super_davo
Über Member
For Di2, to me one of the major benefits is in maintenance rather than in use. You get it set up once, and don't need to touch it again, just charge it.
This appeals to the sort of person that takes their bike to the shop to get serviced once a year rather doing their own fettling.
Judging by the comments on this thread hardly any of the posters here are that sort of person (me neither) but you need to acknowledge that sort of person exists (and I know a fair few of them).
All this "if it breaks you can't fix it yourself" stuff doesn't register because they wouldn't be fixing it themselves in the first place! And Di2 is largely reliable, its been around 12 years now and I know people with 10 year old sets that are still in use.
The other thing to consider is 12 speed itself - the way Shimano have the gearing choices is largely for people to have one chainset, one cassette, and use it whether in the mountains or in the fens. That might not be a benefit if you are used to flipping cassettes over from 12-25 to 11-32 depending on where you are riding, but it is to some people.
Bikes are getting more aero, integrated, harder to work on. The latest groupsets are really just following that trend. Of course some people will say that is a terrible thing and that they managed fine with the old stuff; to which I say pick it up on eBay for buttons when the people that need to have the latest thing are upgrading their kit....
This appeals to the sort of person that takes their bike to the shop to get serviced once a year rather doing their own fettling.
Judging by the comments on this thread hardly any of the posters here are that sort of person (me neither) but you need to acknowledge that sort of person exists (and I know a fair few of them).
All this "if it breaks you can't fix it yourself" stuff doesn't register because they wouldn't be fixing it themselves in the first place! And Di2 is largely reliable, its been around 12 years now and I know people with 10 year old sets that are still in use.
The other thing to consider is 12 speed itself - the way Shimano have the gearing choices is largely for people to have one chainset, one cassette, and use it whether in the mountains or in the fens. That might not be a benefit if you are used to flipping cassettes over from 12-25 to 11-32 depending on where you are riding, but it is to some people.
Bikes are getting more aero, integrated, harder to work on. The latest groupsets are really just following that trend. Of course some people will say that is a terrible thing and that they managed fine with the old stuff; to which I say pick it up on eBay for buttons when the people that need to have the latest thing are upgrading their kit....
