Hands on: Rotor Uno groupset

If they can get the price right (ie low enough) then this sounds interesting, a sealed up hydraulic system should require very little maintenance, and if they can get the final lever feel and shifting to a good enough level then I'd be interested.
Electronic shifting might be the future of racing, but for a low maintenance, reliable and effective system this could be ideal.

@Redvee

there was an American boutique parts company that did this years ago, albeit a retro fit system for existing Shimano mechanical mountain bike derailleurs

What they produced was a pump / piston unit for each end so that the mechanical shifter drove the hydraulic system which then drove the mechanical derailleur

very expensive, the testers at the magazines who reviewed it reported on issues with indexing reliability due to changes in atmospheric pressure (weather / altitude).

Unlike a hydraulic brake system which simply uses pressure increase to close the brake (with an "open" diaghragm on the MC to allow for heat expansion and pressure changes), it would be interesting to see how Rotor can provide reliable indexing considering the small incremental steps in an 11 speed shifting system

Tried this yesterday. Double the effort to change gear needed compared to cable sti.

Love the innovation thou

Hydraulic gears aren't new, IIRC there was a cable actuated hydraulic system released around 15-20 years ago. Can't remember who but Hope are the sort of people who'd give it a go.

I'm in the "but why?" camp. I think this is what happens when you run a company and have too many engineers hanging around.

Someone at Rotor needs to walk them over to the Sram booth and say: "See this? This is the future. This is how aerospace works. This is how cycling will be working. Take this hydraulic stuff and put it to work on disk brakes and don't come out of the workshop until you have something."

Having just returned home from Eurobike I think I can safely say that the future lies with the SRAM eTap and not with Rotor's hydraulic offering. The Uno felt draggy and required significant force to change gear, significantly more than a traditional cable set up too. With eTap the shifting was quick and light and once we have converted our brains to right = up, left = down, both = front then it'll be the perfect groupset. Clen looks on the bike, no electrical wires to break or disconnect and interchangeable batteries between front and rear derailleurs to get you home. As soon as SRAM add hydraulic brakes -they are coming according to the guy I spoke to (and hopefully get rid of the HUGE hood/hydraulic cylinder) I'll be first in line for my first road bike with disk brakes!

I'm quite taken with the idea of getting rid of pesky stretchy heavy cables for a bit of hydraulic!

(However I must confess my foray into MTB hydraulic discs a few years ago was marred with failure and frustration).

Big ask for me is price, can't see these being efficient, light and cheaper than the others out there. (Remember we can only pick two). I reckon we're looking at over two bags of sand for this groupset with chainrings - way beyond me.

It's good to see competition so I'm not complaining, but I must confess that I just don't see the point of hydraulic gears. Mechanical works but electronic addresses some of its shortfalls - 100% reliable shifts regardless of conditions and zero maintenance aside from battery recharge every few months (in my experience). I don't see how hydraulics improves simplicity over mechanical (you can fix a mechanical in the middle of nowhere) nor reliability, accuracy and near non-maintenance over electronic. Nevertheless, it's good to see people trying to innovate.