Will electronic shifting transform this reader’s bike?
I think I’ll be sticking with cables for the foreseeable future.
Call me old-fashioned but electronic stuff has more points of failure, and seems harder to service?
Should be easier to service. No adjusting cable tension, routing new cables through frames… Just calibrate through the app and go for a perfect shift everytime.
I have 105 mechanical and can’t fault it really. I have ridden a SRAM electronic shift and it was very nice. But essential, no.
I guess I’m old fashioned too, but it’s pretty funny when you’re out on a ride and your mate has to stop because their derailleur ran out of batteries.
I’ve ever had a shifter cable fail on me in 20 years of riding, including stints as a bike courier and two continental circumnavigations.
Electric shifting is the most useless thing on derailleur bikes. The only sensible use case I’ve heard of is the electric motor gearbox where when you press the shifter it delays until the next mechanically optimal moment so you don’t grind gears or whatever would be happening in there.
Why only derailleur bikes? Doesn’t seem any better with an internal hub either.
It can make more sense on an ebike though!


