The road groupset market has been dominated by three main manufacturers for the last few years
Campagnolo – who of course invented gears – Shimano and SRAM
More recently, Rotor have come along with their offering of a hydraulic groupset
But this is the latest one
And it comes from Full Speed Ahead
or FSA
And it's electronic! And it's called the 'K-Force WE'
The WE part of K-Force WE stands for wireless electronic
And the engineers here at FSA have described it to me as like a hybrid wireless
Unlike SRAM eTap it's not completely wireless, but unlike Shimano
or Campag it's also not completely wired
and I'll explain that in just a few moments time
The main hub of this groupset is the front derailleur
It communicates with the shifters up at the front via ANT encrypted technology
But it communicates with the rear derailleur via a wire which travels through the centre of the chainstay
What that means is that from this point forward on the bike there are no wires at all
to do with the gears
So that will make maintenance, or replacement etc, a hell of a lot
easier, especially if you're using a time trial bike
or an aero frameset
So let's take a look at the carbon levers here at the front
FSA are going to make these available in two different lengths
which will vary by 6mm
And for both of those lengths you will be able to vary the reach adjustability
with three different positions
so that means that almost every hand size should be accommodated
and that makes perfect sense
after all, almost everything else that we have on our bike is available in different sizes to suit our own personal body shape
and size
and to do it all you'll have to do is turn a screw which is located inside the rubber hoods
In terms of the shifter style itself, it's a kind of rocker, paddle-style system
And it means that there's quite a distance between one button and the other
Which should mean that even in the depths of winter when you have gloves on, you don't accidentally
shift in the wrong direction
And, incidentally, you will be able to customise how your shifters shift
ie: which one
the right or the left accesses the front or the rear derailleur
And also which button moves the derailleur in which direction
Inside both of the shifters is a CR2032 battery
And FSA have placed particular emphasis on making sure that battery life
is as long as it possibly can be
So apparently they will both last around or about a year
Depending on how much you ride your bike
And also on your own personal shifting habits
And the good news is that even when they do finally need replacing
You will be able to do it yourself – no need to take it down to a shop
And the CR2032 battery is pretty common
So you'll easily be able to source it down at a local shop
And incidentally you'll be able to see your remaining battery life
in one of two ways
Firstly, every time you shift, a light will come on by the 'SET' button
on the front derailleur
Blue means that it's almost fully charged
It'll then go down to green
Then yellow, and the red
Which is an indication that you'll shortly need to change the batteries
At the shifters
Alternatively you can link it up to FSA's software
And it'll give you an exact number of shifts that you have remaining
Before your battery has worn out
The main battery is located here inside the seatpost
And it's a similar size and shape to Shimano's offering
With a lifespan of between 3000-5000km
Again depending on your own personal shifting habits
And also, presumably, on how fast you actually ride your bike
Interestingly, FSA are considering making a time trial specific battery which will be smaller
and therefore lighter
and, again, it seems like a sensible idea
given that you don't need the same battery lifespan in general
for a time trial
From the main battery there is a cable which runs down the seat tube here and connects
To the front derailleur
And as I said before
From the front derailleur is another cable which runs down the chainstay here to the rear derailleur
And in order to charge that main battery all you need to do is
take this cable out of the rear derailleur
and plug in your charging cable
and FSA have designed a rather neat locking system
where the cables enter the derailleurs
So what that means is that when you put them in you turn this screw
And you then can't pull them back out again
until you unscrew it
What this means is that they can't rattle loose
when you're riding down a rough road
Whilst we're down at the rear derailleur we should take a closer look
at it
It's unlike anything else currently on the market
In that it's not a traditional parallelogram design
The chief designer of the groupset, Alfredo, has been trying
to explain to me the ins and outs of the design
but, like many things, it was slightly too much for my brain
But, what I do understand is that the movement is very similar to what you'll find
in lots of robots
So, we'll see how that feels out on our first ride
which we're going to do shortly
The current cage will accommodate all cassettes up to an 11-28
But once again, FSA are working on a cage
Which will accommodate everything
up to a 32
Reason being, that very few people these days are going to choose to use an 11-23
The groupset which we have on the bike here is a very traditional 2 x 11
ie Two chainrings at the front and 11 sprockets here at the rear cassette
Although FSA do tell us that they are once again thinking about
working on a one by eleven
Although presumably that would mean a fairly big redesign
since the front derailleur is so central
To the workings of this groupset
And it is an entire groupset
it's not just the shifters and the derailleurs
It's their own crankset, their own chainrings, their own cassette
And also their own redesigned new brake calipers aswell
Which we'll go into in a few moments time
You will be able to make both individual shifts and also multiple shifts
BY holding down the relevant shifting button
to go down multiple gears in one go
And FSA have deliberately incorporated a slight delay in this
so that you don't accidentally shift two gears when you only meant to do one
And you will be able to do the indexing of these gears at home
All you need to do is put your chain on the sixth sprocket and hold down the 'SET' button on the front derailleur
At this point, your rear shifter will turn into a micro-shifter
and what they recommend is that you move your rear derailleur up your cassette until you hear a clicking noise when you're pedalling
and then click the down shift four times
Then as soon as you press your front shifter
that rear shifter will then micro shift the front derailleur
in this case what they recommend
is that when you're in the big ring there's about a millimeter between the chain and the outside of the cage
and that when you're in the small ring there's about a millimeter between the chain and the inside of the cage
Once you've made that adjustment
the in built trimming will take care of the rest of it for you
when your chain is in the extremes on the rear cassette at the top or the bottom
and I think that is pretty much it in terms of the electronic part of the groupset
but, as I said, there have been some redesigns elsewhere too
so let's talk a little bit about the cranks
They are slightly thinner and that's given them a slightly lower Q-factor
They've also changed the shape where the mount of the chainrings goes onto the cranks themselves
and they say that this helps with stiffness and also with accuracy of powermeters
which are mounted aswell
and then, it's the brakes
which involves moving the bike around
So, what's changed with them?
Well on this bike we have the dual pivot design
And a direct mount design will also be available
And the redesign has given them more stopping power
As well as accommodating slightly wider rims
Which are of course becoming increasingly popular on modern bikes
In order to drop your wheel out either at the front or the back
You simply release the brake with this button here
I'm sure many of you are wondering when disc brakes are going to happen
It is something that they are working on at the moment
And, since they already provide disc brakes to the mountain bike world
It's probably not going to take them all that long
And, finally, you may well have noticed that alongside the 'SET' button on the front derailleur
There is also a power button
A very easy way of completely turning off all of the electronics
And this is pretty good if you're travelling
because what it will do is prevent the wearing down of
your batteries through accidental shifting
Say for example something is pressing up against your shifters
whilst it's in your bike bag
or in your car
So there you have it. I am also in the fortunate position
of being able to take this out for a spin fairly shortly
So make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that video because it will be out very soon