Mech vs electronic Gearsets

Here’s an idea to stop us
Here’s an idea to stop us from having to worry about battery life and power consumption. Charge the system’s battery from solar and with a small dynamo on the top jockey wheel, run a cable down the drive side chainstay to power the front derailer.

ianrobo wrote: …
but now it

ianrobo wrote:

…
but now it is easier esp on a climb to get out of it.

is it ??? I get caught in the wrong gear on my mechanical chorus, I push the paddle,
it changes down, i get out of the wrong gear … how does electronic make it
easier ??

Do you keep your “best” electronic bike charged up and ready for the first of
the “oh nice day … i’ll take the other bike” days ?

And no one in their right mind will say that the electronic front mechs are not
hideous !!!

Think I shall remain luddite mechanical … 🙂

abudhabiChris wrote:when I

abudhabiChris wrote:

when I look at someone riding EPS or Di2 I see a cheat.

By your reasoning surely any bike with more than one (fixed) gear is cheating too 😕

To the OP: I’ve not tried electronic shifting so I don’t know what it’s like. By all accounts it’s great. It’s not automated, the rider still chooses which gear and when to shift, it merely refines the process of moving the mechanism across, which seems similar to the benefits that indexing brought us.

My only (possibly unfounded) semi-Luddite fear is that if it went wrong it could be expensive to fix. I feel the same way about electronic gizmos built into modern cars.

I wouldn’t set much store by what sponsored riders are told to use by the manufacturer. 90% or more of the pro peloton ride tubular tyres; in the past most of them used EPO and blood bags, and before that amphetamine cocktails etc, but that doesn’t mean that any of those things would be a good choice for me. If you like it then enjoy it 🙂

DaSy wrote:I understand the

DaSy wrote:

I understand the necessity to change under heavy load at times, but don’t think it should be thought of as a normal thing to do

..completely agree.

DaSy wrote:

I can’t imagine ever knowing a road so well that I knew in advance what gear to be in.

Seriously ?

DaSy wrote:

I tend to change as required, I just do it before I get myself into the situation where it’s under heavy load

As I said, not always possible short of some sort of prescience super-power but I get your gist.

Quote:Go ahead, it’s your

Go ahead, it’s your choice, but when I look at someone riding EPS or Di2 I see a cheat.

Sent by carrier pigeon, I hope, you electrical correspondent slacker! :))

A bike is a human powered
A bike is a human powered vehicle. Once you use external power to assist part of the drive train of the bike it is no longer completely human powered.

It’s not the same as having a power meter which is simply measuring your output, or a computer, or aero wheels or anything like that. Saving energy and measuring energy are not the same as contributing energy.

For that simple reason I will not ride electronic gears. I have had the option at very low cost on a team bike and turned it down.

Anyone riding electronic gears is no longer riding a bike. Go ahead, it’s your choice, but when I look at someone riding EPS or Di2 I see a cheat.

DaSy wrote:The argument that

DaSy wrote:

The argument that it changes easier under load uphill seems to run counter to all the wisdom that I was taught as a novice rider, that you never change gear under heavy load, get your gear selection right at the start of the hill, and always take the load off as you change, should you have to.
The fact that electronic shifting is isolating you from how much effort it is taking to drag the chain across rings and sprockets, does not mean that it is not doing the same damage to your drive-train that it does to a mechanical group. It’s bad form in my opinion.

While it might be bad form, the argument about whether it does change better under load (of any sort) is a separate one to whether one should be doing that. There is also the point that whilst I imagine most people would prefer not to do that, in practice things don’t always work out that way – certainly i’ve been caught out be gradients that change suddenly and are not apparent / visible, had wheel slip, chain jump (my fault) and so on… it’s just not always possible to Do The Right Thing. If you’re just riding on well-known roads then I can see the point, but where is the fun in that ? 😉

In response to the OP: I
In response to the OP: I don’t want electronic gears, thanks. In fairness, I’ve only tried it at shows; the front derailleur made a wicked whirring noise that felt very 21st century! I can see that it might offer a marginal advantage if you’re say, a road racer and want to get the jump on someone in a sprint. (Although even then, changing your cadence can be quicker than changing gear.) But I don’t really want more batteries on my bike. I like that my bike is fully serviceable and fixable by me. And I like that it’s wholly human powered. If you want to go faster through Strava segments, meanwhile, you need to train harder and reduce you and your bike’s combined air resistance, rolling resistance, and weight; electronic shifters will not do those things.