Are the new Shimano Dura-Ace and Ultegra groupsets a disappointment? Listen to the debate on episode 6 of the road.cc Podcast

Question: how does the new Dura Ace/Ultegra faster rear shifting differ from the configurable faster rear shifting possible in the current Di2? 

Observation: the criticisms of SRAM's AXS shifting speed came as a surprise to me. I don't think I've read such a comment in any Road.cc reviews of AXS before (happy to be proven wrong). Why is this only being mentioned now? 

I'm not really suprised that the new offerings seem more subtle refinements than anything revolutionary; that's the way Shimano has gone for some time now. It's why their stuff is the absolute byword for 'it just works'. I've said for a while that SRAM are more innovative, and Campy wins on feel (and possibly brakes), but if you want reliability, ease of use and no annoying quirks, go with Shimano. 

I think most people agree with that view, so what this new release does do is remove a fair chunk of the reason to look elsewhere. It will be the gold standard performance groupset, I'd suggest.

And I say this as a current Force AXS user.

However, I won't be rushing out to drop >£2k on a new Di2 groupset, and I personally think killing off mechanical Ultegra would be a mistake, not least as after a couple of years riding electronic I've come to the conclusion that mechanical Ultegra/Chorus is everything you need for almost all riding, with the real advantage of electric being for the internal routing and the combined blip and base bar shifters on TT bikes. 

I don't think they could afford to wait any longer to  come out with 12 speed because they were at a competitive disadvantage without it. And improvements like faster shifting are better.   So maybe they have a new, cool innovation in the works or maybe they don't but this is still a welcome release.  Not every release can be exciting.

Personally the thing I've always loved about Shimano was how rock solid their release usually are.  I like that they tend to take a little bit longer on stuff because they really work out the kinks and release refined groupsets.  

Now the dust is settling I'm underwhelmed.  For upgraders (who I acknowledge arent Shimano's core market) there's a huge outlay for just another sprocket in the middle of the cassette. 

It all seems a little conservative.  Whoop-de-do!

I'm holding out hope that next years announcements will be more interesting, but right now if I was in the market for 12+ speed then I'd be looking at Campy or Sram.

I hold out hope that some other announcement is due in Q1 2022.  Either an incremental refresh of Ulegra Mechanical, a direction for GRX DI2 - which looks a bit lonely now - or 105 DI2/12 speed. 

Realistically though I think a GRX refresh is at least a year away based on Shimano's usual 3 year product lifecycle.

I would expect Sram to be focusing on production volumes of Rival and Force AXS and to give Shimano a shoe'ing in that mid market space where Ultegra Mechanical has just died a percieved death.  The fact is I can go both wider range or equally as dense with AXS compared to 12 Speed DI2 and if I want quirky or 1x I've got Ekar to play with.

I wonder whether Shimano suffered from over-anticipation... all those patents, teaser press releases etc.  At the end of the day, its a set of bicycle gears and there is a limit to what they could actually do to innovate in a step-change, when SRAM etap etc is 12s and wireless.

Features like reliable and rapid shifting under all conditions will be what counts out on the road rather than fandangled geegaws.

With further refining shifing performance, even under load, AND going wireless on the shifter side, Shimano has laid the foundation for further innovation:

- more aero setups and rider positions

- wireless braking (Shimano patent pending!) (and ABS for other bike segments)

- something like a Classified hub to replace the front mech (even though not so practical in racing when you need to be able to easily swap a wheel; having too much hardware attached and linking/pairing components can only make that more difficult)

- AUTO-SHIFTING (!!!), based on data from the power and cadence meters, heart rate monitor, gyro's, personal preferences and so on.

John Stevenson appears to be spot on  They didn't even bother designing a new rotor, just bunged on the MTB one