- Undoubtedly, one of the best things
about electronic gear shifting on bikes is
that it just works almost faultlessly, all the time.
However, if you are lucky enough
to have electronic gear shifting on your bike,
are you actually getting the most out of it?
Well, if you watch this video you will do
because coming up we've got five very simple,
very cool hacks for you.
(rhythmic guitar music)
Shimano Di2, SRAM eTap, and Campagnolo EPS
all have additional amp-plus connectivity.
And in Shimano's case actually,
it's also got Bluetooth connectivity as well.
What that means is you can actually pair up your shifters
with something like a head unit,
so your Wahoo or your Garmin.
And then in Shimano's case actually,
you can also pair up your phone via their E-TUBE app,
and also some third party devices like (mumbles).
Why would you do this?
Well, as a minimum you could set up a page
on your device that has gear information,
so they're telling you what gear you're in.
Which for some people could be absolutely great.
I'm not all that fussed about that,
but for me the battery life indicator is a real boon.
(rhythmic guitar music)
Where as SRAM have gone down
the functional simplicity route, so like Apple if you will.
Shimano have gone down the customizable route,
so I'm sticking with my crappy phone analogy,
like the Android route.
Now, personally I'm actually happy
with the Shimano factory settings meaning
which button controls which shift
and indeed how fast it shifts.
But all of that is customizable
through that E-TUBE app that we just talked about.
However, what I would definitely do is make use
of these so called hidden buttons that you find on the top
of the lever hood on the more recent editions
of Dura Ace Di2 and on the latest Ultegra Di2.
Now, you can set them up,
so programme them to become additional shift buttons.
Like maybe the right one could go down
through the cassette and the left one can go up
through the cassette which I did find surprisingly fun,
actually, when I had it set up.
But more likely I would get it set up
so that I can scroll through screens on the Wahoo here.
How good is that?
You can scroll through screens
without letting go of your lever hoods.
(rhythmic guitar music)
Slightly less exciting this one I will admit,
but potentially more useful.
Always disconnect your battery before you travel.
With SRAM's eTAP, the derailleurs are constantly searching
for a signal from your shifters anytime
that the tiny little accelerometers housed
in the derailleurs detect that the bike is moving.
It is a very simple and very effective system.
However, when you're travelling with your bike
it could mistake being on a plane or being in a car
for pedalling and therefore, when you're
on the way the derailleurs are constantly searching
for that signal again, meaning that you arrive
at your destination with slightly drained batteries.
The solution is incredibly simple.
Just pop off the battery before you travel.
Now, Shimano Di2 is slightly different
in that it's not wireless, but it's still a really good idea
to disconnect the battery before you travel
because your bike whether packed in a bag or in the back
of a car it can get pressed against something.
And then your shifter could get depressed
for the whole journey in fact.
Therefore, you arrive at your destination
with a drained battery.
(rhythmic guitar music)
With mechanical shifting at this point in the video,
I may be starting to get my hands dirty,
especially considering the state of last year's drivetrain.
But the beauty of electronic gears is
that actually you can micro-adjust on the fly.
Now, I don't know why you'd necessarily wanna do
that in normal riding conditions,
but if you do get a new back wheel
or you connect your bike up to a direct drive turbo trainer,
you may well find that actually the gears
aren't indexed correctly on your new cassette.
To remedy that with SRAM eTAP,
you will find a little function button
on the inside of each shifter.
Now you press and hold that in,
and then each time you shift with the lever,
instead of getting a full shift the derailleur
will only move nought .25 millimetres.
So effectively like a quarter turn of a barrel adjuster.
Now, you can actually hear when the gears
are perfectly indexed because your drivetrain
will go quiet instead of making that slight rubbing noise.
With Shimano Di2 however, (bell rings)
you have to press the button on the junction box.
Press and hold it for two seconds
and then it will put it into micro-adjustment,
which is effectively what you've just been doing on SRAM.
So instead of getting a full gear shift,
you'll just get a tiny one allowing you
to adjust the trim of the rear derailleur.
Then to get out of micro-adjust mode,
that's a free wheel and a half isn't it?
Simply press the junction box again.
(rhythmic guitar music)
Sticking with Di2 for a minute.
While little wires admittedly don't look
as clean as no wires at all
we can using a neat little trick,
make them disappear almost completely using this.
Heatshrink, you can get it from just
about any kind of electrical shop.
And what you will do with it
is you can effectively bind your Di2 cable
to your brake cable, in this case your brake hose.
Then you put a bit of heat on it,
so a heat gun or a lighter or something,
very carefully given that your next to your important parts.
And then it will shrink-wrap the two together.
And look super, super clean.
If you've got any electronic shifting hacks,
then do make sure you put them
in the comments section down below.
Share the hack love, we would love
to read about them for a start.
And let's face it, we can get another video going
potentially with them as well.
Do make sure you subscribe to GCN before leaving this video.
To do so just click on the globe.
And if you have some more content
for mechanical gear shift users out there
then let's give ourselves a big up here
because mechanical shifting is still great.
If you want to see a video about gear setup hacks
then click just down there.
And if you're in the mood for hacks generally,
what about roadside maintenance hacks?
We've got five crackers just down there.