You could call me a “late adopter”. I started cycling in the 1980s and I was still using toe clips and downtube shifters until 2006. Electronic shifting has been around for 20 years now and I’ve never tried it before. I have a road and gravel bike that are both 11 speed mechanical.
On a recent vacation I had a couple of days available for riding so I rented a road bike with electronic Shimano 105. I did two rides for a combined distance of about 70-80 km. I came away kind of annoyed by the the shifters. Sure, the shifting is quick and accurate, but the placement of the shift buttons was a lot harder to get used to than I expected for someone who has been using Shimano STI road shifters for the last 20 years. You basically have two buttons pretty close to each other occupying the position of what was previously just the downshift lever. My instinct for upshifting is to reach for the first thing behind the brake lever, which of course downshifts. I thought maybe on the second day I would get used to it, but I was still hitting the wrong button on the second day. Maybe I need more time on it, or maybe I might like SRAM better. I’m curious whether anyone else has had this experience moving from mechanical Shimano to electronic Shimano.
My second critique of the bike was the braking. In most situations it was fine but on one descent that was several km long there were moments when I would have wanted another 10-20% more braking power, so I descended with caution. The only disc brake bike I have at home has Shimano GRX, which I would expect to be pretty similar, but the reality is I’ve never really tested its limits because I live in a very flat place. Has anyone who has ridden recent Shimano 105 felt like it had less braking power than other systems? Or is this possibly just a rental bike issue: maintenance problems going unnoticed?
This is why I ride SRAM AXS. I find it worse in winter with gloves on. At least with 12 speed you can re-program the button to be more SRAM like (yes, I know that you can do that on Di2 11 speed IF you have paid extra for the bluetooth module or have a PC lying around to lug into the shed).
As for the braking, sounds like a rental bike issue as I have found Shimano brakes to be plenty powerful, if a little grabby early in the stroke.
Sram good-for me the newer front derailleur has fixed chain drops. Only issue is going up a hill in the dark, thinking you are in the big ring when you arent and actually changing from small to big as the action is the same.
Like the OP I’ve had little to do with electronic shifting, although I’ve observed various foibles in workshops. My only experience with riding Di2 was with an 11 speed Colnago C-series I test rode briefly when it was in for service at a friend’s shop and I was not impressed. Heavier, more expensive, requires charging, noisy(!), lag with shifting, and worse ergonomics than mechanical STI, even without winter gloves. I expect the service life will be less than with mechanical too, and any electronic problems outside warranty are certain to be expensive or fatal; replacement levers or RDs are scary prices. (I also disliked the Colnago, which IMO felt heavy and dead.)
The AXS ergonomics are better, but both can be reprogrammed, so that’s not really a big deal. Since I need a 10T cog like a hole in the head and AXS FDs limit tyre clearance SRAM is not ideal, but at least their stock chainwheel sizes are more sensible IMHO.
Currently thinking about a new gravel/travel bike, and dithering about Di2 (again). Pros are satellite shifters, auto FD trim, maybe Syncro(?), no shift cables to disconnect for travel, but still…
Shimano discs are fine - provided they don’t squeal hideously in wet weather - but if they do (DA 91xx in my case) it’s immensely aggravating.
I want to second that SRAM AXS has much better ergonomics than Di2. I also rode Shimano mechanical dropbar shift/brake levers and tried Di2 (11-speed) on several occasions for extended periods. I never got along with them. After weeks I still misshifted. And I reckon that would have been worse in the winter (I just tried the loaners in the summer months).
SRAM AXS makes that dead easy, you cannot miss the shift buttons. I recommend you try it out. Electronic shifting is great, once set up, it literally just works.
I went from Shimano mechanical road group sets to 105 Di2.
I didn’t have those issues with the shifter buttons. Took me maybe a day or two to get used to it. By default the big paddle will change to the smaller cog, so on the left (front shift) it will drop you to the inner ring an on the right (rear) its dropping you down the cassette to the faster gears. If it wasn’t set up that way when you used it, someone had customised it before you. It is customisable via the app, so you can set it up the way you like.
I left it at default.
As for the brakes, they are as good as any other Shimano hydraulic brakes. Ultegra and Durace (as well as slightly better shifting) have additional “Servo-Wave” braking but I’m not exactly sure what that is. Something to do with the modulation. But with a hire bike, the condition of the braking set up might be questionable, e.g. worn pads, old fluid. Also things like rotor size (140mm vs 160mm) and tyre size and compound can affect braking performance.
I’ve ridden SRAM, it’s ok. I don’t like the double-paddle thing. As I work on my own bike, I also would prefer not to have to deal with DOT-fluid in the brakes. But the latest versions of SRAM certainly do brake better than Shimano. If you’re on the flat most of the time, whether that’s better or not is up to you.
I’d only ridden Shimano mechanical on road and SRAM on MTB before I bought myself a new CX bike. I get very cold hands in winter, making shifting tricky, so I have my Di2 GRX set up so that any button on the left shifts up the block, and any right button shifts down. I like the GRX shifters, they’re a bit chunkier than the 105 road variety and work well for me off road. For CX use (yes, I know it’s a bit niche) the thing I like is just how robust the rear mech is - it’s been faultless in the face of mud, sand & crashes and I never need to adjust it like I would have to tweak cable tension on a mechanical system.
This is why so many of us like SRAM AXS better after being huge Shimano fans for decades on mechanical bikes. Especially in winter the big single paddles are super easy to fall in love with.
However in my opinion with both brands you really can’t judge brakes from test rides. You really need to try them with different pads to truly dial them in to your preferences. Personally I don’t like the way Shimano is grabby though, maybe some pads fix that but it’s pretty much a show stopper for me. If motorcycle brakes don’t grab like that bicycle brakes shouldn’t either. Some people love it though.
It took me about one week of riding to lock in on Di2. I now ride it due to some hand issues that would make mechanical challenging on longer rides, but regardless I can’t imagine going back. I’ve ridden three generations of it now (started on 10s Ultegra, upgraded a few pieces of that to 11s, then went with new 12s on my current bike). Can’t speak to the ergonomics of 105, but the Ultegra works for me. You can configure around any glove-related issues with the app, although I haven’t run into any issues in the stock configuration in cold weather gloves.
105 doesn’t have servo-wave design in the brakes, whereas Ultegra and Dura Ace do have it. It helps with modulating the power under hard braking. So maybe that’s what you felt, but I suspect that yea, they probably just need to be bled or to have the freestroke reduced. It could even be just a poor bed-in job or something contaminating the pad-rotor interface.
Like any system, it’s crucial to have the levers mounted in the correct position on the bars to allow your digits to operate effectively. Since this was a rental bike, I’d be willing to bet the lever position was probably kind of funky.
Ergonomics are highly personal, but as a long-time Di2 user, I’ve settled on riding with the webbing of my thumb and forefinger wrapping around the head of the lever, and use my pinky to shift into a faster gear and my ring finger to shift into an easier gear. In the drops, I using my forefinger and middle finger in the same way.
I also reprogrammed the left lever so that the bigger button moves the chain up onto the big ring, and vice versa, which is the opposite of the default set up.
I reprogrammed my DI2 buttons to mimic SRAM buttons….the big paddle is for shifting the rear derailleur (right side = bigger / harder gear, left side = smaller / easier gear). The smaller paddles are for the front derailleur…right side = big chainring, left side = small chainring)
Not perfect, but significantly better. I also live in pan-flat Chicago, so I rarely touch my FD, which helps.