Modern drivetrains - observations from today's ride

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by type2sam

We camped at the D2R2 next to a guy with a super modern electric shifting gravel rig. Beautiful, capable and super light. Evidently his battery had discharged and he couldn’t find anyone to help him recharge it.

He just broke camp and drove home.

Oof, that's a tragedy.

I would have at least done the green river ride in single speed rather than drive home!

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by BdaGhisallo

Would that increase new bike sales?

I think "new" and "digital" sells bikes. But bike sales can only be a part of the business for any LBS. Service is a big part. And I think most bikes shops are worse than most car dealerships. A new chain and cassette is the bike shop equivalent of a new air filter for the engine and cabin.

[Turkle]

Originally Posted by type2sam

We camped at the D2R2 next to a guy with a super modern electric shifting gravel rig. Beautiful, capable and super light. Evidently his battery had discharged and he couldn’t find anyone to help him recharge it.

He just broke camp and drove home.

This is exactly why I opted for mechanical shifting on my gravel bike. Seems that this bike is specifically for riding out in the middle of nowhere. I want the security of cables there.

For my road bike, where I'm generally riding closer to home or civilization, electronic makes a lot more sense.

[fatsanta92]

Originally Posted by MikeD

I don't have SRAM AXS, but a youtube video I just watched says there's LEDs in the shifters that tell you the status of the button batteries and similarly, there are LEDs in the derailleurs as well, so it would seem to be operator error if you don't regularly check these batteries and get caught out with a dead battery.

Similarly, a savvy rider with a mechanical system would know that when the shifting starts to act up, that's the start of a cable starting to fray and should be inspected/changed soon to prevent a broken cable.

Even better, if you have a modern head unit and connect your shifting, it will alert you when the battery is low.

There's even less of an excuse now than ever before for forgetting to charge a electronic shifting bike.

The original Shimano 11 speed needed a BT add-on which was a pain and caused me a few headaches in forgetting to charge but almost all current electronic groupsets can sync with a head unit

[fa63]

I would be curious what the probability of snapping a cable vs. having a battery die is. I wouldn't be surprised if a cable is more likely to break :-)

I have Force AXS on my gravel bike in a 2x setup, so both a front and rear battery. If the front one dies, you can move the rear to the front, shift it into the small chainring, then move it back to the rear. If the rear one dies, you can move the front one to the rear.

On top of all that, I also have a Rockshox Reverb AXS dropper post so I have an additional battery on there, in addition to the spare battery I carry in my bag. So, it would have to be a really unlucky day for me to be stranded due to battery issues

Of course, it would be a different story if the derailleur(s) died due to an electronic gremlin...

Originally Posted by Turkle

This is exactly why I opted for mechanical shifting on my gravel bike. Seems that this bike is specifically for riding out in the middle of nowhere. I want the security of cables there.

For my road bike, where I'm generally riding closer to home or civilization, electronic makes a lot more sense.

[November Dave]

My biggest issue with wireless is that I drive with my bike between RI and VT regularly, and I can't be bothered taking the batteries off. I charge them somewhat regularly as a result of that. Other than that, the Garmin gives me the battery status with plenty of warning if they're getting low, I can swap the front der battery to the rear if needed, and I have an extra battery I can take on any kind of huge ride.

[phishrabbi]

I keep a fully charged AXS battery in my saddle bag. Each time my head unit gives me a low battery warning, I switch batteries. When I get home, I charge the old one and it becomes the new spare. I swap batteries in the shifters each January 1.

This isn't a problem, and those who claim to dislike batteries on their bicycles all seem to have head units, tail lights, HRM's, speed sensors, power meters, which run on battery power as well.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by fa63

I would be curious what the probability of snapping a cable vs. having a battery die is. I wouldn't be surprised if a cable is more likely to break :-)

Cables break of course, but in the past few years (since electronic shifting has become popular), I've seen more riders with dead batteries than I have with broken cables.

I know some who ride with a spare cable "just in case", and others who ride with a spare battery "just in case". Both are small and easy to carry, so there's little reason to pick one over the other due to not being able to have a spare available.

[Turkle]

Originally Posted by fa63

I would be curious what the probability of snapping a cable vs. having a battery die is. I wouldn't be surprised if a cable is more likely to break :-)

I don't know, actually. I've never, ever broken a derailleur cable in my life. I have absolutely had issues with electronics so far in the under one year I've been using them. In my experience, the cables have never let me down, and electronics have proven finicky and unreliable (but super nice when they do work).

That's why I am fine with electronics for my road bike, but wouldn't trust them on a gravel ride far from civilization.

[Lionel]

If you have one main bike or two and live in one location it's all good. In my case I have way too many bikes and live between France and CA. It has happened a lot that the e-shifting bike is dead when I want it. The worse one is my Spec Levo SL S-Works. You have the main bike battery, then SRAM shifter and derailleur as well as the wireless drop post.... So many things can be dead This morning I grabbed my Crumpton, I had not ridden it in months, pumped tires and go. BTW this bike is great and works so well, makes you wonder the value of all the stuff I got since that bike.

[MikeD]

The number of batteries on my bikes is getting rediculous. Headlight, tail light, HR chest strap, cadence sensor, wheel sensor, Garmin head unit, multiple bikes, now add the batteries (4 each) for wireless shifting... At least with wired e shifting, there's only one battery to worry about.

But with internal routing of mechanical cables, including through the stem and headset, has made cable/housing replacement a real chore. My bike with mechanical bar end shifters and external cable routing is great how simple it is to maintain. The Jagwire end to end sealed cables pretty much eliminated dodgy shifting caused by dirt getting into the cable housings.

[Matt92037]

The number of batteries is starting to get crazy. I have a screen dedicated on my 1040 for the battery levels on all my devices. I use “battery level” widget to pick up all the Ant+ devices that take coin cell batteries which helps greatly.

Originally Posted by MikeD

The number of batteries on my bikes is getting rediculous. Headlight, tail light, HR chest strap, cadence sensor, wheel sensor, Garmin head unit, multiple bikes, now add the batteries (4 each) for wireless shifting... At least with wired e shifting, there's only one battery to worry about.

But with internal routing of mechanical cables, including through the stem and headset, has made cable/housing replacement a real chore. My bike with mechanical bar end shifters and external cable routing is great how simple it is to maintain.

[hummus_aquinas]

"It sounds like you're working for your bike. Simplify, maaan!"

[hummus_aquinas]

9spd dura ace downtube shifters are the apex of shifting technology for me, but my mate finished PBP on a canti brake AXS bike which rules. Everything rules.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by Turkle

I don't know, actually. I've never, ever broken a derailleur cable in my life. I have absolutely had issues with electronics so far in the under one year I've been using them. In my experience, the cables have never let me down, and electronics have proven finicky and unreliable (but super nice when they do work).

That's why I am fine with electronics for my road bike, but wouldn't trust them on a gravel ride far from civilization.

I broke a front derailleur cable first shift in my first ever UCI stage race. That was fun spinning on a flat circuit in 39t for a few hours!