Training Articles
July 16th, 2009 First Ride - Di2 Electronic Shifting I have recently had the opportunity to install and ride the new Dura-Ace Di2 Electronic shifting group. I have been interested in trying it out for a while, a good friend has been riding it and has had nothing but good things to say about it.The group arrived a few days ago, I eagerly dug through the boxes, looked through the instructions and dove right in. I installed the group on my black look 595 - my "training" bike as it is, which previously had a sram red group on it. Off it came, cables and all.
Installing the parts was no different than a regular group - brakes, shifters, front and rear derrs. bolted on as normal. I made sure to get the front derr. aligned perfectly so that powerful motor would not have any issues.
Now the tricky part was the wiring. It took me a while to figure out where I wanted to put the wires, which way to run the various wires, etc. I mounted the battery on the bottle mount and used an external wiring kit. At some point I'm sure I will have a frame with internal wiring, but this was a temporary setup using external wiring.
Once I finally ran the wiring the way I liked it, all taped down to the frame, the fun began. I set the high and low limits - and then fired things up. Shifting up front worked perfect right away. Amazing. Shifting in the rear took a slight adjustment - using the switch that mounts somewhere near your handlebars. You press a button, it goes into adjustment mode, and then you simply tap the lever one way or another until it's quiet. Then it shifts perfectly across the whole range of gears. That's it. Done.
The setup and adjustment took almost no time at all, the wiring was the only real effort, and next time that will go much faster as well.
On my first ride I was really impressed. Shifting up front was nothing short of powerful and immediate. Same thing in the rear. Now it's still a chain going over cogs, but there is zero hesitation, zero cable friction, it just goes. Same every time.
The brakes worked great, better than my sram red brakes. Nice modulation and feel.
So my first impression is that this group is a major jump forward. I'm sold on it. I liked my red group, it was setup well and worked fine. This is a big enough improvement to warrant the upgrade and cost. The value is of course subjective - many riders would balk at the thought of racing on a $899 rear derr. or riding such a setup in the rain. One ride might just change their mind.
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