JohnJ80

That was what surprised me and was the first lesson learned. My first experience with converting a mechanical bike that would not allow internal routing. The Di2 solution was this kind of taping the cables to the outside of the tubes. That didn't work for me, so the only real choice there is wireless and, hence at time, SRAM 11spd eTap.

The two big surprises that came out of that were the simplicity of the install and how clean the installation was. This was driven home when I converted my other road bike to eTap from Di2. It was again quite easy and when the Di2 cables were removed, the installation was much cleaner with only the brake cables showing. Prior to this, I'd even had a very clean Di2 installation with the Di2 wires being shrink-wrapped to the brake cable until the point it entered the frame on the down tube. When I went wireless, the shrink tubing went away so it was a much more svelte brake cable and no wire transiting to the downtube. I very much liked how much cleaner it became.

When I built my gravel bike, I set that up with eTap right away (I had the old 11 speed set up from my wife's road bike after she went to the 1x AXS set up on her gravel bike. Again very simple and clean.

I would unless you find some absolutely killer deal on a 11 speed group which is unlikely.

There's a lot to be gained from the AXS system and, as such, I'm planning to eventually install that on my gravel bike. That way, when I go bikepacking, I can if I choose, put on an MTB RD and a super wide range cassette. That would pretty much involve changing out the RD, repairing the new one to the shifters, adding a length of chain and the cassette. If I do it right, I could have two quick links in the chain to remove or add that extra bit for touring/bikepacking and it would be a cassette change. Worst case, it's swapping out the chain and RD as well as cassette. I swap cassettes all the time as it is depending on where and what I'm riding so this lends even more flexibility.

We've now had it on my wife's gravel bike for the last couple of years now using the MTB RD in a 1X and it's been flawless. She loves it and she loves the gearing that pie plate size cassette gives her when we're riding in the mountains or bikepacking. So I know it works, and I know it works well.

If you ride a lot then chains and cassettes are largely consumables.

I believe that's correct that you can use your 105 brakes. To use your 105 rim calipers you will need to make sure get the right shifters (hydraulic vs cable). I'm not sure what the group supports and you may need to swap out the shifters to Force or Red (both have rim brake options). On my 11 speed Red eTap on the bike I converted from Di2, I'm using Ultegra rim brakes.

I probably have 20,000 miles on my Red eTap bikes. In that time, I've not had a bad shift and it's never needed adjusting. So I'm an abject fan of electronic shifting.

I've also traveled with these bikes on many occasions where I needed to break the bike down for air travel. It's ridiculously simple with wireless - you can unscrew the RD and put it wrapped safely in the bag. You just bolt it back on at the destination - super easy. No wires and no cables. I'm an electrical engineer so I'm pretty comfortable working with electronics. The Di2 cabling really isn't really set up for frequent connect/reconnections and if perchance the cable end were damaged when removing/installing the RD, it would necessitate both carrying a spare cables and running a spare cable at a remote location which could be a mess and/or time consuming. Eliminating that potential problem is important to me when I have invested considerably money in the travel and vacation. Obvious advantage there to wireless.

Don't get me wrong, both systems are pretty great. But the points in battery redundancy, ability to carry a spare battery, no cabling and easy of installation where all key from my perspective. When you add in the travel for me, it's kind of a no brainer at that point.

tomato coupe

There are situations where buying eTap 11 is a reasonable solution. So, you can stop repeating ... repeating ... repeating ...

Ed Wiser

I just converted my Campagnolo C record bike to electronic shifting. It was so simple to do. Use the Archer electronic shifting system.

https://archercomponents.com/

arizkohli

Thank you everyone. All my doubts are finally cleared up and I can make a proper informed decision now which is veering towards SRAM 12 speed.

I know I know man, feel kinda doh even asking that but I just wanted to be sure before I blow up money on parts that I can't return. I'm buying from the UK and I live in India so the logistics aren't simple and I thought I read something about dongles and keys so was worried.

jpx313

Once you go electric (Shimano or SRAM - had both), you never go back!

Ride215

I recently switch from 105 to Sram eTap AXS. As others mentioned, you need a new Dub BB, freehub body (mine was $99) and DOT brake bleed kit. Because of part shortages, I have a mixture of Rival and Force components. If you don't already have the tools or haven't bled brakes before, you might want to get a LBS to do it. Also, the socket for the dub BB is different than a BSA BB so you'll need one of those too.

While 105 was solid and all you really need, there's simply no comparison. To be able to have your gears displayed on the Wahoo and ride stats to see which gears you favor is invaluable. Also, I have the Rival crank with Power Meter and Sram does a much better job at giving you OEM power meter options as compared to Shimano.

Camilo

Just want to emphasize how easy the wireless stuff is to install. I read up a lot about both Di2 GRX and AXS Etap and my conclusion was confirmed: the Di2 is absolutely doable, but the Etap is dead simple. Glad i went with it.

Yea, those AXS cassettes are damn expensive though. It will be interesting if the future brings a little price competition from other companies for that type of cassette

The MTB and AXS (Flat top) 12 speed chains are different.

My understanding is that the AXS flat top design is to eliminate the "scallops" typical on the top of a chain to make it stronger. It seems stupid that Sram 12 speed chains aren't all the same, I don't understand why if AXS 12 speed needed the flat top, the Eagle 12 speed doesn't. But....


I am unclear how the AXS and MTB and now EXPLR systems interchange, if at all.

Ditto on all of this. On the other hand, if anyone enjoys bike mechanics and learning new stuff give the discs a try. I'd never done disc brakes of any type before, but the printed and online directions are pretty easy to follow. I installed and bled two bikes a year ago and both are working top notch still. I think it was harder for me to tweak the rotors and pad alignment, but in the end that wasn't too bad either There were minor tweaks to one out of 4 rotors, and after the first caliper alignment, the other three were a breeze. Evdrything's stayed silent and true since, including a lot of in and out of vehicles, and packed up for a trip back and forth on airplanes.

DaveSSS 

The axs road chain is the most narrow and has thinner outer plates. The flat top increases the cross sectional area to make up for the lost thickness. I've found the axs road chain to be the quietest chains I've ever used. The XPLR cassette needs the axs chain. The RD is 1x only and will work with other axs cassettes. It doesn't work with MTB cassettes.

The axs FD works with other brands of crank and shifts my 48/31 or 46/30 grx cranks just fine. The axs road RDs can all wrap
42-43 teeth, so a 48/31 crank and 10-36 cassette works, even with the 33T RD.

Calsun

I have too many devices to keep charged as it is and not interested in adding another one when there are non battery options. It also introduces a point of failure much as with hydraulic brakes on bikes.

tomato coupe

Electronic or mechanical, rim or disc -- they all have failure modes.

rm -rf

If you run Di2 wiring, you want to handle the noise from the cables banging around in the frame. It can get annoying. My bike came with Di2 installed, and the cable from the headset to the bottom bracket was noisy. It had the Shimano "cable ties" on the wire inside the frame. plastic cable ties clipped onto the wiring and sticking out at right angles. These are supposed to keep the wire from moving by pressing against the frame. I ended up adding some small foam blocks, slit part way through, and tied around the wire with some strong thread. Then I slid them down into the middle. No noise!

PeteHski

Non-issue of the month ^

The batteries do introduce a new point of failure, but also remove an old point of failure. So it's a wash overall. But I do prefer SRAM to Shimano with its separate interchangeable batteries, as this provides a degree of redundancy. If the rear mech battery fails you can very quickly swap the front mech battery over and ride it as a 1x. It's also easy enough to carry a spare back-up battery if say touring away from home. Di2 is not so convenient in this respect. If your Di2 battery fails out on the road then it's game over as far as I can see. But that probably doesn't happen very often in reality. Probably a similar risk to snapping a mechanical shift cable.

PeteHski

If I was converting from mechanical I would go with SRAM for sure. Wireless setup is by far the easiest installation and as above I much prefer SRAM's battery setup.

bahula03

Perception v reality thing for sure- been around for a while, and think I've seen maybe 3-4 instances of failed Di2 batteries here, a place where people come to discuss problems. I don't know if Shimano put more effort into QC or power management software, but the reliability of their batteries has been way beyond other consumer electronics products.

People have been saying this for a decade now, and it stopped being relevant maybe eight years ago. This thread was started asking for advice or warnings for converting to an electronic drivetrain, and trying to introduce a tangential philosophical discussion contributes nothing to that topic.

PeteHski

Agreed. It's actually pretty rare for modern batteries to spontaneously fail without any warning. Normally they just gradually degrade in their ability to hold charge. This is also a low power application, so not very stressful on the battery. Having said that I do still prefer SRAM's quick release battery solution and wireless setup.

JohnJ80

I had this issue with the Di2 bike I had that I converted to eTap. It was kind of infuriating to me and not an easy solution to fix without taking everything apart.

Yep. But I did have a Di2 battery flat out fail - it happens occasionally. That said, my aggravation with the Di2 battery is that I'd forget to charge it (it's a sizable battery) and then I'd come out to ride and it would be dead and nothing would work. So, since it was a seat post battery, I'd have to charge it and sit around and wait for it be complete enough to do my ride.

The eTap batteries are smaller and need to be charged more often. The aggravation with them is that I have not paid attention and had a battery quit working for me when on a ride. The fix for those is a lot faster - I just keep a charged battery in my seat pack since they're so tiny and it's a 2 minute exercise to swap it out. The other backup option is swap front to back and back to front. You'll have you're RD working if you do it right so you can finish your ride.

So overall, since both batteries can run flat or fail, I think the eTap battery set up is more to my liking. eTap has more backup for a dead battery and is more convenient for me. It's a case of pick your poison but I'd not let either get in the way of going to electronic shifting.

arizkohli

Just an update. I got a great deal on a used 11 speed SRAM Red ETAP kit; FD, RD, Shifters and batteries with charger. I kept my 105 rim calipers, crank and cassette. The installation was a breeze and been working fine for a month.No problem with the feel and modulation of the brakes too as some people had complained.

Average speed up by 5 kmph :-) Just kidding

JohnJ80

Excellent! Enjoy.