- Right now our partner Shimano is the only brand
that has an electronic mounted bike transmission
available to buy.
And by trickling down that technology from the
top level X tier to XT
makes it more affordable and a better
prospect for many riders.
But how does it compare to the good old mechanical gears?
Let's compare the two, see which comes out on top.
(rhythmic brass beat)
So Shimano Di2 is a fully electronic gear changing system.
So off of my bar on the shifter to push the cable
I've got these set of buttons, shall we call them.
They're on a wire to the display unit,
wire goes in there into my frame to a battery.
It's actually set in my seat post,
and then to the front and the rear mech,
they both have these little server motors
that do the work of changing the gears.
And this first became available in 2015
in the highest level componentry X tier.
It's now also available in XT which is
slightly more affordable.
So before we start digging into the features
of each system,
I'll talk about the top line pros and cons,
and I'll start with installation.
That's where I think convention gears win.
With Di2 you've got to find somewhere to fit
junction boxes and batteries inside your frame.
Maintenance, I think Di2 wins that one actually,
'cause once you've gotten that stuff in there
you don't have to think about replacing gear cables.
It just works every time.
Weight is negligible between the two systems,
but price in is a big one, Di2 is more expensive.
So let's start this with the Di2 and let's talk about
performance slightly to begin with.
So you get perfect shifting every time with the Di2.
On the mechanical version, eventually with wear and tear
and weather conditions you're gonna start
to get friction in that cable,
so water will get into the outer cables
and eventually that's gonna slow down the shifts
but also make that shifter feel like it's got
more friction in it,
so it's harder to change gear.
With the Di2, it's consistent changing every time.
Now with the mechanical gears,
you do have to keep replacing that gear cable
to keep it feeling fresh and to keep them performing well.
I would say the inner cable four or five times a year,
the outer once or twice.
So it's a little bit of time, it's a little bit of money
each time you wanna do that,
but you've gotta do it if you want to keep that
performing as well as possible.
Of course the counter argument here
with the electronic shifting is that you have to remember
to charge the system, and not very often.
The battery should last about six months,
but of course that does depend on how much
you ride the bike.
But even people with the worst memories like myself
Should be able to remember to charge a system
just twice a year.
(cheerful piano music)
So to the performance of each system,
while with the Di2 you get really efficient quick shifting,
more about the speed of the shifting in a second,
you actually adjust that if you prefer.
Also really nice features,
you can just hold your thumb on the lever.
So if you wanna go really far up or down et cetera
hold your thumb there and the mech will fire away.
You can limit the amount of shifts if you prefer
using the Shimano E-Tube App.
You want very fast shifts on your mechanical setup?
Well you're going to need a very fast thumb.
Now on mechanical gears you can go up or down
two or three gears in one longer push,
but to go up or down the whole set
you're gonna take numerous pushes to get there.
Of course you're not going to do that very often,
it might be a case of when you're stopping and starting
and then need to change gear, but, in those situations
can take a little longer with mechanical gears.
Synchro Shift.
Now for people who like to run two or three chain rings
on their bike, this gives them the option to dump
that left shifter if they so prefer,
and I do to be honest.
It gets rid of the shifter off the bar
but also gets rid of that cable and that mess.
Makes your cockpit look super clean.
Now this means that you can shift all your gears
just using your right thumb.
Front and rear mechs, and you can set that again
using the E-Tube app,
so you can set exactly where it shifts between
the front and rear and also the different types
of gearing map you want.
So that Synchro Shift option just using the one shifter
for two chain rings and your rear mech
has been used by a few of the top Enduro pros
like Nicolai, Greg Callaghan, and Tracy Moseley.
So it gives them the option of that really nice
small chain ring for winching themselves
to the top of the hills.
Then sticking up is the big chain ring for the stages,
however, one disadvantage of that could be,
if you mis-shift, the chain's gonna drop down
onto that smaller chain ring,
and that does give you a lot of slack,
and the chain could come off.
However, you can stop that by actually getting up into
the big chain ring and then playing with your settings
on the display, setting it to manual, so then the
gear shifter will only move the rear mech
so there's no danger of that front mech moving.
Now if you wanna run two or three chain rings
on a mechanical setup, you're gonna have to run
a left shifter.
That's not a huge problem, of course you get that little
bit more mess with the cables,
a little bit more weight.
But for me the biggest reason I don't like that
is I like my dropper lever to be under there
on the left-hand side, so I'm gonna have to put that
somewhere else if I'm running a left-hand shifter.
Now sometimes it's the smaller details that add up
to a nice user experience,
and I put this one in that category.
So the front mech auto-trims.
That means when you're shifting on the rear,
so your chain on is moving up and down,
sometimes on the mechanical version
your chain will actually start rubbing on that
front mech cage, make a little bit of a noise.
Now on the Di2 version your front mech will auto-trim,
meaning that it moves minutely when you shift on the rear
to make sure that chain never rubs, never get any noise.
Small detail, but a very nice one.
Auto-trim on a mechanical front mech, no way.
It's more like manual trim,
you're gonna have to give that lever a little push,
what a chore.
(cheerful piano music)
So to the price in which is a consideration
for most of us of course,
not all of us, some people have deep pockets.
And it's available currently in XTR,
which stands for XT Race,
and the slightly lower group set XT.
So the XT group set costs about 1600 pounds
for the Di2 version,
whereas the mechanical version costs about 700.
So it's double plus a bit for the Di2 version.
The premium XTR version comes in at 1939 pounds for Di2,
whereas mechanical comes in at 976.
But, if you're wanting to upgrade to Di2 gears
there is a cheaper and easier way of doing it
if you've got the chain set and the cassette
and chain already, then you can buy a gear set.
So that just comprises of the mech, the battery,
everything you need to go to Di2 gears.
Another benefit of the Di2 system is it's customizable
using Shimano's E-Tube app.
All sorts of things can be set
like I've talked a little bit already,
you can actually choose what gear ratio you want
on that front mech to change.
You can also choose how fast you want the gear to shift,
you got five different settings.
Personally I like it on very fast, however you can mis-shift
if you hold that lever a little bit too long,
so in that case you might want to slow it down
a little bit.
You can also choose exactly what the lever does,
so which button goes up and which goes down,
do you want the display to stay on
for a certain amount of time,
do you want it to beep?
All sorts of things can be set up using the E-Tube App.
So display on the bars gives you all the information
you need to know, from the gear you're in,
the battery level, and the shift mode you're in.
It also has ANT connectivity,
so it can send the information to a byte computer
if you wish.
Of course on mechanical gears all you really need to know
is what gear you're in,
so some shifters will have a window that'll tell you that.
Alternatively you could take a look down at your cassette,
but do you really need to know?
I guess occasionally it's nice to know
if you've got a gear left,
but other than that, you don't really need to know.
(cheerful piano music)
So to the weight you're actually adding
a couple of components, you've got the display unit
and you've got a battery,
which is a very light battery I've got to say.
You've also got a little bit more weight on the mechs
just down to these motors.
However the shifters are much lighter
'cause all they are really is electronic buttons.
Mechanical shifters have all sorts of complicated parts,
springs in there.
It's actually a lot lighter again if you're running
a 2 by system and you decide to run Synchro Shift,
'cause you've only got one shifter up on the bars.
All in all it's about 80 or 90 grammes heavier
to run Di2.
That does depend on length of cables
and things that are coming off there.
So it's a pretty minimal weight increase.
So when it comes to actually indexing the gears,
that's where I think the mechanical versions
are slightly more user friendly.
Using the adjuster you can make differences
to the cable tension and therefore it actually adjusts
where the mechs are in that system to line them up
with the sprockets.
In the Di2 version actually you need to hold onto
this button on the bottom of the display
which brings up the settings page,
and then you use your shifter up or down
to therefore move the mechs minutely again
to line them up perfectly with the sprockets.
So slightly more difficult than doing it with a cable,
but you'll soon learn how to do that.
Only other disadvantages from Di2,
well, you've got to find somewhere to put your battery,
although there are some nice integrated options,
you can put it in the head tube using the special top cap
or in this case I've got it in my Pro Tharsis seat post
which is designed for doing that.
So it's a fixed seat post and the battery just goes
in the bottom of that.
You can stick them on the side of your bottle cages,
but externally it's gonna not look as nice
as it being hidden away somewhere.
Of course like all the premium cycling products
it's gonna be expensive.
I've got the premium XTR version on this bike
which is very nice.
But you can get it as well in XT so the price point
is coming down.
So there is your weights and prices,
it'll be interesting to see where Di2 goes next.
Does it go to Saint, the downhill group set?
Or does it trickle down even further to SLX?
Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
So what wins out of mechanical and electronic gears?
Well, there's many pros and cons to each as I've discussed,
but electronic is more expensive,
just like many of those luxuries like carbon wheels
on a mountain bike, they are more expensive.
Are they gonna make you faster?
Possibly not.
Are you gonna enjoy your ride a little bit more?
Well, only you can decide that.
If you've got any more questions about Di2
just leave them down below this video,
'cause I'll be doing a follow-up on GMBN Tech,
I'll try to answer all the frequently asked questions,
so yeah leave them down below.
If you wanna see some more videos,
click over there for another Di2 video,
and click over there for how to change your gear cable
on a mechanical setup.
Thumbs up if you like this video and don't forget
to subscribe if you haven't done already.