Cheers Sanesh,
Could you elaborate on your point re. electrical systems?
I purposely didn’t go into Di2 / E-Tap for a couple reasons:
1) This is a mountain bike site and I can count on one finger the number of riders I’ve bumped into with a Di2-Mountain setup that they actually bought (I.E. that didn’t work for a website or manufacturer or as a sponsored rider). As far as I can tell ~ no one bought into it? I’ve never even seen the XT Di2 in person. I know plenty of people with Di2 road bikes and it seems to have been well supported.
2) When I tested an XTR Di2 bike my personal takeaway was that if I broke the billion dollar rear derailleur I’d replace it with an XTR cable shifter and XT rear derailleur and spend the difference on coffee and beer. Every other part is inter-compatible.
In the same vein I think Live-Valve is pretty meaningless. The fork isn’t self-servicing so after a few months of hard local use its still going to need a basic or feel like crap. If there’s an issue out of warranty it’s going to be more cost effective to convert it back to analog. It’s so expensive for such a little potential return I see the vast majority of riders putting their budget into other upgrades. I’m a total nerd, as you know, so I’ll certainly have my eyes open for my first non-industry Live-Valve sighting.
Nov. 14, 2018, 4:40 p.m. - Andrew Major
Cheers Sanesh, Could you elaborate on your point re. electrical systems? I purposely didn’t go into Di2 / E-Tap for a couple reasons: 1) This is a mountain bike site and I can count on one finger the number of riders I’ve bumped into with a Di2-Mountain setup that they actually bought (I.E. that didn’t work for a website or manufacturer or as a sponsored rider). As far as I can tell ~ no one bought into it? I’ve never even seen the XT Di2 in person. I know plenty of people with Di2 road bikes and it seems to have been well supported. 2) When I tested an XTR Di2 bike my personal takeaway was that if I broke the billion dollar rear derailleur I’d replace it with an XTR cable shifter and XT rear derailleur and spend the difference on coffee and beer. Every other part is inter-compatible. In the same vein I think Live-Valve is pretty meaningless. The fork isn’t self-servicing so after a few months of hard local use its still going to need a basic or feel like crap. If there’s an issue out of warranty it’s going to be more cost effective to convert it back to analog. It’s so expensive for such a little potential return I see the vast majority of riders putting their budget into other upgrades. I’m a total nerd, as you know, so I’ll certainly have my eyes open for my first non-industry Live-Valve sighting.