Shimano DuraAce Wireless – 12 speed?
From this Instagram video post, further below, by Remco Evenepoe, it looks like he’s got a wireless DuraAce setup there. Either that or someone’s stolen the rear mech’s power cable, look closely at the image above.
This image, below, shows the front mech which is a bit blurred. The motor casing looks the same shape as on my Shimano Di2 but perhaps it might be a tad taller and a tad more angular? I’m not sure, thoughts? The original source for this story was road.cc and they speculated that this could also be a 12-speed setup too, I’m not so sure about that. Again, in the image below, I can just about make out 10 cogs (meaning there are probably 11 rather than 12)
What would this mean?
Let’s assume it’s not 12-speed.
First up it would mean that many of us will have to go out and spend hundreds of $/Eu/£ on new kit for absolutely no good reason 😉
Moving to wireless means that a Shimano setup no longer requires a battery hidden somewhere in the frame (mine’s in the seatpost). The battery is easily swappable and what little maintenance there is, is slightly easier but the obvious big win is that you don’t need to run cables inside the frame and those cables are expensive when bought on the aftermarket.
The big downside is that you have to worry about 2 batteries going flat rather than one (a flat Di2 battery has only happened to me once in 2 and a bit years after transportation by plane somehow flattened it). Di2 currently works by forcing you into the small front ring when you have about 100 gear changes left and you get to use those 100 changes on the rear. With wireless, you would have to switch batteries if it was your rear battery (likely) that went flat in order to achieve the same effect. Of course, you could carry a spare.
My original speculation on this was that 12-speed was more likely to come before wireless. Both are inevitable and there is a good chance we could see both in the next 6 months.
2020-22 Speculation | Shimano Dura-Ace R9200p | Wireless Di2
Original Source (below). Remco’s Instagram via road.cc
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We will soon be like the airbus…. No cables at all. Brake by wire(less) as well.
sadly so. and look how badly that could end (Boeing)
tbh: I would never ever ever (did i say ever?) have wireless brakes.
wireless di2 would be cool, i might go for it but only if they supported 11spd, if it was a 12spd only thing, which a mate was suggesting on today’s ride, then i would not do it. too much faff. i’ve just got all my wheel/cassette combos sorted so i can swap them round to meet most of my daily wheel needs. jsut need to buy a couple more bikes now for them to go on.
Likely going to switch to 1x 12 on my etap axs, the SRAM app tells me that I basically don’t use the top 4 gears, so why have a 2x system.
Having a 12 speed cassette seems to open this option quite well, plus having wireless means I can add or remove the front deralier at will, without having to tie cables back and switch to a 2x system should I want to.
Been wireless for a few years and just carry a spare battery in my saddle bag.
good luck with the 1x … i wouldn’t risk it on a road bike
just head west to Windsor or south to surrey. you’ll use the gears then.
Its the smaller cogs at the back I don’t use, I can’t ride fast enough!
A 42 crank with 10 -36 cassette almost exactly matches the range of my old shimano compact double.
I think they will keep the central battery for the 2 mechs and just shift wirelessly
interesting. so there would still be a battery in the downtube but one power cable going to each shifter, that would tidy up the messy cabling at the front end of my bike. you’d then need power at each shifter…2 more batteries. There doesn’t seem to be a wire on the images above tho so i’m not sure they have done this
I think by now the internet has decided that this isn’t it ;-).
Also, if you ask me it’s more likely that the shifters will turn wireless than the derailleurs… but we’ll have to wait and see. Whatever they do, any wiring will be EW-SD300, not the current EW-SD50 (again, my opinion).
(Basically: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=156208&hilit=di2&start=1365#p1614233)
Also – just spotted that it says “WIRLESS” in the page preview (on the homepage) 😉
I need to get over to your site and ask why my syncro shifting works for a while and then seems to go on strike for a couple of months before inexplicably starting again.
I was going to do a thing like Carlton B but soon realised it was a mammoth undertaking…I’m glad you took on the mantle !
WIRLESS…ty ! i blame Grammarly for not checking capitals and things i put in speech marks and headings. or i could blame myself for bad spelling but that’s less fun.
Hah, mail me any time! Terry@ my site :).
Carlton is pretty great too!
https://BetterShifting.com
Yeah.. haven’t built a comments section yet. Makes sense though! Perhaps that’ll be my next project.
Also have to update all images and some pages when they update e-tube desktop Oct 13 🙂