As I said... "If it made financial sense to cater to the small minority of luddites.. they would. But it doesn't. So they won't."
Both SRAM and Shimano note that people just aren't buying mechanical.
The death of Ultegra mechanical can only mean one thing.
cyclingtips.com
Electronic dominance
No one can deny that mechanical shifting has a sizeable advantage over electronic shifting in terms of serviceability and often weight (particularly at anything other than flagship price points).
However, in conversations with countless product managers from various bicycle brands in recent months about consumer preferences,
the answer is always the same: when given the option,
so few people are actually buying the cable-actuated stuff that it’s impossible to justify keeping it around from a financial point of view.
One only has to look at SRAM’s recent product development to see evidence of this trend in real time.
It’s been a very different story for SRAM’s mechanical road groupsets. Despite plenty of love and loyalty from hardcore enthusiasts, it’s basically a case of the
highly vocal minority.
The current generation of SRAM’s Red 22
mechanical groupset hasn’t been updated since its last revamp in 2013.
From an engineering standpoint, it wouldn’t take much for SRAM to update its mechanical road groupsets to the 12-speed format....
In all likelihood, SRAM has the resources to do this, and
you’d better believe that if the demand (and profit margins) was there, the company would make it happen. However, SRAM has clearly decided the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, and its OEM partners apparently feel the same way (though that hasn’t kept third-party tinkerer Ratio Technology from doing it on a retrofit basis).
As promised,
Di2’s shift performance is uncannily faster and more precise, it’s more consistent over time than mechanical setups, and many riders just prefer the lighter feel of short-stroke buttons instead of bigger levers with more throw.
I anticipate that — unlike with Ultegra — Shimano will continue to offer 105 in a mechanical version, which will assuredly also make the jump to 12-speed. If only to keep OEM product managers happy, I would guess that the new 105 mechanical would hold pretty firm on the end cost, or maybe just increase slightly. Nevertheless, it seems likely that — at least as far as Shimano is concerned —
105 will now be the brand’s top mechanical offering.