Buying a new bike? Yes to electronic shifting and disc brakes!

 Why you NEED to upgrade to Di2 and Disc Brakes!

Okay, you don’t actually NEED to, but you want to.  If you are in the market for a new bike, be sure to spend the extra money on the electronic shifting and disc brakes.

In MY opinion, here is why.

ELECTRONIC SHIFTING: Di2, eTap, 

CONSISTENCY: you will hit the gear you want every time, perfectly. 

EASE: It’s the touch of a button not pulling or pushing a lever down, touch and you are up or down a gear.  

CORRECT GEAR:  With one button to touch, most riders are in the right gear all the time, it’s quick and precise.   Especially on a TT bike, if you are riding a TT bike with mechanical shifting, the shift levers will be positioned at the front of the aero extensions, easy access when you are in your aero bars.  But you are not able to change gears when you’re riding out of the saddle with your hands on the base bar, this is when you need to be able to shift! With electronic shifting, you have a 2nd set of shifters on the base bar, so you can change hears when you are sitting up, out of the saddle, or coming out of a corner.  When you are riding in the wrong gear you either lose power or more likely are grinding away torching your quads before you start the run.  It’s also easy to shift under load vs forcing the lever.

NO CHAIN RUBBING:  

Once your system is set up correctly, no matter what sprocket you are in you never need to make adjustments to prevent the chain rubbing on the front mech’s side plates, it is done automatically.

 

MINIMAL MAINTENANCE: 

With electronic shifting, there is minimal maintenance once you are set up.  There is no derailleur rubbing, cables to be replaced, really you just need to remember to charge the battery.  You may need to install D-Fly for Shimano so your Garmin can find the Di2, you definitely want to do this as you can then program shifting, see battery, gear ratio, etc.  But if your battery runs out, it defaults to the small ring first and you can still ride the 50miles home, or so I have heard. 

 

 

 

 

 DISC Brakes

What are they?  RIm Brakes, the braking is on the outer edge of the rim (duh) of the weel.  Disc brakes apple the braking in the middle of the wheel on a rotar. 

Why I like them?

• You can actually stop.  Disc brakes generate greater power with less pressure on the levers,  Tapping the brakes and you can stop, vs cramping hands praying you can stop. 

• They work on wet roads. There is no delay as there are with rim brakes.

• Bottom line, I feel safer. I can feather the brakes and control speed and have the assurance I can stop quickly.

Cons:  They are heavier, they are more expensive, and if your bike currently has rim brakes, you will have to buy a new bike, which may or may not be a con.  And you will have to buy new race wheels if your old wheels are rim brakes, so consider that.   I realized that AFTER I bought my P5, lying awake dreaming about my cool bike and how my disc wheel and Enve 7 /8’s would not work on the new bike.  Oops, time for a set of 808’s! 

There are always people who will argue I am well aware, this is my opinion! All my bikes have Di2, and I will never ride a manual bike again. 2 of my 3 bikes have disc brakes and I love them and gravitate to those bikes for that reason. 

Both of these cost more, but they are 100% worth it!!