Update: With the availability of SRAM Red and more recently, Force eTap AXS, I’ll be updating this article in the coming weeks once I get a complete understanding of how they work.My first impression is, SRAM has finally caught up with the Shimano Di2 in terms of customisation and features. Wireless is a nice to have, but it comes with a very heavy price tag.If you’re looking to got a major upgrade from mechanical to electronic shifting, this is the ideal time for 2 reasons. The introduction of Force eTap has brought down the prices of not only the Red eTap (available at, ) but also both the Shimano Dura Ace and Ultegra Di2 groupsets (available at ).–You’re probably considering going down the electronic groupset path and that’s why you’re here.Let me start with saying this.You definitely won’t regret going for electronic shifting. So now the question comes down to, which electronic shifting system is it?SRAM eTap vs Shimano Di2?Perhaps Campagnolo EPS?I’ll share with you which is the best electronic groupset (from my experience) that represents the best value for money.I’ll also do a detailed comparison between the Shimano Di2 and SRAM eTap.Read More:As for now, I’ll leave Campagnolo’s EPS aside. That’s for another day.Before we begin, this won’t be a full on review on the entire Dura-Ace Di2, Ultegra Di2 or SRAM Red eTap electronic groupset.The main focus will be on the electronic shifting side. This is going to be a long post.So I’d let you know right away which electronic groupset I think represents the best value for money today.It’s the Shimano Ultegra Di2.Functionalities wise, the Ultegra Di2 is exactly the same as the Dura-Ace Di2.
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They even look the same except for the Ultegra wording which is not really noticeable unless you take a really close look.Read More:Another difference is obviously, the weight which is due to the different materials used. But for now, here’s an important question to ask yourself.Ask Yourself: Are you upgrading your existing groupset or getting a new bike all together?If you’re upgrading your existing groupset, you’ll only need the upgrade kit which consists of the front and rear derailleurs, shifters, batteries, charger and cables.If you’re currently using the mechanical SRAM Red22, then you might want to stay with SRAM and go for the Red eTap. The brakes are the same except if you’re going after hydraulic disc brakes.Alternatively, you might also want to consider the Shimano Ultegra Di2.Even if that involves changing the brakes, the whole package (including brakes) would cost you around the same price for the SRAM Red eTap upgrade kit. You can also reuse the existing Red 22 brakes if you’re not fussy about mismatch looks.But if you’re getting a new bike, then you can start from ground up, especially with the braking system.
Most cyclists I know would go for hydraulic disc brakes.Yes, they do look cool.Here’s a quick comparison table between the Shimano Di2 and SRAM eTap. ETap is the next generation, electronic shifting system from SRAM, replacing their famous mechanical shifting, the Double Tap.
ETap refers to Electronic Tap.There are two variants of the SRAM Red eTap; for rim brakes (dual pivot and direct mount) and hydraulic disc brakes (commonly referred as HRD, or Hydraulic Road Disc).Unlike Shimano, SRAM doesn’t have a mid-tier electronic groupset for the SRAM Force. But things could change with the impending official SRAM Red eTap 12 speed announcement.At the Saitama Tour de France Criterium in Japan back in early November 2018, SRAM teased us with a 12 speed Red eTap groupset. It was spotted by Japanese photographer Kei Tsuji on Katusha Alpecin’s Nils Pollitt bike. Shimano launched their first commercial Di2 groupset back in 2009 while SRAM was late to the party with its Red eTap groupset only available in early 2016.Prior to this, Mavic had also tried twice to introduce electronic shifting in the 90’s with the Zap in 1992 and Mektronic in 1999. Both failed to gain any meaningful traction due to reliability issues and never seen daylight since then.The first major and obvious difference between the Di2 and eTap is the wired vs wireless system.SRAM uses their own proprietary wireless communication protocol called Airea which operates on the 2.4Ghz frequency band, the same frequency band your home WiFi router operates on. Airea is used to communicate between the shifters and derailleurs.SRAM claims that it uses a 128-bit rolling encryption that’s so secure that even the people who developed it, can’t hack it. In short, you don’t have to worry about the cyclist next to you messing up with your shifts.In case you’re wondering, the eTap shifting system does support the ANT+ protocol.It was the first ever electronic groupset to use the ANT+ Shifting device profile, enabling you to see your current gear and battery status on compatible GPS head units like the Garmin Edge 520/1020 and Wahoo Elemnt.
On the other hand, the Shimano maintains its wired electronic shifting for their 3rd generation Di2. According to Shimano, the pros told them that the Di2 system is so reliable that there’s no need to change them.Having said that, there’s a wireless component in the Di2 system where it supports ANT+ and Bluetooth.
To make this happen, you’ll need to buy the, or formerly known as the D-Fly in the previous generation.Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with the Di2 out from the box. You’ll also need to buy an additional short cable, preferably 150mm.Be warned that there are numerous stories about performing a software update on the Di2 system wirelessly. There are many instances that the. Always update the Di2 software via PC (Mac is not supported) and only use the wireless unit to make changes to how you want the shifts to work.
From the table above, you can see that the mechanical SRAM Red 22 is still lightest groupset.But once you move into the electronic shifting territory, things get a little murky and there’s really no clear winner here. You’re probably looking at around 200g to 300g additional weight gain when moving from a mechanical groupset to an electronic groupset.While you got rid of all the derailleur cables, you’re also adding in things such as batteries, junction boxes and the electronic cables. Or perhaps satellite shifters if you want more customisation.The weight difference is minimal in my opinion. You’re basically paying a premium if you opt for the Dura-Ace Di2 instead of the Ultegra Di2.Here’s a quick low down of the weight differences of the complete groupsets.
There are no derailleurs cables needed for the eTap except for the brake cables. This makes the eTap aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. If you’ve an old bike frame that doesn’t have all the cable routing needed for a Shimano Di2 system, eTap is a great choice if you decide to pimp it up.Meanwhile with the Di2, Shimano has greatly reduced the number of cables visible.
There are no more shift cables for the front and rear derailleurs visible on the handlebars and the ugly cable loop at the rear derailleur.There are only 2 cables visible; one from the handlebar/junction box into the head tube and another from the seat stay to the rear derailleurs. On the other hand, the Shimano Di2 shifters have undergone a major update. The hoods have shrunk significantly for the rim brake version and even more for the hydraulic disc brake version.You can tell just by looking at it.The brake levers now have a slimmer frontal view, giving you a very minor aerodynamics gain and the shift buttons are slightly larger, which is handy if you’re wearing full-finger winter gloves.The larger buttons also give a better tactile feel whenever you press on them, ensuring you don’t miss a gear shift. For maintenance work, there’s a small shift button on the derailleurs to make indexing easy at the workshop or at home.The front derailleur has a built-in smart shift functionality.
Here’s what SRAM says about it.Depending on which gear you’ve selected on the rear derailleur, the eTap front derailleur will vary how far it initially moves the chain before settling in a moment later to its final position relative to the chainring selected.Overall shifting is crisp and precise as expected.However, there are feedbacks from many cyclists that there is a minor delay between pressing the shift paddle and the gear shifts. SRAM has came out to say that this is done on purpose to prolong the battery life.
The Shadow technology has been a mainstay in Shimano’s mountain bike groupsets (Deore onwards) for a long time. Only recently did Shimano finally made it available to the road groupsets, both electronic and mechanical.With Shadow Technology, the derailleur body is now positioned directly below the cassette rather than outward, to its right irregardless of whether it’s in a high or low gear.Read More:Here’s what Shimano says about the Shadow Technology.Because of its low profile and single tension construction, the derailleur does not hit the chain stay in rough riding conditions. The result is smooth and silent performance. The Synchro Shifting is where the Shimano Di2 sets itself apart from the eTap. It’s backwards compatible with the previous R6870 and R9070 Di2.The idea behind Synchro Shifting is an automatic front derailleur shift, depending on where the chain is at the rear cassette.
In other words, you’ll never need to shift the front derailleurs, making your bike like a 1X.To enable Synchro Shifting, you’ll need to have the latest battery unit, either the internal version (BT-DN110) or external (BM-DN100), and a software update. The newer battery has a larger memory size and processing power which is required by Synchro Shifting.Take note that the previous battery (SM-BTR2) looks exactly as the new one (BT-DN110), but doesn’t support Synchro Shifting.There are 3 settings when it comes to Synchro Shifting. Fully Manual. This is similar to how you’d usually shift.
The shifts only happen when you press the buttons. Semi Synchro. This is where the rear derailleur will shift automatically in response to the front derailleur shift. For example, you’re running 53T x 25T and you shift the front to a 39T.
With this, the rear will automatically shift to the 18T so that you’ll get to maintain the same gear ratio and cadence, and vice versa. Fully Synchro. With Fully Synchro, you won’t need to worry about shifting the front derailleurs. It will shift automatically depending on which cog you’re on the cassette.
You can program where the shift happens via the E-Tube app. For example, you can configure the front derailleur to shift to the small ring when you’re at 25T, 21T or even at 17T, and vice versa.Here’s what Shimano says about Synchro Shifting.Synchronized Shifting is designed to complement rather than replace manual shifting and is especially useful when you are using auxiliary sprint, climbing or TT shifters, or, for Dura-Ace, the shifter buttons on the top of the hoods.In short, if you’re climbing with your hands on top the handlebar, you can easily shift the front derailleurs by just shifting the rear derailleurs. The gear change at the rear will trigger the front derailleur to shift. Meanwhile, the eTap rear derailleurs come in two variants; the standard derailleur cage supports 11-28T and the long-cage, WiFli supports 11-32T.There are major differences between the two variants besides the WiFli having a longer derailleur cage.
The WiFli derailleur’s upper pulley has a greater offset to provider more clearance between the pulley and the cassette.Another difference is the WiFli derailleur is positioned higher and further rearward to allow for more clearance between the upper pulley wheels and cassette especially the 32T. Hence, you can’t simply replace the standard derailleur with the longer WiFli cage. It’s much more complex than that.
The eTap requires four batteries in total to operate; one rechargeable battery each in the derailleurs and one CR2032 coin battery in each shifter.The derailleur batteries has around 60 hours of usage, which equates to around 600 miles of riding. The CR2032 coin batteries can last up to 2 years and can be easily changed at home by unscrewing the battery caps under the rubber hoods.With removable batteries used in the eTap, you can easily swap the front and rear derailleur batteries.
If you’re really unlucky in the event both batteries are flat, you can swap with anyone who runs a eTap on their bike.SRAM also advises to remove the batteries when you’re traveling so that they eTap is not accidentally activated through transit.Charging the batteries is nothing complicated. Just remove them and plug into the charger. It takes around 45 minutes for a full charge. There’s only a single battery used in the Shimano Di2. In most installation, it’s located inside the seatpost, well hidden from plain sight. This single battery is used to control the entire system which makes it easy to use.The new Shimano Di2 batteries (BT-DN110) have larger capacity and has approximately twice the run time of the eTap, in the region of around 120 hours.For most of us, that equates to anywhere between 1.5 to 4 months before needing a recharge.
Since it can be quite a long time since the last recharge, it’s very common to hear cyclists having a flat Di2 battery.With a single battery, it becomes a single point of failure. A flat battery will quickly turn your bike into a single speed.
You can’t even swap batteries with anyone.Charging wise, since the battery isn’t removable, the bike needs to be placed near a plug point. You can only go as far as the cable allows you, typically up to 4-5 feet. So it’s now over to you which electronic groupset you want to get for your bike.I hope that after reading this page, you’d learn a lot more about both the Di2 and eTap electronic shifting systems.As for me, I’d go for the Shimano Ultegra Di2 as they represent the best value for money. It comes with exactly the same functionalities and shifting performance as the Dura-Ace Di2, but at 60% cheaper and a few hundred grams heavier.Shimano has been cutting the prices of it’s Dura Ace and Ultegra Di2 groupsets after the introduction of the SRAM Force eTAP AXS recently.
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