With the electronic XT Di2, Shimano is moving into the mid-range. Can you fit the groupset without mechatronics training? What does this have to do with punk rock? The birth of a titanium bike.
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Attention! This is probably the only text in the world that combines the themes of punk rock, titanium frames, electric gears and world peace. It's a story about lust, despair and triumph - as well as the realisation that there are even greater challenges in a biker's life than windswept mountain peaks. Namely cable lengths and battery thicknesses. But enough preamble. Let's get down to business:
Escalation in the country inn
It was in the summer of 1988 when I tried to drill a safety pin through my cheek because I thought it would be fun. I had seen this in Berlin with one of the punks who hung out in the "Plänterwald" amusement park. The guys had mohawk hairstyles with brightly coloured spikes sticking up like knives. One of them had a rat sitting on his shoulder. But I'd never seen a safety pin pulled through the cheek and connected to a nose ring by a chain before. A total shock for a GDR teenager like me, especially one from the provinces. Of course I wanted to become a punk like that. The safety pin was a bit too blatant for me. But with red paint in your hair, you looked really punk. I'll never forget how the poppers in the Landgasthof disco in Strehla recoiled in horror when "Scholle", "Grubi" and I escalated to "Born in the G.D.R." with our upper bodies exposed. The feeling of being punk unleashed an energy in me that I would never have thought possible until then. I tore a horny slit in my trousers and wrote "Einstürzende Neubauten" on my T-shirt in felt-tip pen. I was almost sick with contempt as the hairdressers stomped around to Fancy's "Lady of Ice" with stiff one-two-tap steps. What a load of rubbish!
Photo: Privatfoto The author (right) as a youngster at the semi-finals of the GDR track sprint championships. His passion for cycling was already fully developed. The punk came a little later.Photo: Privatfoto In the early nineties, mountain biking was a snotty mix of cycling and punk.
Mountain biking - cycling with anarchic charm
What does this have to do with biking and Shimano's Di2 gears? On the one hand, nothing. On the other hand, a lot. When I identified with punk, I was right in the middle of competitive cycling. A sport whose strict rules left no room for individuality - certainly not in the environment of a GDR training centre. Training plans, performance tests, race analyses, political brainwashing - all of this determined my life. When the Wall came down in 1989, I discovered mountain biking. For me, it was the perfect combination of cycling and punk. The continuation of punk rock with bikes, so to speak. Downhiller Philippe "The Bugman" Perakis looked like an intergalactic mutant beetle in his protective armour, Missy "The Missile" Giove had a dried piranha dangling around his neck. The races were tough, but what it was really about was the joy of movement, adventure, partying and community. Punk from Offspring, Pennywise and NOFX formed the soundtrack to festivals, races and events. This made biking a pleasant antidote to bourgeoisie and paragraphery.
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Photo: Dirk Belling Missy "The Missile" Giove embodied the wild and unconventional side of MTB like no other star. The dried piranha dangling around her neck once swam in her aquarium and was called Gonzo.
One of the largely unanswered questions in youth culture is what exactly punk is. An attitude to life? A music genre? A style of clothing? A few years ago, I took part in the Yak Attack in Nepal, the highest MTB race in the world. There was another German at the start alongside me. A nice IT nerd, member of the Chaos Computer Club. In a draughty "hotel room" in the mountain climbing village of Manang, which is blown around by the thinnest air, he said: "Hackers and punks are ultimately very similar. Both hack into an existing system to shake it up."
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Shimano Di2, the shifting bang
Interesting point of view. Because from this perspective, Shimano's Di2 drivetrain is also punk. A few years ago, it crashed into the accessories segment like a wrecking bell into brickwork. The rear derailleur and front derailleur twitch into position via an electric pulse - and always with millimetre precision. If you want, you can programme the Di2 to your preferences. In no time at all, with an app. No more changing Bowden cables, no more readjustments. The list of benefits is long. But purists still wave it off. High price. Battery dependency. Higher weight. Complicated gear shifting. These are the counter-arguments.
Photo: Shimano After the XTR Di2, Shimano is now entering the mid-range with an electrified XT groupset. The price is around 500 euros less than the XTR Di2 and depends on the required version (1x or 2x? With front derailleur or without?). It starts at around 850 euros and 1940 grams - without brakes.
And so the XTR Di2, which was introduced two years ago, has stabilised in the top gear shifting league. However, the majority of bikers still shift mechanically. With the brand new, electric XT version, Shimano now wants to break into the highly competitive mid-range. How good is the groupset? How durable is it? And how does it cope with extreme conditions? And can someone without mechatronics training even manage to fit it? I get to chase the electronic XT over the trails for a season. What a wonderful opportunity to build myself a punk bike worthy of the name! The media have just proclaimed the "40th anniversary of punk". Probably to show people with safety pins on their faces again. Anyway: I'm going to put together a proper punk mixtape now. And then we're off. Punk and Di2? Let's see if they harmonise.
1. "Break the chains that bind you!" / Slime-germ
Photo: Henri Lesewitz There are many excellent standard bikes, but I still prefer customised bikes. If you add up all the tours you do over the years, you spend whole months on your bike. I want to decide every detail myself. The Dutch from Pilot Cycles make this possible. They may have the welding needles glowing in the Far East, but they still realise even the smallest customer request. Geometry, type of bottom bracket housing, cable routing, everything. The frames are made of titanium, the best material for a bike in my opinion. Robust, timeless and 100 per cent scratch-resistant. What's more, every gram of titanium that is turned into mountain bikes can no longer be used by the defence industry. So it's also a tiny contribution to world peace.
2. "Life is a Gamble" / Rykers
Photo: Henri Lesewitz The decoration is applied to the titanium surface by sandblasting. All the finishing work is carried out at Pilot Cycles in Holland. Special decor requests are possible without any problems.
3. "Punks not dead!" / The Exploited
Photo: Henri Lesewitz The irradiation box is bombarded by sand like a Sahara storm, and any living creature would die within seconds. The titanium doesn't mind. It just shimmers a little rougher in the irradiated areas.
4. standing still is treason!" / Rosa Beton
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Two months after ordering, the parcel arrived from Holland. And here it is: a hardtail frame with BSA bearings, dropouts for thru axles, hydroformed tubes and completely internal cable guides. Di2 only. If it's possible, it's possible.
5. "I wanna be Anarchy!" / Sex Pistols
Photo: Henri Lesewitz The anarchist logo on the top tube was a wish of mine and should always remind me never to allow an opinion to be dictated to me. For me, the symbol doesn't stand for snapping off Mercedes stars, but for freedom of thought.
6 "Always the Hard Way!" / Terror
Photo: Henri Lesewitz I don't know how many times I've blasted this song into my ear canals. No band makes their guitars roar like Terror from Los Angeles. I've got every record and have been to concerts umpteen times. "Always the Hard Way" is my absolute favourite song. I listen to it to pep myself up before every marathon. I thought about the font and spelling for a long time, but finally decided in favour of the band's spelling.
7. "If the Kids are united, then we'll never be divided" / Sham 69
Photo: Henri Lesewitz A naked head tube is just crying out for a pretty headset. An "InSet2" from Chris King promises stress-free steering for many, many years. Will be ordered immediately. Oh yes, the frame was of course immediately put to the BIKE test bench. The "absolute stiffness" is a good 58 N/mm with a frame weight of 1640 grams. For comparison: A Ghost Lector World Cup has 42 N/mm at 1148 grams, a Canyon Exceed CF SLX 8.9 Pro 55 N/mm at 970 grams.
8. "We can go to our limits. Have you ever looked past that?" / Sandow
Photo: Henri Lesewitz It's getting serious! The Shimano package has arrived. I wouldn't have thought how many individual components make up a Di2 groupset. Every piece of cable, every small part is individually packaged. The photo shows only a small part of the whole thing. Online retailers tempt you to buy the XT Di2 groupset with attractive offers. But beware! Even the ordering process requires detailed specialised knowledge. Where should the battery be located? In the seat tube, in the steerer tube or on the outside next to the bottle cage? This question alone determines the length of the cables, which have to be ordered individually piece by piece. And it is not yet clear whether the frame allows internal routing and, if it does, where to route it. These are questions that the bike companies' product engineers normally have to deal with so that buyers can sit on their complete bike and ride off. But if you want to fit the Di2 yourself, you first have to get to grips with it.
9. "At work I am well looked after, because the punks have to go to work" / rubbish station
Photo: Henri Lesewitz And there it is, the first big tremor. Will the bearing shells crush the cables? The BSA bearing housing offers - oh shock - not much space.
10. "No one can save you from yourself" / Walls of Jericho
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Whew! It works. However, the joy is followed by disillusionment: the battery is designed for a 27.2 mm post, but the required adapter for 31.6 mm posts is not available at the moment. The attempt to integrate the battery into the fork steerer tube as an alternative fails due to the special inner tube shape of the intended Rock Shox SID. The only solution is a little tinkering with foam to force the battery into the seat tube after all. It works temporarily. Hopefully the adapter will be available soon.
11. "Performance, performance, performance is the key to success. Is that all, all, all you want?" / Disco//Oslo
Photo: Henri Lesewitz It's amazing what's available. Accessories manufacturer PRO even offers a special Di2 handlebar (Tharsis) and a matching stem. This allows the cables to run almost completely inside.
12. "Fight till you die" / Pennywise
Photo: Henri Lesewitz A short struggle with the unruly cable for the gear lever, then the end finally peeks out of the exit opening. A pair of pliers helps to pluck it into its final position. Now repeat the same procedure with the cable for the front derailleur shifter. The cockpit is now roughly wired.
13th "To much entertainment" / Live Action Pussy Show
Photo: Henri Lesewitz The electronic version of the XT rear derailleur differs roughly only from the plastic bracket that protrudes to the rear - the fine motor housing. The cable is simply plugged in and that's it. That was easy for a change!
14 "I dont't like Disneyland" / U.S. Bombs
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Actually, I'm a purist. I can't have a dummy on my bike. But the display waking up is a magical moment. Like when the neon tube lights up after you've wired it up. Although that's a different category here. The little box gives the bike a high-tech feel. The jagged humming of the servomotors is also nice. It makes you feel like Captain Future!
15 "Take it or leave it" / Millencolin
Photo: Henri Lesewitz If biking, then everywhere. For me, a mountain bike is a universal piece of sports equipment. I use it to commute between home and the office. I bang round marathon courses on it. I go on adventure tours with it. And every now and then, I'll also speed down a few descents in the downhill park - not those death trails with the 10-metre doubles and drop batteries, of course. In order to always have the optimum gear, I like close-ratio gears. The double cranks in combination with the 11 sprockets at the rear guarantee the right gear ratio in every situation.
16 "Everything has to change to stay the same." / Caries
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Interesting concept: although a touch display or whatever would probably also work, you press a switch just like a mechanical circuit. Anything else would probably confuse your reflexes. For the start, I fitted the left and right levers, although one lever would be enough to operate both the shifters and derailleur. As soon as I get used to electric shifting, I'll unscrew the left lever and try to reprogramme the Di2 system for one-handed operation. At the moment, the thought is stressing me out a bit. I can't even manage to stream films on my smart TV.
17 "I need to feel your heart beat" / The Bones
Photo: Henri Lesewitz So that the bike doesn't look like a black and white photo, a bit of colour is needed. The Rock Shox SID in the strictly limited Rio colour scheme impresses with top function and adds visual pizzazz. I can't wait to unleash its hot-blooded temperament with brisk trail rides.
18 "You can't bring me down!" / Suicidal Tendencies
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Retractable seatpost? No way! For one thing, you're only putting your bike at risk of failure. And then the things are also heavy. The seatpost stays up! Steep section? "Chest out, arse up!", goes a song by Disco//Oslo. The titanium seatpost from Pilot holds the new SqLab 611 Ergowave saddle with carbon frame in position. The lightweight version of the 611 Ergowave series weighs just under 150 grams and is immediately subjected to the endurance test.
19 "Hey ho, let's go!" / Ramones
Photo: Henri Lesewitz The maiden voyage is fast approaching, only the wheels are still missing. High time to email the guys in the photo. The guy on the right in the picture is Peter Wouters, an MTB-crazy Dutchman who offers high-end wheels at affordable prices with his brand 9th Wave. The guy on the left in the picture is his mate and painter Jacko Quik, who customises the wheels to the customer's specifications if required. Well, I can already think of a nice special order.
20 "I was a Teenage Anarchist - looking for Revolution!" / Against Me!
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Bang! 9th Wave lettering with lots and lots of little Anarcho-A's - in the Pantone blue colour of the Rio SID. Printed wafer-thin on the carbon fibre according to my specifications. Painting would also have been possible, but a little heavier and more prone to scratches.
21 "Action speaks louder than Words" / The Fuzztones
Photo: Henri Lesewitz Ready for unrestrained marathon rides: Wide, lightweight carbon rims with 24.5 millimetre inner width (outer: 30.5 mm), 9th Wave hubs with thru axles, high-quality, top-sealed bearings and aluminium freewheel with 36 teeth as well as DT Swiss Revolution spokes and aluminium nipples. All "tubeless ready" and hand-spoked in Holland. Weight: 1450 grams.
22 "This is the moment that I remember - when I'm getting old" / Perkele
Photo: Henri Lesewitz One of the rare 100 per cent moments you are granted in life. The maiden ride of a custom bike that you have designed yourself. Does the geometry fit? Is the bike light enough? How does it feel? After the first few moments, the tension gives way to unbridled euphoria. The Pilot feels like a part of your body. The gears hum precisely. The bike responds lively to pedalling. Everything is great. I'm going to keep the Di2 busy with kilometres, mud and dust. I'll soon be showing you how to programme the Di2 via the app. With this in mind: ALWAYS THE HARD WAY!
