Welcome to the world of broken shift cables Zombie.

JohnJ80

Not tracking you on this. ETap has no shift cables.

popeye

Read it backwards.

eduskator

Never heard of anyone having issues with DI2. Seems like it's built like a tank.

Kimmo 

Yeah, I didn't mean full vapourware, just so rare that I'll be surprised if I ever see it in front of me.

Anyway, wireless shifters with the derailers wired to a single battery is definitely the smartest way to do it, and FSA did it first, good on em.

noodle soup

I got to play with it for a bit, and it works fairly well.

swapping to a Shimano cassette helped it shift quicker. SRAM 11 speed groupsets also benefit from this change.

veganbikes

My Di2 has been going fine since 2016 or so Ultegra 6870. I had a front derailleur blow up but that was covered under warranty and I can't blame that on the Di2 it was just a bad derailleur that finally failed.

Kimmo 

Every bike can benefit from a Shimano drivetrain. It's a shame there isn't more discernment in the market to give them their due. Who invented HyperGlide, folks?

If you think about it, chains, cogs and rings are almost certainly the part of the bike that relies most on precise manufacturing and nuanced design, the best of which can only be the product of a huge company with engineering resources to burn. Derailers, particularly the electronic variety, would be a close second; at least Shimano has the rep it deserves for those.

And don't get me started on hubs, oh my god. Folks will take any old junk and call it gold.

Seattle Forrest

I know someone who thinks the derailleurs look a little funny.

noodle soup

they do look a little strange, but not nearly as bad as Campanolo and SRAM rear derailleurs.

eduskator

If that someone calls this an issue, he/she must be very spatial!

Seattle Forrest

And if it's the worst problem I've ever heard about anybody having with Di2... 🙂