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Di2 woes
I've had my S-Works Venge about 4 weeks now and managed 2 dry rides on it so far, Saturday was a pleasant 40 odd miler in the sunshine.
I noticed the front mech wouldn't shift when I got home and on the ride a couple of times it took a few presses to shift up or down, I put it down to fat fingers in fat gloves.
Took the bike back to the Specialized Concept store I bought it from on Saturday afternoon, it's still there unable to find the problem & they've had to order a Di2 diagnostic kit which now won't arrive until Friday earliest.
My advice, keep your money, invest in good old mechanical DuraAce or Ultegra, I'll be chasing Specialized for something out of this, unacceptable in a brand new build.
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Comments
I spose even expensive stuff can go wrong and at least they are trying to fix the problem
Unacceptable? Only if they are not willing to put it right I would say
I wouldn't accept it in a new car why should I accept it in a £5000 bike?
Your 3 week old cars gearbox fails, would you acceopt a repair? Or would you want a new gearbox or a new car?
( I wouldn't buy anything from my local Specialized store.... Looks good, little substance)
Dave, add this to the farce that was the build & I won't be buying anything from them again.
As for component supplier, not interested, Specialized sell the bike not Shimano.
My last Audi required Bosch to sort out an ECU issue....
Serves you right for buying an Audi!
Anyway, hopefully they can sort it quickly & hopefully my confidence in it will be restored with an 86 mile Sportive the week after next.
In other news, North face of molehill finally conquered.
Mole hill? Next time you drop 8 & a half grand on a bike that fails 3 weeks later do let me know.
Anyway, I'm sure they'll figure it out, in the mean time a loaner of a McLaren may go some small way of making up for the inconvenience, possibly.
More fool you for assuming that money magically bought infinite reliability.
So I did, my mistake.
Bit tetchy here aren't we? Well mostly me actually, just peed off by the store who buggered the build delivery up & now this.
But then again it isn't a "life style" store it's a real bike shop
Look on the good side, at least it hasn't got SRAM on it : )
True, sad thing is one of the LBS's own the Specialized store, which when it opened I thought was a good thing, small town with 3 bike shops was going to be tough on 1 or 2 of them, but they seem able to compete & compliment each other.
Never thought of it as a lifestyle store but you're right it is come to think of it.
I have SRAM on mine.....
...but there agian its still working after many thousands of miles
I tried that SRAM double tap thing, that's a wrong 'un.
I'm calming down now, wifey just handed me a Peroni
it took me a bit to get used to but love it now .i used to get sore thumb joints before........never have that problem now
Sore thumb joints drinking Peroni Seren?
Re the Di2, suspect you just got unlucky. If it helps, and yes I know I mentioned it before elsewhere, but Mr Chopsaloty off of tripetalk lost his Di2 in Norseman and did the whole thing in the BIG RING. That is sooo feckin' HARD!
Re silly money on bikes, if that is your thing, fair play to you. It's a lot less than a McLaren P1. On the flip side, you can get it fixed/downgraded. My velocipede however, will always look a bit brown, however well it rides. But it's still the only one!
Blimey, they are indeed eight and a half new.
And that's what bothers me now, IM Wales on the big ring, don't fancy that.
Silly money on bikes is not my thing believe me, this has been saved for, things given up for & things sacrificed for.
I'm sure it'll be just fine, let them do their thing & it will all work itself out, see that Peroni is working, might have another one.
I can't fix anything so it gives an equal playing field
FRV - my local trishop has an excellent "bike whisperer" and he's had bikes sent to him that have had Di2 problems all because whoever set them up didn't do the job properly in the 1st place. he's recently had to sort out a Cervelo P5 with Di2 sold by one of the biggest tri stores around that was playing up - turns out they hadn't sealed the cables correctly. if the Spesh Store can't sort it then contact Simon at the Tristore in Eastbourne for more help
It does make you wonder though - if bike shop mechanics are having problems maybe it's a bit too complex.
If I was in the market for a new bike I'd be in two minds whether to get it. I like the idea of being able to shift under full load if it's true it'll do that. On the other hand electrics on something like a bike ridden in all weathers I do wonder if it'll ever be totally reliable - I wouldn't fancy being in the Alps for a week only to find it's died. Time will tell whether it becomes pretty much universal above the entry level road bikes or whether there'll still be a market for top end mechanical groupsets.
I suspect that electronic groupsets are here to stay now as they are gradually appearing further down the price range on Shimano and Campag sets, and reliability and robustness of the electronics and batteries are improving.
Campag have a "Back Home" unlock system which allows you to manually set the derailleurs in a suitable gear if the battery fails so at least you have some way of getting out of trouble, although Campag reckon that a battery should last up to three months for a rider covering about 500km per month, or roughly a month for someone riding about 2,000km in four weeks.
I guess the downside for many though is home maintenance - I'm not sure what can be done if things go wrong - and for when you are in the wilds with no access to a decent LBS. on our Colombia trip, one of the riders had a Di2 setup - the local guides were praying things wouldn't go wrong as there was no LBS in the whole country that would be able to help as the system had yet to be sold there!!
Are the batteries easy to charge - I'm assuming it's something you can do at home rather than take it to a dealer ?
as far as I know the batteries are home chargeable - I couldn't see the product being viable if you had to take them to a dealer every time.
rumours are that SRAM have an 11 speed electronic set coming soon as well