There are some interesting new (to me) electronic shifting features announced recently by LTWOO
Firstly, a fully configurable electronic rear derailleur allows each gear to be individually programmed. The benefits here are that:
Compatibility between 11-speed and 12-speed setups helps those of us with several bikes and not quite ready to replace all of them in one go with 12-speed.
Individual gears can compensate for a bent derailleur or frame hanger that moves on closing (thank you, Cervelo)
I know I’d benefit from precise gear indexing to cover swaps of bikes onto various wheel and smart trainer options.
The same company then adds USB-C charging. That’s no biggie in itself other than being handy. However, when my partner recently got a credit card-sized emergency battery charger for their iPhone, imagine a smaller one that you could tape or otherwise fasten to a depleted derailleur battery to get you home. Currently, my Shimano Di2 disables front changing to give me 100 rear changes to get home, and I have some friends who are not necessarily keen to carry a spare SRAM battery.
Thoughts
It seems that some of the Asian cycling brands are becoming quite competent in many areas, ranging between trainers, power meters, smart trainers and now electronic gears. It will be interesting to see where this aspect of the cycling market is in 5 year’s time. Can the likes of LTWOO ever become mainstream?
Don’t forget that Shimano is still innovating and has awesome shift-performance. We recently saw the Front Shift Next feature, where a Di2 button can be assigned to change the front ring to the other front ring, freeing up your front shifters for something else.
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