I’ve been running Di2 since 2014 on my gravel grinder. It was a mullet setup with Ultegra DI2 / Wolftooth extender, XT cassette, SRAM 1x chainring and crank. I moved up to a clutched XT Di2 rear as soon as it was available. No dropped chains.
The shifting, now 10 years later, is AS GOOD as the day I got it. The battery, also 10 years old, still only needs charging 1-3 times a year depending on how much I’m riding that bike.
I went SRAM Eagle AXS for my bike packing bike.
It’s not as good as 11-speed XT Di2, even though my Eagle is XX. But the small drop in shifting performance (still sky high) is made up for by the ease-of-use. When I bought the bike, it was lightly used and setup as a single speed. Wireless electronic shifting made the switch easy. The most complicated thing was changing the freehub body to XD. After that it was put on the shifter, the derailleur and I was off to the races. I’ve taken it on days-long bike packing trips and I can do it all on a single battery, but I keep a spare on me because it’s so tiny.
My mountain bike has SRAM Transmission on it and it’s as perfect as shifting could ever be (also bought used because the bikepocalypse is real and I might as well take advantage).
With electronic shifting, I love that I can customize it to a level not possible with cabled shifting. I like that I can choose the speed of the shifts, which button does what, and I have my Shimano and SRAM bikes setup to match each other: same buttons for higher/lower gears and the same hold-for-3 multi-shift behaviour.
Now, bear in mind that when I get on my cabled-bikes, I don’t really think “boy this sucks” - but I maintain them all well.
Electronic shifting is incredible. I would never go back for my main bikes unless it gets all cloud-subscribers-enshittified (which is highly probable LOL).
But, being honest, it is truly a luxury and in no way needed. Any bike being ridden is a great bike.
AMA else. I’m here for it.
Aside: hilariously this is the Shimano semi-wireless Di2 in this article which is part of the sad decay of Shimano in general (I’m looking at you unreliable-shimano-power-meter and crank arms coming unbonded). The most popular wireless electronic kits are SRAM and, if I understand it correctly, they’re not affected by this particular issue. Doesn’t mean hackers won’t find one of course!
I’ve been running Di2 since 2014 on my gravel grinder. It was a mullet setup with Ultegra DI2 / Wolftooth extender, XT cassette, SRAM 1x chainring and crank. I moved up to a clutched XT Di2 rear as soon as it was available. No dropped chains.
The shifting, now 10 years later, is AS GOOD as the day I got it. The battery, also 10 years old, still only needs charging 1-3 times a year depending on how much I’m riding that bike.
I went SRAM Eagle AXS for my bike packing bike.
It’s not as good as 11-speed XT Di2, even though my Eagle is XX. But the small drop in shifting performance (still sky high) is made up for by the ease-of-use. When I bought the bike, it was lightly used and setup as a single speed. Wireless electronic shifting made the switch easy. The most complicated thing was changing the freehub body to XD. After that it was put on the shifter, the derailleur and I was off to the races. I’ve taken it on days-long bike packing trips and I can do it all on a single battery, but I keep a spare on me because it’s so tiny.
My mountain bike has SRAM Transmission on it and it’s as perfect as shifting could ever be (also bought used because the bikepocalypse is real and I might as well take advantage).
With electronic shifting, I love that I can customize it to a level not possible with cabled shifting. I like that I can choose the speed of the shifts, which button does what, and I have my Shimano and SRAM bikes setup to match each other: same buttons for higher/lower gears and the same hold-for-3 multi-shift behaviour.
Now, bear in mind that when I get on my cabled-bikes, I don’t really think “boy this sucks” - but I maintain them all well.
Electronic shifting is incredible. I would never go back for my main bikes unless it gets all cloud-subscribers-enshittified (which is highly probable LOL).
But, being honest, it is truly a luxury and in no way needed. Any bike being ridden is a great bike.
AMA else. I’m here for it.
Aside: hilariously this is the Shimano semi-wireless Di2 in this article which is part of the sad decay of Shimano in general (I’m looking at you unreliable-shimano-power-meter and crank arms coming unbonded). The most popular wireless electronic kits are SRAM and, if I understand it correctly, they’re not affected by this particular issue. Doesn’t mean hackers won’t find one of course!