As a pro who has traveled with mechanical and AXS bikes, breaking down Botha road or tt bike to put into a bike case is 1000000x easier with AXS. I can spin my bars to either side without having any worry of brake or shift cables being severed (hydraulic hoses are virtually indestructible at this junction) and there isn’t any limit to how the cables need to lay to not put tons of strain on said cables. Also, I can completely detach the rear derailleur and carry it on the plane with me to make sure neither the derailleur or hanger are damaged in transit. Absolute bliss with AXS for travel. Also on the tt/triathlon bikes, you said 2 blips and a derailleur, however I paired 2 sets of blips to my derailleur with my road bikes shifter and I have two derailleurs and 4 blips total on the system. No wires in sight and no extra weight to carry around a Blipbox. Great video!!
I'm far from pro, but i second this 10x. AXS is so easy to pack and move around that it made me swap from shimano (even preferring shimano shifting) When using rim brake i even swapped the bars on my road bike to a tt bar quite often depending on the event.
Glad to see my comment made the cut! The comment about our dependency on electronics opens a can of worms. Yes, cars, planes, etc. I race/build cars and also fly small planes. There is a parallel here. Try keeping an old EFI car running, much less modify it. I used to be a big tech guy with the laptop, tuning all the time. It's a scam. I would have to change the software, the engine mgmt hardware, and troubleshoot all the time. This stuff would go obsolete and lose support in a blink of an eye. I swirched to purely mechanical equipment and have not looked back. Similarly, virtually no GA aircraft depend on electronics to fly. Even brand new airplanes have magnetos and mechanical fuel injection. Unlike a modern airliner, these planes have withstood the test of time. I got my ppl in 1964 and 1968 cessna 172s. A Boeing 777 has billions invested and a phalanx of engineers to keep it flying and turning a profit. A c172 needs to be easy to troubleshoot and easy to repair. Thats why they last. This is the same for bikes - if it's making you money and/or you understand that it's disposable, electronic shifting makes sense. You arent going to troubleshoot a burned out trace on your shifter pcb. And when electronics fail it's usually 100% with no warning. Mechanical stuff starts to degrade long before full failure. Besides, does an electric shift make you faster? No. The opportunity cost at the oem is huge here. Anyway how about a promo code for an omega one brake to bring in the new year! 😁
For tri and TT bikes, I think non-wireless is dead. Why? Wireless allows me to separate the front end of my bike for regular and easy adjustments. I can adjust based on changing riding and positional needs from short UCI TT 25Kms to longer 100-200Km endurance rides. I also outside aero test. I can adjust my front end to suit so quickly and easily now and it's GREAT and I won't go back. Two related comments. First, I believe aero sensors will soon'ish (it's been a promise for a long time now) will drive an expansion of aero testing for a larger group of people. Bike adjustment will be important for this and wireless really helps. Second, I have a budget build and use Archer Components (rip) which is amazing and cost effective, but cost is an issue for wireless. I believe this is especially true outside the USA. In future, I wonder if I will move to SRAM AXS, or will it be TRP or another smaller or emerging brand ( e.g. Wheeltop or LTWOO) that has a tri/TT wireless solution.
Thanks for the kind words! To be fair to Di2, you can basically make all the same adjustments as with wireless systems, and almost as easily. You can detach a Di2 bar via the single wire heading down the downtube, and sure your extensions are wired, but most setups have lots of slack for going up/down/forward/back with impunity. Nevertheless, to your point I do really gravitate towards AXS for the simplicity. The Clics and 1x advancements have been decisive for me, I just wouldn't agree that Di2 is going anywhere.
Good point about the ease of DI2 cabling. I think this is quite valid for those already DI2 invested or purchasing a new bike. Less so for upgrades from mechanical.
No need to go more budget than AXS. a rival rear derailleur and two sets of blips is less than $500. You’re not going to find much cheaper than that! And now that there are 3rd party 12 speed cassettes compatible with Axs around $50, they are going to be hard to beat.
When I decided to get a new bike (for general riding and tri events) I went with SRAM mainly because of the blip buttons and removal battery. Last month, I upgraded my old bike with SRAM Rival. Won’t go back to mechanical again.
Electronics is here to stay, yes, but so is mechanical. Mechanical is dead only in the minds of the haters, and boy, there is a lot is space in THAT cemetery!
As a pro who has traveled with mechanical and AXS bikes, breaking down Botha road or tt bike to put into a bike case is 1000000x easier with AXS. I can spin my bars to either side without having any worry of brake or shift cables being severed (hydraulic hoses are virtually indestructible at this junction) and there isn’t any limit to how the cables need to lay to not put tons of strain on said cables. Also, I can completely detach the rear derailleur and carry it on the plane with me to make sure neither the derailleur or hanger are damaged in transit. Absolute bliss with AXS for travel. Also on the tt/triathlon bikes, you said 2 blips and a derailleur, however I paired 2 sets of blips to my derailleur with my road bikes shifter and I have two derailleurs and 4 blips total on the system. No wires in sight and no extra weight to carry around a Blipbox. Great video!!
I'm far from pro, but i second this 10x.
AXS is so easy to pack and move around that it made me swap from shimano (even preferring shimano shifting)
When using rim brake i even swapped the bars on my road bike to a tt bar quite often depending on the event.
Glad to see my comment made the cut!
The comment about our dependency on electronics opens a can of worms. Yes, cars, planes, etc.
I race/build cars and also fly small planes. There is a parallel here. Try keeping an old EFI car running, much less modify it. I used to be a big tech guy with the laptop, tuning all the time. It's a scam. I would have to change the software, the engine mgmt hardware, and troubleshoot all the time. This stuff would go obsolete and lose support in a blink of an eye.
I swirched to purely mechanical equipment and have not looked back.
Similarly, virtually no GA aircraft depend on electronics to fly. Even brand new airplanes have magnetos and mechanical fuel injection.
Unlike a modern airliner, these planes have withstood the test of time. I got my ppl in 1964 and 1968 cessna 172s.
A Boeing 777 has billions invested and a phalanx of engineers to keep it flying and turning a profit. A c172 needs to be easy to troubleshoot and easy to repair. Thats why they last.
This is the same for bikes - if it's making you money and/or you understand that it's disposable, electronic shifting makes sense. You arent going to troubleshoot a burned out trace on your shifter pcb.
And when electronics fail it's usually 100% with no warning. Mechanical stuff starts to degrade long before full failure. Besides, does an electric shift make you faster? No. The opportunity cost at the oem is huge here.
Anyway how about a promo code for an omega one brake to bring in the new year! 😁
For tri and TT bikes, I think non-wireless is dead. Why? Wireless allows me to separate the front end of my bike for regular and easy adjustments. I can adjust based on changing riding and positional needs from short UCI TT 25Kms to longer 100-200Km endurance rides. I also outside aero test. I can adjust my front end to suit so quickly and easily now and it's GREAT and I won't go back. Two related comments. First, I believe aero sensors will soon'ish (it's been a promise for a long time now) will drive an expansion of aero testing for a larger group of people. Bike adjustment will be important for this and wireless really helps. Second, I have a budget build and use Archer Components (rip) which is amazing and cost effective, but cost is an issue for wireless. I believe this is especially true outside the USA. In future, I wonder if I will move to SRAM AXS, or will it be TRP or another smaller or emerging brand ( e.g. Wheeltop or LTWOO) that has a tri/TT wireless solution.
btw, great series of vids over the past few months. enjoying the engagement and sharing of thoughts.
Thanks for the kind words! To be fair to Di2, you can basically make all the same adjustments as with wireless systems, and almost as easily. You can detach a Di2 bar via the single wire heading down the downtube, and sure your extensions are wired, but most setups have lots of slack for going up/down/forward/back with impunity. Nevertheless, to your point I do really gravitate towards AXS for the simplicity. The Clics and 1x advancements have been decisive for me, I just wouldn't agree that Di2 is going anywhere.
Good point about the ease of DI2 cabling. I think this is quite valid for those already DI2 invested or purchasing a new bike. Less so for upgrades from mechanical.
No need to go more budget than AXS. a rival rear derailleur and two sets of blips is less than $500. You’re not going to find much cheaper than that! And now that there are 3rd party 12 speed cassettes compatible with Axs around $50, they are going to be hard to beat.
When I decided to get a new bike (for general riding and tri events) I went with SRAM mainly because of the blip buttons and removal battery. Last month, I upgraded my old bike with SRAM Rival. Won’t go back to mechanical again.
Electronics is here to stay, yes, but so is mechanical.
Mechanical is dead only in the minds of the haters, and boy, there is a lot is space in THAT cemetery!