[tlg]

My Di2 is much simpler, buy the bike, ride it, done! I do have to charge it once every 3 months, it's really getting old doing that.

I know some people are bad about charging their batteries. (These are the same people who neglect their shift cables and have them fray and break mid ride and are stuck riding home with a single speed)

I've never had mine die on me during a ride.
The battery charges super fast. ~10miles / minute
If you're low, throw it on the charger for 5-10min while you're gearing up before you head out. And you're good for 50-100mi.

 

[Lombard]

I know some people are bad about charging their batteries. (These are the same people who neglect their shift cables and have them fray and break mid ride and are stuck riding home with a single speed)

I've never had mine die on me during a ride.
The battery charges super fast. ~10miles / minute
If you're low, throw it on the charger for 5-10min while you're gearing up before you head out. And you're good for 50-100mi.

To be fair, there are warning lights you can check on the batteries that let you know when it's time to charge. When a shifter cable frays inside the shifter, it gives you little warning. Heck, I'd rather charge a battery than change an internally routed shifter cable. @tlg , Can you see I'm warming to Di2?

 

[tlg]

To be fair, there are warning lights you can check on the batteries that let you know when it's time to charge. When a shifter cable frays inside the shifter, it gives you little warning. Heck, I'd rather charge a battery than change an internally routed shifter cable. @tlg , Can you see I'm warming to Di2?

Also if you have the wireless unit (built into newer generation) you can display battery level on your Garmin. And it'll alert you at 20%.
When you get down to ~10% the FD shuts down and you have ~50mi of RD shifting.

 

[Lombard]

Also if you have the wireless unit (built into newer generation) you can display battery level on your Garmin. And it'll alert you at 20%.
When you get down to ~10% the FD shuts down and you have ~50mi of RD shifting.

I don't have a Garmin, nor do I plan on getting one anytime in the near future.

Can I assume when the FD shuts down, it defaults to the small ring? If so, no big deal.

 

[tlg]

Can I assume when the FD shuts down, it defaults to the small ring? If so, no big deal.

It defaults to the ring you're in. If you live in flatlands where you don't use the small ring much you'd likely never know it shut down. Which is good. You wouldn't want to be forced into the small ring.

Usually there's enough juice to get you into the small ring. But then not back up. That's when people typically realize they forgot to charge.

 

[Lombard]

It defaults to the ring you're in. If you live in flatlands where you don't use the small ring much you'd likely never know it shut down. Which is good. You wouldn't want to be forced into the small ring.

Usually there's enough juice to get you into the small ring. But then not back up. That's when people typically realize they forgot to charge.

Hmmm. I think I would rather be stuck in the small ring than in the big ring. If there are killer hills on the way home, the big ring could be tough.

 

[tlg]

Hmmm. I think I would rather be stuck in the small ring than in the big ring. If there are killer hills on the way home, the big ring could be tough.

Definitely. If you live in a hilly area.
But not if it's flat. A friend of mine has been in FL the past month. I've been busting his balls about how flat his rides are. He's averaging 9ft/mi.
Being stuck in the small ring for 50mi of that would royally suck.

 

[duriel]

Once you can't shift the big ring, you got 20-30-/+ shifts. It only happens once if you live in the hills. If you charge it once every 3 months on the version I have, one never has it go down. Like do you keep somewhat track of how often you lube your chain? ... same with the battery. I now keep a log on all vehicle/bike maintenance, easy pezy.

 

[Lombard]

Once you can't shift the big ring, you got 20-30-/+ shifts. It only happens once if you live in the hills. If you charge it once every 3 months on the version I have, one never has it go down. Like do you keep somewhat track of how often you lube your chain? ... same with the battery. I now keep a log on all vehicle/bike maintenance, easy pezy.

Or you can just check the battery indicator. Easy peazy.

 

[tlg]

If you charge it once every 3 months on the version I have, one never has it go down.

You can't say that for everyone. It depends on how much you ride and how much shifting you do.
If you ride 150+ mi a week where you shift a lot, there's no way to go that long.
At 200+ per week you're not making it 2 months.

 

[duriel]

Well yea, if you ride a ton of miles, my comments do not apply. I ride about 60m/w in mtn country and get by charging every 3 mo's. I would think most don't ride 150m/w in mtns, but some do. I have a guy in the next town over I follow on strava, he can go out for a ride and it's 150+ miles, up/dn 3 mtns.
I don't have a phone app, so I just charge it on a schedule that works for me.
I think 99% of the riders don't log 150 mi per week in mtns.
How many miles do you ride a week?

 

[tlg]

Well yea, if you ride a ton of miles, my comments do not apply. I ride about 60m/w in mtn country and get by charging every 3 mo's. I would think most don't ride 150m/w in mtns, but some do. I have a guy in the next town over I follow on strava, he can go out for a ride and it's 150+ miles, up/dn 3 mtns.
I don't have a phone app, so I just charge it on a schedule that works for me.
I think 99% of the riders don't log 150 mi per week in mtns.
How many miles do you ride a week?

Charging on a schedule is a good idea. But it can be vastly different for everyone.
It really doesn't matter what you think 99% of riders do.
You can't just blanket say 'charge your bike every 3 months'. Contrary to what you believe, a shit ton of riders do more than 60mi/wk.
Me? I don't ride less than 60mi on a Saturday. I'm about 150/wk. More in the summer. I don't consider that a ton.
This is my clubs top 100 riders mileage for last week. And it's winter, so those numbers are down.

 

[tlg]

There's a site called di2stats.com. It analyzes your shifting.
This is a pretty good demonstration of why terrain drastically affects battery life.
Two rides, 106mi @ 25ft/mi. And 103 mi @ 75ft/mi.
The flat ride shifted almost 3x less. And never used the little ring.

 

[duriel]

Elevation doesn't always mean you shift more, you can't make that blanket statement. They don't have a pie chart for my shifts.
If you ride up a mountain, 2500ft elevation gain, if it's all mostly 7%, you shift 10 times.
So how many times do I get to shift before I need to recharge?
How many riders are there?

 

[tlg]

Elevation doesn't always mean you shift more, you can't make that blanket statement.

I didn't make that statement.
I said "terrain"
Terrain can be consistent or varying
Which is why it "drastically affects battery life"

So how many times do I get to shift before I need to recharge?

57

 

[Lombard]

I didn't make that statement.
I said "terrain"
Terrain can be consistent or varying
Which is why it "drastically affects battery life"

57

Don't feed the troll.

 

[duriel]

I didn't make that statement.

I didn't say you did. I was refering to all the charts you posted.

57

I get 3 months of shifting between charges, sometimes 4-5. I shift way more than 57 times. I probably shift 50 times on a 30 mile local ride, I have 8-10 climbs of over 15% within 1 mile of my house. I live 1/10 or so the way up a mountain.

 

[tinball]

For those of you who like Di2/equivalents--more power to ya. Tinball's frustrations are the main reason I stick with simpler, time-tested components like mechanical shifting and rim brakes on my road bike: cheap to purchase, easy to install/repair, and proven to work for decades upon decades. As with everything, the more complicated/complex something is, the more that can go wrong. Not trying to start any trouble, just an observation.

Di2 actually isn't complicated. My frustration was from lack of knowledge and inexperience. Compared to wired shifting it's much easier to get get and keep great shifting. No bulky housing and wires to deal with. No wires to periodically replace or worry about breaking. Shifting doesn't go out unless you physically do something to the derailleurs.

I was unsure about Di2 until I got it. I wouldn't go back given the choice. I have the wireless unit so I have it paired to my Garmin and can easily monitor my battery level. If I had to guess, putting in 4-5 rides per week in season, I get about a month or just a bit less per charge but I generally don't like letting it get below 35% before charging. So it's no big deal in my opinion.

Disc brakes, I'll concede that I feel rim brakes are easier from a maintenance and adjustment standpoint. Stopping power and effort to stop goes in favor of discs however.

This build has been a learning curve for me from a few things. I have never actually had to run hydraulic lines so I was a bit nervous. But it wasn't all that bad except getting some experience on running the cables through the handle bar. Then getting the bars, fork, headset, and frame together with the lines. Difficult at first because of the lack of experience but was able to get it done.

Anyway thanks everyone in this thread for the feedback. Finally got the bike together. I had it checked out by the LBS just in case and got the all good on the build.

Here's the bike right before the first ride after work this week.

 

[Lombard]

Di2 actually isn't complicated. My frustration was from lack of knowledge and inexperience. Compared to wired shifting it's much easier to get get and keep great shifting. No bulky housing and wires to deal with. No wires to periodically replace or worry about breaking. Shifting doesn't go out unless you physically do something to the derailleurs.

I was unsure about Di2 until I got it. I wouldn't go back given the choice. I have the wireless unit so I have it paired to my Garmin and can easily monitor my battery level. If I had to guess, putting in 4-5 rides per week in season, I get about a month or just a bit less per charge but I generally don't like letting it get below 35% before charging. So it's no big deal in my opinion.

Disc brakes, I'll concede that I feel rim brakes are easier from a maintenance and adjustment standpoint. Stopping power and effort to stop goes in favor of discs however.

This build has been a learning curve for me from a few things. I have never actually had to run hydraulic lines so I was a bit nervous. But it wasn't all that bad except getting some experience on running the cables through the handle bar. Then getting the bars, fork, headset, and frame together with the lines. Difficult at first because of the lack of experience but was able to get it done.

Anyway thanks everyone in this thread for the feedback. Finally got the bike together. I had it checked out by the LBS just in case and got the all good on the build.

Here's the bike right before the first ride after work this week.

View attachment 487100

Did your brakes come pre-bled or did you have to bleed them?

 

[tinball]

Since I moved the groupset from my Pinarello Prince, I guess I had to bleed them. I purchased a new line for the rear brake and re-used the old line from the rear brake for the front. Then had to put new fluid and adjust. Not different really from normal service bleeding other than just adding alot of fluid. I have never installed new hydraulic lines so I was a bit apprehensive about it but I was surprised at how easy and straight forward it was.