How bad does external Di2 routing look?

[thegunner]

listen, i'm intrigued by the idea of e-shifting, but i'm not ready to pony up to an etap group.

anyone have an example of clean di2 (on a ti frame would be ideal) that they'd like to share?

[Brendan Quirk]

It looks unbelievably bad! Tried to do this on a steel Dave Kirk and about threw up as soon as I started taking Di2 stuff out of the packaging. Don't do it! (Or if you do do it, please show us what magic tricks you did to make it awesome.) Good luck!

[echappist]

there are people who will drill your frame to route them internally...

that said, it mainly looks bad on the down tube; i couldn't care less about how they look along the chain stay

btw, i'm really hoping Shimano to release wireless Di2 sometimes. Ironic how after 9 years, we are both going back to Shimano from Sram

[thegunner]

there are people who will drill your frame to route them internally...

that said, it mainly looks bad on the down tube; i couldn't care less about how they look along the chain stay

btw, i'm really hoping Shimano to release wireless Di2 sometimes. Ironic how after 9 years, we are both going back to Shimano from Sram

i'm not going to drill my firefly to satiate what's probably a passing curiosity, full stop.

[bikinchris]

Even if Di2 is routed internally, strapping the A junction box to the stem looks like crap.

[11.4]

Di2 external is truly ugly. It also peels loose and creates problems while riding. It gathers dirt. You get more electrical shorts. Just.don't.do.it.

[echappist]

Even if Di2 is routed internally, strapping the A junction box to the stem looks like crap.

the RS-910 handlebar Junction A solves that issue (assuming one's using a bar with internal routing)

[Nooch]

Nick, ride the firefly to my house. Get on the pronto. I'll get on the firefly. We ride. you figure out if you want electronic.

done.

[thegunner]

Nick, ride the firefly to my house. Get on the pronto. I'll get on the firefly. We ride. you figure out if you want electronic.

done.

can't we meet halfway? haha. river road?

[Nooch]

can't we meet halfway? haha. river road?

Pedals, my friend, pedals are the problem.

[livingminimal]

Really bad, but I dont really care if you have it.

[loxx0050]

On a Ti frame (or any contrasting colored frame that you could easily spot the black wires) I'd imagine it wouldn't look great but probably not bad imo.

I installed it on my black Evo external routing and it turned out pretty well mainly because it is hard to spot the wires on the frame. I do have the downtube wire taped with the Di2 wire covers (which are the black one). I also routed the FD and battery cables through opening of the under BB cable guide where the FD cable exits in front of the rear wheel (and behind the seat tube). If I had to do it over again I'd go internal battery instead of external (got the an external for super cheap on eBay putzing around and that prompted me to start building a Di2 kit).

I was planning on getting one of those headset spacer Junction mounts instead of the strap but still haven't gotten around to it. I agree that part looks kind of out of place/crappy but in the end it isn't a big enough deal for me at the moment. Got other things I'm working on upgrading so it isn't a priority right now.

https://i.imgur.com/aOTyJib.jpg

[Jmaxwel8]

I’m was thinking the same question in my head today. I got on YouTube to see what videos I could find and universally every bike that had external routing looked terrible. I quickly decided that wasn’t the route I was going to go.

[godfrey1112000]

And about 32k miles
It has been perfect

[SpeedyChix]

Travel bike, all kinds of weather. the area down below the water bottle gets a bit messy with the extra disconnects for travel but with bottles on the bike and all it's painless and has been flawless. FUNCTION. Bottom line I can't use a mechanical front shifter any longer so Di2 is a must. Had eTap on the bike first, clean and easy but I didn't like it nearly as much. So went with ext. Di2. If it wasn't a coupled bike that I travelled with I'd have run the battery up into the seatpost via a hole in the BB shell.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/7Qv29Q.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pm7Qv29Qj)
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/922/wL9xvu.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pmwL9xvuj)
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/922/dKCI2L.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pmdKCI2Lj)
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/923/8GGmfO.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pn8GGmfOj)

[Jeff N.]

No battery-powered stuff for this guy.

[thegunner]

thanks (shoutout to speedychix for providing the photo i was hoping for).

this was mostly a curiosity for a travel bike, because i hate dealing with the cable tension change on the RD. i think i'll either make the leap to etap or stick with mechanical, too much taping for me.

[radsmd]

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/976/42124338232_2d47497d7b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/27bofaE)Untitled (https://flic.kr/p/27bofaE) by Tan Nguyen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/132076036@N02/), on Flickr

It doesn’t need to look bad.

[bikinchris]

thanks (shoutout to speedychix for providing the photo i was hoping for).

this was mostly a curiosity for a travel bike, because i hate dealing with the cable tension change on the RD. i think i'll either make the leap to etap or stick with mechanical, too much taping for me.

With eTap, I don't think I need to split the rear brake cable to pack my bike.

[sfghbiker]

certainly doesn't look as good as eTap. I have a bike with di2 (with internal routing) and a bike with eTap and I think I prefer the di2 slightly overall but I would never choose di2 with external wires.

[SpeedyChix]

thanks (shoutout to speedychix for providing the photo i was hoping for).

this was mostly a curiosity for a travel bike, because i hate dealing with the cable tension change on the RD. i think i'll either make the leap to etap or stick with mechanical, too much taping for me.

On the ti with the Shimano covers it doesn't show much from eye / ride level. If I'd never used Di2 or had what can be easy b/u pieces should they be needed eTap is a very easy yes. The install is quick, there are no wires. You do need to remove the batteries when the bike is in motion (not riding the bike) to avoid potential charge drain.

I run a smaller front ring setup (30x46) most of the time on the travel bike. eTap FD didn't enjoy that at all. I spent loads of time working on the setup/adjustment of that. Never completely eliminated dumping the chain on some front shifts.

Conclusion: eTap is easy and tidy. Great for a travel bike. No mess/fuss. My strong preference is Di2 so I'm willing to accommodate the added "complexity" of external wiring for flawless shifting and use of my preferred electronic shifting system.