Did not see this coming di2 style alfine.

Singletrack Magazine | Shimano 2013 - Alfine Di2 and other Shimano Tech

Yeah quite left field. I wonder who is meant to buy this- high end touring bike riders?
I gather it will be quite expensive.

for the beardo with too much money…

They need to fix the hub before they attach electronic shit to it.

Dura Ace 9000 series is going to get a 50 page e-rant thread on FOA when the pics come out. Every time they revise their road groups they get pillocked for whatever annoying design feature they add - despite this they sell heaps, so logically if they add a dozen irritating features it should sell 12 x heaps.

  • Joel

Is that an oxymoron?

I reckon this is pretty cool. Could see me getting my electronics nerd on and modding up a slick commuter with one of these hubs. Like that di2 monster that was posted a while back.

Really? Why could you not see it coming? It’s like an automatic gearbox. The early adopters of those were Rolls Royce and Cadillac. Not exactly sporting marques. This is the perfect market for Di2. The commuter or even MAMIL who CBF with the hard work of figuring out how to change a gear without doing a Schleck on Port de Balès.

In the Pink was telling me today, there a di2 for Rohloff as well.

^have seen a number of home made electronic actuators used on both the Alfine and Rohloff… pretty sure there were some on evilbay not long ago

Shimano have had electric shifting hub gear groups on offer in hubgear land (Europe) for years. They entered the US market with an uggo Trek 3 speed that had a dyno front that powered the system with an automatic shifting 3 speed in about 2008 IIRC, it failed and went away. Ai2 will probably do quite well with e-bikes and other hubgeared offerings in the EU.

Possibly DA 9000 crankset? Let the e-rant begin!

I’m hanging to see it. Will be unlikely to buy one.

More excited to see what extra stuff the aftermarket crowd bring in in terms of shifters and computers… jump on your bike, Bluetooth on. Set your program. Cadence drops below 85 - auto downshift. When the Shimano Di2 war machine gets fully wound up in another 2-3 years expect to see some mostly useless but cool and geeky options.

Elliptical 4 bolt, that fits with what I’ve heard. I’m going to start hoarding my 7700 stuff, three generations behind is vintage, right?

  • Joel

Shimano did an autoshifting electronic 4 speed hub gear over a decade ago, Auto-D from memory. Shimano have been working on the concept for a long time.