We all know that Shimano is about to update its top-end Dura-Ace groupset – it has been seen at the Vuelta a España and Shimano has already unveiled Dura-Ace 9300 wheels – and now new pictures have surfaced on the Weight Weenies forum giving us a slightly clearer glimpse of what is to come (BikeRadar beat us to the punch on this one).
Before we get into the specifics, how reliable is this information? It’s not 100% clear where these photos originated but they look very much like the kind of thing that’s included in FCC accreditation. We keep an eye on the FCC website (everyone needs a hobby) and we’ve not seen them published there, but we’d guess they’ve somehow leaked during the accreditation process. You’re welcome to have a browse through Shimano-related documents on the FCC website, but I wouldn’t if I were you; life’s too short.
Hang on a sec, though. We’ve skipped an explanation.
FCC is the Federal Communications Commission – an independent agency of the United States government that regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.
What has that got to do with bicycle components? Shimano transmits between the shifters and the rear derailleur via wireless technologies. In the US, the FCC regulates the wireless components used in Shimano’s Di2 electronic shifting systems – and anyone else’s wireless electronic shifting systems – by testing and approving them before sale.
We can never be sure that something we spot in a patent will ever make it to market, but we can be more confident when we see an FCC certification. This is based on testing a representative sample, and the equipment subsequently marketed must be essentially identical to the tested device, subject to permitted changes and normal production variation. In other words, a company doesn’t normally go through the FCC certification process unless it intends to put a compliant version of that product on the market.
When submitting a component (such as a wireless module) to an FCC-recognised accredited testing laboratory, you must provide samples that are production-ready or production-representative. This requirement is strictly enforced, and cutting corners carries financial and legal risks… so we can be pretty sure that what we see here is what’ll be on sale.
Anyway, that’s a wordy way of saying that we’re pretty confident that these products are on the way in the not-too-distant future… but we can’t be certain exactly when.
Okay, so back to the pictures.
The shifter
We get to see parts of three products here: a right-hand shifter marked ST-R9370-R (that QR code doesn’t take you anywhere interesting, by the way), a rear derailleur marked 3L4 YEF, and a chainset/powermeter marked with the FCC ID: WY7 3MM1 (WY7 is the FCC grantee code for Shimano).
Interestingly, there are no pictures relating to a front derailleur. It might simply be that whoever leaked these pics missed the front derailleur (there are no pics of parts of the left-hand shifter either). Or, more likely, it could be that the shifters communicate wirelessly with the rear derailleur only, and that this is the brains of the operation; the front derailleur is controlled via wire from the rear derailleur, as is the case with existing Dura-Ace R9200. In other words, Dura-Ace 9300 will remain semi-wireless rather than completely wireless.
The most interesting feature of the part of the right-hand shifter shown is up top. With Dura-Ace 9200, you get a shift button right at the front of the hood; it looks like you’re going to get two buttons in the hood of the Dura-Ace 9300 shifter. Although these pics don’t show us exactly where on the hood that part will be positioned, we know from previous pictures that it’ll be on the inner-facing side of the hood.
It’s likely that some kind of a rocker switch will operate these buttons. Maybe you’ll be able to change up by pushing the switch one direction and change down by moving it in the other direction. Will you be able to program in your preferences for function, as you can with current-generation Dura-Ace shifters? That seems likely, but we just can’t say for sure.
The rear derailleur
What can we tell from the rear derailleur part marked 3L4YEF?
For a start, it seems to confirm that Shimano is sticking with a semi-wireless system. There’s no sign that Shimano is going for a battery on the derailleur itself, similar to a SRAM system. On the contrary, there’s a port for a wire to come in – presumably from a battery positioned elsewhere in the bike frame, similar to existing Dura-Ace Di2 – and a charging interface.
That charging interface is new, with space to receive four pins arranged in a square (the current system takes four in a line). Why? Who knows? But it suggests that existing chargers won’t be compatible with the new system. Grrr!
The crank-based power meter
This is interesting, although a little hard to decipher.
On a conventional chainset, the chainring attaches to a spider on the crank using several bolts. It looks like Shimano is moving to a direct-mount setup here.
It appears that the crank spindle is fixed to the driveside crank, as previously, and that the non-driveside crank bolts in place at the far end of the spindle. Nothing unusual there.
Things begin to look different when we get to the power meter apparatus. You still get a little sensor pod on the inner face of each crankarm, but there’s something going on at the bottom end of the driveside crank arm: perhaps a control button to activate the power meter, enter Bluetooth LE pairing mode, perform zero-offset calibration and check/indicate the power meter’s status.
Is the charging port positioned there too? It seems that way, although it’s difficult to tell exactly. A central battery in the spindle looks like the only possible option here. More than that, we’re not really comfortable guessing.
It’s fair to say that Shimano’s Dura-Ace power meters haven’t had a great reputation for accuracy and consistency since we had a first look way back in 2017. Liam wasn’t hugely impressed with the accuracy of the data from the Shimano Dura-Ace FC-R9200-P that he reviewed, for example, and most people would agree that SRAM/Quarq power meters have a better reputation (and, of course, there are many, many more brands out there these days). With that in mind, it’s not entirely surprising that Shimano has apparently made some big changes here.
Will Shimano Dura-Ace 9300 be 13-speed?
Yes. None of these pictures confirms that the new Shimano Dura-Ace 9300 will be 13-speed, but that’s a done deal anyway. We know because of widely circulated photos from the Vuelta a España.
When will Shimano Dura-Ace 9300 appear?
We don’t know the answer to that one. And even if we did know, we wouldn’t be able to tell you, which amounts to the same thing. The first half of next year would probably be a safe bet, but we haven’t got a date for you.
If final versions – or near-enough final versions – of Dura-Ace 9300 have been FCC-approved, we can’t see Shimano squirrelling it away until the Tour de France, so we’d guess that we’re looking at a spring 2027 launch, but who knows?
