Well, all but confirmed….pics of the IB for new road electronic group.
Still unknown - 12 or 11 spd (has to be 12 though) and whether there will be a mechanical version.
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It’s not clear from those docs that 105 di2 will be released. Shimano probably does need a solution though to compete with Rival etap as it’s hitting a lot of bikes at a certain price point.
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The mechanical or not question has been gnawing at me since I read this. The easy answer is that this is just a lower cost version of 12 speed Ultegra/ DA so no mechanical and 12 speed. If that is the case though, you have to ask how much dev work was put into mechanical shifting at all. On the other hand you wonder if they would want to have 12 speed mechanical to differentiate from Rival. I was also under the impression that mech 105 was a big OEM cash cow for Shimano.
My personal guess is that it’s going to be 12 speed and no mechanical, as I can’t see Shimano developing all the tech needed for 12 speed mechanical and only selling it at 105. It seems fairly clear to me that people want electronic groupsets, but I’m no product guy (there’s a reason I build to someone else’s forecast 
).
If shifting performance is the same between ultegra and dura ace di2 I wonder how 105 will be. Though this might force me to go Ultegra:
It looks like the 105 shifters miss out on the top button that’s found on Dura-Ace and Ultegra Di2.
How will I control my garmin without the extra buttons?
I’m guessing they may just release a di2 version first and see if there is demand for a mechanical version. 105 sells well enough they could do the development work for it directly. No need for lightweight parts so getting the precision may be easier to get it to shift well enough
Agreed. Can you imagine the demand of Shimano’s only mechanical 12-speed drivetrain? Shimano is feeling the pressure by SRAM. Good. That leads to more and better options for us customers.
Is Shimano having bigger supply chain issues than SRAM? It sure seems that way. I have shimano 105 on my road bike and 1x sram rival on my gravel bike as that was the only option. Sure. I much prefer the shimano 105 but it’s not like I’m suffering with sram rival. I don’t think it’s a good thing for shimano the more people buying bikes with sram just because it’s available.
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That would be great for CX
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I disagree. I note that the components are numbered 7150 and 7170. This is conistent with the numbering of their previous generation ultegra, which was numbered 8050 (electronic rim braking) and 8070 (electronic disc braking), while 8000 was rim mechanical and 8020 was disc mechanical. Contrast this with the current series Ultegra which is numbered 8100 (rim braking) and 8120 (disc braking) with no xx50 or xx70 numbering.
Choosing to maintain the older numbering convention rather than the new electronic only convention suggests they are leaving room in the 105 numbering system for mechanical versions. Of course, mechanical doesn’t require advance filing for approval with the FCC, so we aren’t seeing leaked photos/documentation for these versions.
What is revealing is that by filing, we can see that 105 electronic will be semi-wireless, rather than wired, which was perhaps one option for 105 versus Ultegra differentiation.
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Really?
I thought CX has long moved to 1x, and as far as I can tell Shimano does not have a native 1x group set for CX. (I don’t think Shimano recommends GRX for CX, does it?)
I have no idea how you can reach that conclusion after reading the article….sure, Shimano has not officially announced anything, but even a passing familiarity of Shimano components and numbering systems indicates that it is imminent.
Guess we’ll see….
If it is registered with the FCC, unless something goes catastrophically wrong, Shimano will release it. Not least because registration with the FCC means you are showing your hand to the competitors.
Hard to say. I live in Shimano country (= Japan), and SRAM’s availability is atrocious. I asked my LBS how long I’d have to wait for SRAM brakes and they laughed and said winter. Not sure how much was sarcasm and how much was just a bit of hyperbole. But availability of Shimano gear isn’t great either. I was initially told I’d have to wait three months for a set of XT brakes, although the shop got them three weeks after I had ordered them.
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I should correct myself. GRX is better for CX and they do have a 1x setup. GRX Di2 would be awesome for CX.
I feel that something like SRAM’s 11-36 or 10-33 cassettes are missing in Shimano’s line-up, though. You could always run a 11-40 cassette, I suppose, but still.
When they go 12-speed on GRX, I am curious to see whether Shimano will introduce new cassettes. Its 10-45 cassette does not have very good gearing IMHO, neither for mountain biking nor gravel riding nor CX.
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Yeah, I’d say it is safe to assume an official announcement is right around the corner… 
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Wonder what availability will be like. Just had to replace my Ultegra Di2 8070 shifters and would have loved to just upgrade to 12 speed 
Consumers looking for new 105 Di2…
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Given that electronic groupsets seem to retail at something like double the mechanical versions, are we not going to get an increasingly big gap in the market if 105 is Di2 only? Tiagra, 10 speed mechanical → 105 12 speed Di2? Or maybe Tiagra evolves to replace 11 speed 105, but then why would you need 3 electronic tiers above it, if the cheapest of those tiers still has a cost prohibitive for a lot of riders, or for a lot of riders with multiple bikes, any bike that is not their Sunday best?
Not quite sure I understand where they are going with all this, just seems they are creating a hole in the market… Never going to fit anything electronic (at least not derailleurs worth hundreds) to my winter bike but still want decent performance, my R8000 mechanical Ultegra is going strong but when that finally wears out? Campag to fill the gap?
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Now showing up on websites w/ pricing,
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Agh. It’s 12 speed.
There go my ideas about upgrading a few bits of my 11 speed 105
I get easily overrcome with “upgrade-itis”. Running Ultegra Di2 11 speed 8070 right now. Please tell me it makes no sense whatsoever to contemplate an upgrade
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