Culture going wireless

If I've learned anything over the past year its that people obsessively cling to things, whether it be people, pass times, what have you, and in conjuncture cyclists are no exception to this rule, and in many cases the outliers we all hear about. Case in point; my own personal flow chart on some of the various divisions of the sport.

Fixed Geared Culture:
njs culture , track culture, city fixed gear culture , riser handle bar culture, 144bcd culture

Road Culture:
Campy/Shimano/Sram culture/obsession, century culture, STP culture
Cross Culture:
Embrocation Culture, Pain/Nihilistic Culture, Winter Culture

Touring Culture:
Riding long distances and watching pretty sunset culture... the list continues.


It seems for whatever discipline people settle on there's the corresponding culture, and subculture that go along with said culture and while I have no real problem against any of this I'm curious to see where this particular innovation lands...

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/road-bikes/product-road-bike-root-category/2009-shimano-dura-ace-di2-st-7970-sti-levers-5957.2333.0.NONAV.html

Yes, Shimano has apparently perfected that which can sometimes be the most annoying thing on a bicycle, and subsequently the reason why many ride fixed to begin with, besides the culture side of it anyway...

NO MORE CABLES! Shifting cables that is but don't trust my word, competitive cyclist has already beat me to it...



For all the chatter about electronic shifting replacing mechanical, the place where people will love it or hate it is at the shift lever. Shimano rightly lavished plenty of attention when they designed the Dura Ace Di2 Dual Control levers.

In order for the Di2 levers to work at shifting your bike, they must be used in conjunction with the Di2 front derailleur, rear derailleur, battery pack, and wiring kit.

The most obvious advantage to going electronic is the fact that the cable routing doesn't add friction to the system. No cables = no friction. Add to that the system is fast. Really fast. Faster than downtube shifting. 30% faster than shifting on mechanical Shimano Dura Ace 7900. Better still, the shifting feel is much lighter. You can do it when you're tired. You can do it with "weak" fingers. You don't have to move your wrists or forearm.

Unlike mechanical Dura Ace, the Di2 shift lever blade doesn't move inward. Instead there are two paddles behind the unidirectional carbon-fiber lever blade. The one closer to the handlebar still does the traditional shifting with the spring (aka onto smaller cogs in the rear, onto bigger in the front), and the one further does the traditional shifting against the spring (aka onto taller cogs in back onto smaller in front). They each have 2mm of travel. Each push results in one shift. Though if you're coasting, you can "pre-shift" any number of gears, and the system will take up the shifting when you start pedaling.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for any following "cable culture" to emerge from the dust that is Dura Ace Di2 but I'm not sure where exactly it will go in my little flow chart, or if it should be there in the first place.