About time too!
Many cyclists, bike shops and bicycle manufacturers (and probably Shimano stockholders) have been waiting for about three years for Shimano to launch its 105 groupset in an electronic version, and it looks like it is coming soon.
Recently Shimano discontinued its mechanical and extremely popular Ultegra groupset. Industry insiders acknowledge that mechanical group sets have advantages over their electronic counterparts, namely weight, serviceability and with regards to chain jump (evidence of which was on show at Paris-Roubaix recently), but it comes down to economics, as fewer and fewer people are choosing mechanical.
Electronic, it seems, it king.
Sram, Shimano’s main rival in terms of bicycle components, launched its 2nd and 3rd tier electronic group sets last year, with the Rival AXS group being very popular.
Quite what has held up Shimano is is unknown but global supply chain issues were most likely the main issue. However, that all seems to have been sorted, and there have been some leaks via screenshots that show that at the OEM level, the R7100 gruppo is being rolled out and should be in stores, on manufacturer bikes, in June.
How much will the R7100 set be as a stand alone group? As of yet we have no idea but of course it will be cheaper than the Ultra Di2, and more expensive than the 105 mechanical set.
It’s exciting stuff though and will bring the plush world of Di2 shifting to more people.
