- Hi guys, I'm in the workshop today
and this is a follow on from the DI2
versus mechanical gears video that went out on GMBN.
You've been leaving your comment or questions
down below that video, so I'm going to try to answer
as many of those as I possibly can.
John Kirk starts off with,
Is the maintenance easy? A lot of people
don't have any experience with electronic gears.
Really, it's a case of normal maintenance
with tightening your cassette and keeping those clean.
The mechs you don't need to touch
I've never lubed or taken apart any mechs, to be honest.
DI2 is no different. Of course, it's really just a case of
keeping that battery topped up.
That is maintenance I suppose.
As I said, that's really easy,
you just plug into the display
and that takes about an hour and a half
to charge it up from fully flat.
As I mentioned in the videos,
you really don't need to do that very often.
Probably once or twice a year, that should keep you going.
Joel DH says, "Is it waterproof?
What about Creak Crossings?"
I've got to say, I have not tried that out yet.
However, Shimano, in their own video about DI2,
show that exact thing.
And they say that they are completely waterproof.
So, I believe Shimano on that one,
if they are showing us with that.
Of course, they are designed for mountain bikes,
so you must believe them, I think.
Arqom Noval, "Can it stand the abuse..." again,
"...in terms of mudproofing and crash proofing?
I think we've addressed waterproofing,
mudproof, yes, again mechs are no different than the last,
in fact they are probably going to shift better in mud.
Because there's no resistance to the chain.
You know, that server does all the work for you.
Crash proofing, well, nothing is completely crash proof.
I've broken shifters and mechs crashing.
Rear mechs are the most susceptible ones.
Having said that, I don't think
I've broken one in five years riding.
I have broken one recently in transport.
They are expensive, so that is one consideration
if you are thinking about DI2,
how often do you break rear mechs.
I know some people break them more than others.
But nothing is completely crash proof.
This isn't a viewer submitted question,
this is one I have thought about myself.
"what does DI2 stand for?"
Well it's Digital Integrated Intelligence,
if you wanted to know that.
Jerek says, "You mounted the battery under the seatpost,
But what about the stealth routed dropperposts?"
Well there are other places you can mount your battery's.
I've had one underneath the stem cap,
also inside your steering sheave.
Also, some bikes are designed for them.
So, down on the downtube, bottom of there
there's somewhere to put your battery.
Also, you can mount it externally on a bottle cage holder.
So, it's easily done, and you can ride
a full suspension bike, definitely, with DI2.
The chaos engine has a really interesting question, I think.
"Neil, If you were working a nine to five job
with a good salary," in brackets, "not London money,
and managed a couple of weeknight rides
and a biggie at the weekend,
and some epics during the better months
maybe in the time afforded to you after wife and kids,
Let's say you're running an Enduro bike, an XC bike,
and a Pub bike. Would you buy DI2 with your own money?"
That's a tough question, I guess
if you've got three or four bikes,
throwing a lot of money at DI2.
It's quite extravagant.
I've said that this bike might exceed as a two by.
I haven't ridden a two by bike for years, to be honest.
Now that I'm running the DI2 on this,
I actually think this is a bike
that I would run DI2 permanently on.
Because I'm not as fit as I was, at the moment.
After coming back from injury, it's really muddy,
its actually really nice to have that small chain ring.
And to just have the one shifter
and that really crisp shifting is very nice.
Would I throw the money at it?
It's a hard one to answer,
but I would definitely consider it.
Especially if I've got Shimano on that bike already.
Like I said in the video, you can just get the gear sets
and just buy the mechs the shifts and the battery.
That isn't too expensive, especially if its XT.
So I'll say yes, I would stomp out the money and buy DI2.
Thanks for the question, it was a good one.
Brandong says, "Are the lever and mech wired or wireless?"
Everything is wired on DI2, so yeah,
you go from the shifter, to the display,
to junction box, to the front mech,
to the battery, to the rear mech.
There aren't any wired electronic mountain bike gears,
so far sram do a road wireless group set,
but they have not released anything electronic
on the mountain bike side just yet.
However, MTB wheelie nut has opened my eyes a little bit
and showed me this thing called the X-shifter.
It's a wireless shifter remote and it basically
sends a message to a motor that pulls a cable.
So you can set this up on normal cable mechs.
You just then have a wireless sensor from the bar to there.
It says, this one remote actually has four buttons,
so it can run one by dry terrain, a dropper post,
and presumably suspension lockaim.
I've seen that, I've actually looked
at that kickstart page now.
It's quite an interesting concept.
But I think it is no where near as neat as DI2,
because if you've got say a dropper post
and a front and a rear mech, you've then got to put
three of those units on your bike to pull those cables.
So it's not a very nice solution, I don't think.
Its quite interesting, id like to try it.
Especailly, with a one by with a dropper post,
if you have one remote to do that,
it's interesting, definitely not as refined as DI2.
I can't say from experience but from looking at the website
I wouldn't choose that over DI2.
Gravity Slave NZ, "Can you use the same setup for
eleven and twelve speed?"
No you can't, Shimano only run eleven speed at the moment.
There are rumours about them bringing out a twleve speed.
But no DI2 won't work on twelve speed, not at the moment.
Unless they want to release one.
"How many gears?" Someone else asked.
Basically you can run one by, two by, and three by,
on the chain links on Shimano,
of course it's only eleven speed on the back.
And you can run syncroshift,
so you can have one shifter running potentially 33 gears.
Like I said already, we can run one by,
I've run it as one by solution, it's actually really nice.
Rab C Nesbitt is not a big fan of DI2.
He says, "Electrically powered bikes
and now electric gear changes?
Isn't the whole beauty and attraction of cycling is that
it's analogue and all about moving along on your own steam.
I know manufacturers have to stay afloat
and technology is always moving,
but what next? Self-writing pens? Self-walking boots?"
It says, "This grinds my gears."
I get you, I'm sure there are plenty of people
that don't like the idea of electronic anything.
Gears of course aren't going to propel you forward.
You still have to ride the bike.
I actually don't think that
everything is going to go electronic.
In the future, we will probably still have cable gears.
Just like people buy single speed bikes now,
really simple mountain bikes, fat bikes.
I don't think everyone is going to want electronic gears.
I wouldn't worry too much about losing your old cable gears.
I think there's going to be choices for everyone.
Jason also not a big fan, he says,
"Unnecessarily complex."
Which, again I sort of get but actually
cable gears are pretty complex,
if you've ever tried to take apart a shifter.
Actually, in some regards, its not as complex.
But again, you don't have to buy DI2.
There's options for everyone out there.
Hanspower says he wants to learn more about syncroshift,
which I did talk about in the video,
and how well that works.
I think that would be the main major improvement
over mechanical shifting in terms of
ease of use and shifting speed if you are using two by
drivetrains, that is.
I think you are absolutely right,
that is one of the biggest advantages,
for me, with DI2 for cross-country bikes,
or any bike that you are going to run two by on.
The syncroshift is great, fully customizable.
Using that each use, so you can set it.
Apparently, a lot of the cross-country racers set it
so they are in their big ring almost all the time.
Again, you can choose when that front mech shifts down
to the smaller ring and they basically
keep that for emergencies, just for those steeper climbs.
But its all about just having that one shifter
that does everything.
That is synchroshift in a nutshell really.
You have got the multiple different gear maps.
You can set those yourself, there are default,
two default syncrhroshift maps on there already.
But you can play with those to your hearts content, really.
Also, will the front mech fit my bike?
So the front mech is modular,
so basically it's comes as the mech itself
you've then got three or four
actually different mounting types.
You've got the two clamps, high and a low clamp.
Then you've got two different direct mount systems.
One of those direct mounts I've got at the moment.
Yes, you'll get it to fit your bike.
This is the question I have put in here myself actually.
It's electric, but from a rider's point of view,
how does it differ?
Well, really it's all about the stuff on the bars,
so you've got the electronic buttons around the shifter.
They've actually got a really nice click to them
so where you might expect some electornic, its just a push.
They actually do have a nice throw
and a really positive click.
And you can go two clicks at a time on there.
Then, of course, you can leave your thumb on that shifter,
for sequential shifting, where it will go all the way up,
or all the way down, should you prefer that.
More questions, this one comes from Carl who says,
Who changes their derailer cables five times a year?
Maybe I'm out of touch, because I do a
reasonable amount of riding
and only need to change them when they break.
Otherwise, they work perfectly.
I said in the video that I change my intergear cables
four to six times a year. And I do.
I've got to say that I don't like the feel of it
when they start getting friction.
The changes get harder, hard to push the shifter.
Slow changes down the back. But I guess I'm a racer.
I've always wanted to have the best shifting possible.
I can't remember the last time
I used a gear cable until it broke.
But there's a few comments from people saying that.
Fair dues, if you use them like that, great.
I would say you probably would a bit of an improvment
from changing the gear cable a bit more often.
But, completely up to you about that.
Christopher Gronseth says not everybody is a bike geek.
Half of the riders don't lube their chain
or know how to set up a tubeless tyre.
These people are the ones that half ass charge their lamps,
or completely forget, I've got friends like that, of course.
I'm sure we all have. They won't have a clue on
how to set up and maintain it.
Two years from now, that six month charge
will be more like three months
and they will forget to charge it.
Just imagine the bad images it will create.
Right now this isn't rugged enough for mountain bikes.
Or better, said some mountain bike riders.
I think your final point hits the nail on the head.
You've got to be one of those people who
likes looking after their bikes to have
I think, any nice kit really.
Because stuff is going to get worn out.
I know I've got friends that have
not the best mechanical knowledge
and don't know how to look after their bikes.
And possibly some of this stuff isn't for them.
But you can't say it isn't for everybody.
I would say there is a lot of people
who do really look after their bikes.
And for them, charging their gears occasionally
isn't going to be a problem.
But yeah I think its still
a very good point you've put there Christopher.
Phil Jones says typical mountain bike tech,
absolute daylight robbery.
It is expensive, you can buy a bike
for the same price you're going to spend on the DI2 XTR
full group set. But its up to people
how they spend their money.
You can buy a set of wheels, common wheels,
at three and a half thousand pounds same dollars.
Same with anything, with cars, you know,
there's always going to be something more expensive.
The options there, if you want the really high technology
on your bike, you're going to have to spend the money.
But, you don't have to. There is no one saying
you have to have all the nicest kit on your bike.
A question from Trail Work.
He says wow a charge can last six months? Crazy.
What does happen when the battery dies,
are you stuck in that gear?
Well actually, this can take a long time
obviously, as I've said already,
you'll get some warnings from the display
that you are running out of battery.
And actually your front mech will fail first.
And then your rear mech after that.
So you still have some time to get it into an easy gear
to get you home basically.
It doesn't all finish in one go.
Of course unless you're running one by
then your rear mech is just going to stop.
Then you are stuck.
But hopefully you'll have seen the display.
You can have plenty of warning about that.
So of course we have talked about the pros and cons
of DI2, not everyone is going to want it.
I really like reading your comments
saying you like it, you don't like it.
You know, why your reasons are for both of those things.
But leave us some more comments,
what do you think is next in this very
high-tech technology that goes into these bikes.
Electronic gears are they going to go wireless possibly?
Is Shimano going to go twelve speed?
I think they probably are.
But after that what next on bikes?
You know, are we going to get electronic wireless breaking?
I know that happens in cars so why not on bikes?
I'd love to hear your comments, so leave them down below.
I'll definitely read them.
If you want to see a couple more videos,
click over there for the original video
where I compare the two DI2 versus mechanical.
And over there for another DI2 video.
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