Templogin wrote:[...] Now I know you lot will be leaning forward further than I was, but how far are you going to have to lean forward with a 50t on the back and the tiny chainring on the front, or are you strapping all your lightweight luggage over the front!?[...]

I use 30 t on the front to match the largest cog with 42 t on the back. Some mates use 28 t up front (smallest I've yet seen out biking). This for the Alps. For UK I used 34 t to go with a 11-42 cassette up till now, but am considering 32 t for the next visit. Do the maths, you'll see most 2 x 10 users actually run lower gears, there's just the middle ring in 1 by and no granny involved what so ever. I actually need to stay fitter to be able to climb those long ascents we have in cow country with 'ease'. Another positive aspect...

Alpinum wrote:After two years my front derailleurs all developed so much play, they had to be replaced.

How? I mean - how did they develop play and how did you manage to do that in two years? The only front mech I've ever had to replace was because the cage had worn through (too much of the wrong type of mud ) otherwise they just go on for ever.

No idea. Perhaps it's caused by the slapping chain. Play always developed at the pivot bolts of the parallelogram.

^ I think you changed gear too much!

mountainbaker wrote:^ I think you changed gear too much!

The only reason why I changed to 1 by as I developed arthritis in my left thumb

Running 3 x 1 was always going to cause that ;-)

And just when you thought it was safe ...

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/artic ... ices-46690 & review http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/artic ... iew-46692/

And yes it does cost £1173 for the whole drivetrain

Interesting that the sales spiel from SRAM is about increased strength & durability rather than gear range or whatever last year's softly spoken spell was.

whitestone wrote:And yes it does cost £1173 for the whole drivetrain .

Ha, ha, ha, so Stu was right after all, 11 days early.

Crazy, you could actually buy a pretty good bike for that money.

A 'bargain' compared with Shimano's XTR Di2. Amazing what some people are happy to pay to have the latest fashion.

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:A 'bargain' compared with Shimano's XTR Di2. Amazing what some people are happy to pay to have the latest fashion.

Hired a (road) bike with Ultegra Di2 last year in Majorca, didn't feel anything special TBH, certainly for me it's not worth the premium over the mechanical Ultegra which itself is a minor incremental improvement over 105. Like you say - fashion.

And if you forget the charge the Di2 battery. F**k that would be annoying.

whitestone wrote:

ZeroDarkBivi wrote:A 'bargain' compared with Shimano's XTR Di2. Amazing what some people are happy to pay to have the latest fashion.

Hired a (road) bike with Ultegra Di2 last year in Majorca, didn't feel anything special TBH, certainly for me it's not worth the premium over the mechanical Ultegra which itself is a minor incremental improvement over 105. Like you say - fashion.

I didn't have Mike Hall down as a fashion victim.

johnnystorm wrote:I didn't have Mike Hall down as a fashion victim.

And I'll wager as a world record breaker he didn't pay for it!

From Mike's on Tweet:

"sub standard ride today in sub standard weather, started late due to leaky roof and ended early as I forgot to charge the Di2 in past few months. Balls."

I'd still give it a go if anybody from Shimano wants to post some out to me...

As his tweet suggests, battery life is measured in months. Not really shimano's fault if you don't charge it every 3 months.
I' m inclined to agree that ultegra mechanical is very nearly as good as di2, but there are some features like the self trimming front mech and the perfect shift every time that sets it apart.
The real plus of xtr di2 is with running a front mech and still only having one set of shifter buttons. This software is coming on future road sets too I believe. If you run a single ring up front I don't think it'll make much difference over mechanical shifting.

PeteG wrote:As his tweet suggests, battery life is measured in months. Not really shimano's fault if you don't charge it every 3 months.
I' m inclined to agree that ultegra mechanical is very nearly as good as di2, but there are some features like the self trimming front mech and the perfect shift every time that sets it apart.
The real plus of xtr di2 is with running a front mech and still only having one set of shifter buttons. This software is coming on future road sets too I believe. If you run a single ring up front I don't think it'll make much difference over mechanical shifting.

I was kind of waiting for someone to write this (in this little di2 discussion) as it just shows you how handy it is to just be bothered with one shifter for all your gears to go back to the original topic - big range cassettes.

Alpinum wrote:No idea. Perhaps it's caused by the slapping chain. Play always developed at the pivot bolts of the parallelogram.

I killed two SRAM front mechs last summer training and racing 24's - it happens.

SRAM?

If you can't make it, make it obsolete.

ScotRoutes wrote:SRAM?

If you can't make it, make it obsolete.

Possibly quite true. If Shimano did gripshift for 10 speed I'd dump SRAM in an instant. Not a fan of triggers.