Shimano Di2

[John the Monkey]

Will there be a version for down tube shifters ?

One of the cooler things about electronic shifting is that, in theory, you can have the change buttons anywhere, and have as many as you want. It's one of the reasons Mavic's electronic shifting system stayed in use longer on time trial bikes than it did on "standard" racing bikes, apparently.

 

[Arch]

The speed of the gear change is not so important, as others have said the manual changes are pretty fast already. I think the automatic trimming is the main advantage this system has and that could save a lot of fiddling when on the road. Shimano claim that once it's set up the settings will not alter and so we should have perfect alignment all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a) I think that's likely to prove to be rubbish and
- does it not have moving parts? Moving parts wear, and that causes the changes in alignment.

I also reckon any advantage accrued in lack of wear will be more than made up for in the nuisance of needing a new battery or recharging. And I bet a new battery won't be one from the pound shop, either.