MTB_plus_2

high-end consumer products today,
usability and ease of use is now more
prevalent and expected. Users of all sorts
of products are bench-marking their needs
and expectations even higher than ever
before. They no longer expect it to just
look pretty and work, they expect it to
work beautifully.
The Shimano XTR Di2 is one of
those products. It’s flawless, so simple
to use and there’s definitely alot that
goes on behind the metallic grey covers
that make it such a joy to shift, brake
and pedal. And especially the electronic
shifting performance, and that’s really
the core here, is in a class of its own. The
XTR Di2 groupset shares some of its
components with it’s mechanical sibling,
the M9000 series, namely the brakeset,
cranks, pedals, 11spd cassette and 11spd
chain. The only electronic parts of the Di2
system are the following;
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SW-M9050 Firebolt shifters
SC-M9050 Display Unit
SM-BTC1 Battery Case / Mount
SM-BTR2 Battery
FD-M9050 Di2 Front Derailleur
M9050 Di2 Rear Derailleur
So lets talk about the shifting
performance. Out of the box, the SW-
M9050 Firebolt shifters are pre-configured
with a certain shift setting. If you look at
the photo below, the smaller paddle shifts
into a higher gear while the larger pedal
shifts into a lower gear. It kinda felt weird
to me since my muscle memory on my
shifting fingers are actually the other way
round. There were numerous times when
I multi shifted on the smaller paddle on
the M9050 shifter to shift to the 40T gear
only to end up on the 27T or 24T gear. It
was frustrating for a bit and it took a while
to get used to but it still didn’t feel quite
right. This was a personal preference but
a couple of buddies who had tried my bike
said the same thing, and had confirmed
my hypothesis. Fortunately, the Firebolt
shifters are programmable.
I plugged it in to the Shimano
e-Tube software and all I had to do was
to swap the shift sequence and that was all
it took. I did the same to my other shifter
and it was all good again. I no longer had
to think while shifting, and soon, it felt
natural once more and I was able to attack
the climbs with the right gear. No more
second-guessing and it was just shift and
go.
The default shift settings might
be perfect for others, and it was great that
anyone can swap the settings to meet any
riders’ preference. You can even tweak
the shifter paddles’ reach by loosening the
allen bolt and moving the paddle inwards
or outwards as shown in the photo below.
And while we’re on the subject
of shifting, the Firebolts shifters are
insanely good. All of my shifts felt light
and precise and so far, there wasn’t any
case of miss-shifts or ghost shifting (it
can happen if you have a slightly bent
hanger) and the chainlines are still perfect
to this day. All that was needed to do was
to set it up right, and shifting becomes a
dream. It’s buttery smooth, even during
multi shifts and mid-climb shifts, both
front and rear. And because it was so
smooth, I could easily shift more often to
maintain my comfort-zone cadence, on
lazy days and on hard-charging sessions.
And because you don’t have to pull any
cables to shift, it felt so light and easy.
Even my 8 year old daughter could shift
the paddles with her tiny little fingers. It
got us thinking that having an electronic
shifter made sense for riders with finger
disabilities or for riders with old injuries
on their shifting thumbs, which can truly
help them shift effortlessly.
I’ve been riding 1×10 and 1×11
gears for quite a while now and I had
totally forgotten how useful it was to have
a double ring up front. I’ve been happy
with 1×11 (30T front and 11-42T cassette)
and I felt that the gear range was sufficient
for my fitness and for most trails here in
Singapore. But, for the past 3 months, I
realised that I’ve been using ALL of the
gear range on the Di2 without realising it
and I’ve actually enjoyed having a bailout
front ring. There were numerous
times when my legs were at the verge
of decoupling, and I bailed out into the
granny ring mid-climb and I was able to
make the climbs with a gear or two to
spare.
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