[Closed] Don’t hate me - roadie electronic groupsets

I've got Ultegra Di2 and it's great, love it. Yeah, there's nothing it does that the mechanical 105 on my other bike can't do, but it's just so slick, the way it moves the front mech to stop any rubbing, the smooth way it goes up and down the cassette, effortless clicking on the levers from any hand position... I've not tried SRAM but I'm obviously a big fan of electronic groupsets 😀

I’m running Sram Rival axs shifters with a gx axs mech on my gravel bike and really like it. Previously I’d only ever used 105 mechanical on my road bike.

Purely based of ergonomics of the shifters I prefer the shape of the Rival ones - I think they are a different shape to the more pricey Sram shifters though. Apart from having to charge the mech battery, which isn’t an issue for me, there’s no real downside to the system.

I never planned on going axs/wireless but when I was buying bits I found the shifters in stock with a £25 off code and with the high prices of grx/105 at the time it wasn’t the massive price jump to axs from silly prices mechanical group sets were.

If everything was sensibly priced and in stock I’d probably go mechanical but no regrets from me.

I've got Di2 disc (last of the 11spd) and I prefer the hoods to my bike with mechanical levels. Otherwise there isn't much difference in gear change function. I do like the way the hood button links with my Garmin computer too.

I've had Red etap HRD for nearly 5 years now and it's been very reliable.
It's on my Bokeh and I've ridden it on road, of-road in sun and mud, done on and off road bike packing trips and races and lightweight touring for good measure.
Like all SRAM rear shifting is dependant upon the right b-tension setting.
It's a 2x set up and I like the shifting method, it's very intuitive and works well even with thick gloves on.

I’ve got shimano ultegra di2 on my road bike and it’s brilliant. As mentioned above it self adjusts, I also have the semi sync mode so once it gets low or high in the cassette it’ll shift the front itself or I can make a manual change, press and hold button and it shifts all the way down the cassette. I find it a lot easier to change gears while braking as well as it’s just a micro button.

I'm pretty sold on electronic shifting...I'm not as keen on cabling for it though so if I was looking at a road bike with an electronic groupset I'd be swayed to SRAM.

However, I've heard great things about both systems so I suspect whichever one you go for it'll be excellent.

Using a mixed bag of Sram AXS components here. This winter I've been getting around 400 miles of riding before the rear derailleur battery needs charging. That's always the first to need charging but I do carry a spare too. Quick and easy to change over. Useful feature is that if you have a dynamo hub and a rectifier such as Igaro then these batteries, using the 5v charger can be charged using your own leg power. Can't do that with Di2.

AXS paddles are great with thick gloves on.

AXS rear derailleur is massive, so is the front too actually but the rear is very vulnerable in a fall. I had Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical before and when I slid off onto my right hand side, the derailler suffered only a light scratch because of its low profile. The AXS derailleur would likely have broken the hanger and suffered a lot of damage.

AXS front derailleur is a little slow in my opinion. Shimano have addressed that with their latest hybrid wireless groupsets apparently.

Main problem with Sram I find is that the transition between cogs is not smooth at all on my 30T cassette. I really have to take the power off when changing gear. The ramps are poorly designed. Shimano must surely win there with their improved Hyperglide. I do however like the XDR system so long as copious amounts of copper grease is used.

I think given the choice I'd have gone for the new Shimano Ultegra Di2 but availability dictated my choice to go AXS. However I do prefer AXS to my old cable groupset.

Another Di2 fan here - had it for 5 years on my road bike and love it. Super reliable, smooth and cool! Never misses a shift or goes out of alignment. I’ve had to replace the battery, and that’s my only issue in 5 years. Really good system

Thanks all…still unsure based on the replies though! Looking at a Vitus Vitesse which comes in both flavours for pretty much the same money. I was in Wheelbase in Staveley earlier and an employee was convinced Ultegra has slicker changes than Force…my mate with me was shaking his head as he’s had zero issues with his Force. I can’t remember the bike brand but it has the Di2 battery inside the frame…what happens if you need to change it?

I've ridden bikes with it on and loved it. But not enough to spend my own money yet.

I've always said I'd consider it seriously when reliable wireless setup and a comfortable (to me) non fugly disc hood was available in the same system. I 'think' that day has come but I'm tight (and not wealthy) so I'm pretending it hasn't.

My battery is in the seat post - very easy to take out. Not sure about actually in the frame though…

I was a sceptic of electronic gears for years, but I got a Ultegra Di2-equipped bike for a price I couldn't resist in 2020 and I never want to go back.

I've had a Defy with Ultegra Di2 since 2017. When it came to deciding what groupset to have on my Reilly Gradient a couple of years later I couldn't face having manual shifters on a drop bar bike so that has GRX Di2. So far I can't see a downside (apart from the cost, obvs). Only need charging every 6 months or so, and because I've fitted the Bluetooth modules I get an alert on my Garmin when they get down to 20% charge. What I really like is being able to brake for a junction  while on the hoods and use my little finger to change down so I'm in the right gear to pull away again. Also they make a really cool robot noise.

Massive fan of SRAM here in general, but for most people most of the time, Di2 makes more sense...

Having had Red eTap and Ultegra Di2, it really is down to personal preferences and any differences do not reflect in the actual performance.

If you're fitting/upgrading your own bike yourself, then SRAM's wireless systems do make a lot of sense. You need to have a certain amount of experience of "trial and error" of internally routing cables within road bike frames (and measuring cable lengths!) for a successful Di2 fit. But once Di2 is fitted, you're not going to need to do it again next year, as it's not like the cables will wear out!

It pains me to say this, but if push came to shove, I'd take Shimano again... A bit more of a pain to fit, but significantly longer battery life (and the convenience of the one internal battery powering everything, not having 2 batteries for your mechs and separate CR2032 coin cells in your shifters!) makes it a bit more practical, but there's other reasons beyond that. The first 2 generations of UDi2 (R6770 and R6870), you could barely feel the difference between the up and down shift buttons even without gloves on, and with gloves on could often mis-shift... R8050 fixed this to a large extent (full winter gloves you might still make the odd mis-shift, but not in thinner gloves) with buttons that are much easier to distinguish between whilst riding, and improved the shape of the hoods and added some much needed texturing to increase grip. The syncro shift feature is more useful than you might think though, but can also be easily over-rided too. The "press both paddles together to shift the front mech" on SRAM does make you really think long and hard about any front chainring shifts you might need to make as timing both paddles together is critical. Also the level of customisation with the Etube app for Shimano is good, and the shift speed is slightly better but at the same time a little more mechanically sympathetic. Shimano cassette ratios are also more linear in their progression ratios, and make more sense to most people, as well as shifting slightly more sweetly I find.

You'll be ecstatic with either if you're coming from an older cable setup, but I just think whilst SRAM is more easy to fit and adapt to different bikes (will talk to an MTB rear derailleur for a 1x Gravel setup), Shimano have dominated the road market and not without good reason.

Oh, one big upgrade you can make to Di2... Fit the Shimano XT MT800 display instead of a conventional junction box... It has the Bluetooth built in, but gives you some really useful data on the tiny screen (gear selected, battery life, shift mode etc.) and it's barely any more expensive than the normal junction box. Also really useful for micro adjusting the indexing, as it will tell you where the derailleur is (in 0.1mm increments) compared to the default position.

Only downer is i've seen a number of Di2 battery issues, mostly because of water ingress. There was a known batch of bad batteries though, and whilst I've changed several under warranty for other people (and to be fair, they were all replaced FOC by Madison in the end), it didn't happen to my own.

But then my only road bike now has a mechanical Campag setup on it, so what do I know... 😉

Use SRAM Force and love it.

Mine was a groupset upgrade to an older frame so a key driver for me was the truly wireless nature of AXS.

Battery life is good. I prefer the shape of the hoods to my old 105 and shifting with gloves is miles easier.

I wouldn't go back.

My mates got both, likes em both. Self build Sram ridiculously easy to build up obvs.

I've have the original sram etap 11sp since it came out...its been flawless, even now years later its still sweet ...2 years ago I changed the shifters to hdr as my new road bike was disc...but that's all I had to change , the new levers paired up within 3 mins with my original mech...Best thing about etap is ...if you have a flat battery, you can swap with the battery from the other mech and continue...ive been out with a di2 rider whose battery died and was left with 1 gear all the way home

I have not ridden AXS.

I have Di2, my kids have it on their road bikes.
For me di2 (I have had it for about 5 yrs) is fine, but not important at all.

The downsides are:

the wires are extremely delicate (but most normal people will never touch them). But if you do then you really should use the tool.

if the part stops working then you need to have the ability to diagnose, most easily using done by swapping out with other parts (although this applies equally to both di2 and axs).

Battery is normally hidden in seatpost, statistically it WILL go wrong around 4yrs. It is a pain to get to. (AXS is nice an easy - although battery falling off is a known issue with AXS).

If you let your di2 battery go flat it is difficult to bodge something (front mech is supposed to die first - mine did - but rear stopped only 5 mins later). AXS makes this REALLY easy.

junction boxes - they go sometimes - they are normally around your BB. So needs crank removal.

di2 parts are available new and secondhand.

di2 battery lasts LOTS longer than AXS.

I would get AXS because of the lack of cables, joins, easy battery access, battery swapping, simple lever config (di2 can be configured in a similar way though).

ive been out with a di2 rider whose battery died and was left with 1 gear all the way home

When the battery started to die on mine (the only time I've been caught out) it dropped the chain onto the small chainring, but still allowed me to move up and down the cassette. Not so good on the flat, but at least you won't have problems if there's a hill between you and your destination. Fortunately in my case I hadn't gone far and I could just gently spin home...

ive been out with a di2 rider whose battery died and was left with 1 gear all the way home

If your Di2 battery dies, that’s very much user error, it lasts for about 1500 miles. I speak as one of these users.

I've had Ultegra Di2 on my last 2 road bikes, the current one is R8050 and it's ace, perfect shifting, load of km's on one charge, I charge it every 1500 or so km, wouldn't have a road bike without it.

To be honest I'd have it on my MTB is 12speed XTR ever goes electronic.

My CX bikes are a combo of GRX on one and Rival CX1 on the other and that's fine for them, but if I had the cash they'd be electronic too.

Is 105 Di2 out yet ?

Have SRAM Force on my summer bike and will replace with SRAM Red this year and put the Force on the winter bike.

I really like the SRAM system but do get confused when I swap back to a Shimano bike and am on the limit, keep dropping into the small chain ring when I just want a larger sprocket - which doesn't help when you're trying to hold a much stronger wheel.....

ive been out with a di2 rider whose battery died and was left with 1 gear all the way home

Advantage of SRAM AXS is you have two batteries and can swap them over. Did have a shifter coin cell die one cold morning - luckily someone else had a spare in his tool kit, now always carry one.

If your Di2 battery dies, that’s very much user error, it lasts for about 1500 miles. I speak as one of these users.

Yeah but I think there are a lot of us out there who are quite poor at tracking mileage on our components! Speaking as a Putoliner who still manages to squeak home on a dry chain approximately once every 500km... 🙄

Di2 warns you when it's going to fail as it will ignore a few attempts at shifts and will then respond after a delay. It allows you to select a comfortable gear for it to fail into. I've had this twice. One when I was an idiot and kept forgetting to charge it and once when a worn cable caused a power drain.

I've had an Alfine Di2 and Force AXS and have currently have Dura Ace (9170)/GRX (815) on the road bike, GRX (817) on the Gravel bike, GRX (815) on the commuter and XT/XTR Di2 on the Stache. Di2 Can be an utter PITA to mechanically wire so that it's silent (especially so with multiple shifters, droppers and mechs), and also compared to the simplicity of AXS, but once it's in, it's far easier to live with. I know having to charge the batteries is hardly a faff, but there are 4+ of them for AXS and they deplete at very different rates. With Di2, it's 1 connection point and you don't even have to remove the battery, you just plug the bike in - there's aso a visual indicator on the bike as to the charge state. It also lasts MUCH longer. I get around 4-5 months on my commuter or around 2500-3000km. My AXS I was getting about 400-600km out of the batteries dependent upon the ride type. My gravel bike, lasts almost a year on 1* Di2!

Di2 does shift quieter in my experience. I'm not sure it's any better at shifting, but it definitely sounds better at shifting.

I have R8050 Di2 and 11sp Red eTap, had some troubles with the eTap rear derailleur which was replaced twice by Sram - once under warranty, a second time out of warranty. I now have the updated A2 version which is based on the AXS build, it's been solid so I'm guessing the early issues have been ironed out.

Aside from that no issues, the Ultegra maybe feels a tad snappier but there's really not a lot in it.

Can't ever see me going back to mechanical.

Is 105 Di2 out yet ?

There's a thread on CyclingTips forum suggesting it's going to be available summer '23.

I have R8050 Di2 and 11sp Red eTap, had some troubles with the eTap rear derailleur which was replaced twice by Sram – once under warranty, a second time out of warranty. I now have the updated A2 version which is based on the AXS build, it’s been solid so I’m guessing the early issues have been ironed out.

Interesting, I ride with several people on the 1st gen 11sp Red AXS and they all really rate how it's been completely trouble free for years. This will be my 3rd year on 12sp Force once spring arrives and I can put the winter bike away...

Interesting, I ride with several people on the 1st gen 11sp Red AXS and they all really rate how it’s been completely trouble free for years. This will be my 3rd year on 12sp Force once spring arrives and I can put the winter bike away…

It's been fairly well documented but if you haven't had issues you may not have read about it, I know personally of another two who had the same.

Unsure exactly what the cause was but there's a thread on Weight Weenies addressing it, can't remember the outcome but seem to recall there was a suggestion of things getting clogged up with crap to the point that the cage couldn't shift?

The new A2 is a sturdy beast compared to the original...

So trying out an 11 speed mechanical Ultegra Bianchi on Weds. Guy in the shop was saying they've had a few people coming in with issues with eTap...namely Bluetooth not working properly with mechs giving up the ghost and having to be replaced. SRAM rep they deal with says similar. Can't see anything online (which is odd) - anyone had these SRAM issues?

EDIT: Doh! - just spotted something in the thread that highlights this

Di2 on the TT trike, ETAP on the TT bike. no real difference (button shifting on tribars). The ETAP is cleaner if you can't run the cables internally. I'd probably buy based on shifter comfort. I've had a flat ETAP battery - switched front to back to race, but the Di2 (external battery as it's Ultegra 10spd) has been fine.

Does the SRAM AXS self trim like the Shimano does?