About halfway into the rain-soaked Campagnolo Gran Fondo New York, my electronic front derailleur stopped working. Then, after some intermittent issues, the back jammed also. I had suffered an ‘electrical.’Virtually all of us...
About halfway into the rain-soaked Campagnolo Gran Fondo New York, my electronic front derailleur stopped working. Then, after some intermittent issues, the back jammed also. I had suffered an ‘electrical.’Virtually all of us who ride bikes have had a mechanical: a tire punctures, a chain falls off or breaks, or a derailleur won’t shift correctly. Something on our bike mechanically falters or fails. Now, as more of us are riding with electronic gadgets and components, a new category of problem has arrived, the electrical.GPS units can jam up, lose signals or run out of juice. Cycle computers can pick up other riders’ heart rate signals. Power meters’ calibrations can get wonky, and their batteries can die. And now, with Shimano’s Di2 and Campagnolo’s EPS electronic systems, high-end bikes with 22 gears can be rendered singlespeeds.Rainy day bluesAt the Gran Fondo New York, Campagnolo graciously loaned me a Colnago equipped with the gorgeous Record EPS electronic group on which to test their new Bora Ultra 35 tubular wheels. The morning of the event, I rode 10 miles to the start in a light rain. The Colnago C59 had internal routing for the derailleur wires, but the battery itself was mounted under the down tube just in front of the bottom bracket. As the event got underway, the light rain turned into a steady drenching that lasted all five hours of the race.Around mile 50 of the 105-mile event, the front derailleur stopped shifting. Twice the system seemed to reset, moving the front derailleur the full way in, then the full way out, jamming the chain in the process, before eventually settling on the full-in setting. Then the rear began stuttering — it would shift sometimes, but not others — before going out completely. I tried to reboot the system by pressing various combinations on the mode buttons, and by reinserting the magnet key into the battery. Nothing. I spoke with Campaganolo’s technical support by phone, and together we tried a few similar things, including detaching the cables, blowing on the connections and reattaching. Nothing. So I rode the rest of the gran fondo on a singlespeed.Electricity can be a beautiful thing on the bike, but it does add complexityMy colleagues in the UK have experienced at least one similar failure with Shimano’s Di2 system in extended rain. Cycling Plus technical editor Warren Rossiter, who had a Di2 drivetrain suddenly freeze up, liberally applied Dura-Ace grease to his Di2 junctions at Shimano’s instruction and has had no further problems. I have been riding Di2 9000 and 9070 for a few thousand miles without a water-induced hitch, but I typically ride in much drier conditions than my British friends. Similarly, I have put a few hundred miles on an Athena EPS group without issue – and none of the other media or Campagnolo staffers at the Gran Fondo New York had a problem with the EPS in the rain. Speaking of Di2, I have had the Shimano battery die on me twice when out on the road. This type of electrical is obviously self-induced. The most recent was when riding over to a local race. As it’s designed to do, the front stopped shifting but the rear continued to work (for an estimated 100 or more shifts). Luckily, I was still close to home so I flipped it and grabbed another battery. How embarrassing would that have been, I thought, if the battery had died mid-race? At the Campagnolo Gran Fondo New York, three of us in the media experienced various electricals with our GPS units. The Garmin 800 screen on Neal Rogers’ (Velo Magazine) bike started showing random tables a few hours into the sopping ride. Dillon Clapp’s (Road Magazine) Garmin 500 cut out parts of the route with dropped GPS connections. And in the final miles of the day, my Magellan Switch Up just switched itself off, out of juice, after being on from 5am to 1pm.These things happen – but can you fix it roadside?The thing is, mec
