Vendetta Di2 Users

[ratz]

Ok who has Di2 installed on their Vendetta?

I'm looking for detailed photos of anything clever you did for installing the batteries and the wires.

While searching for components for this winters Silvio Bullhorn Brifter project I got stupid lucky and scored a Ultregra Di2 6870 groupo without the crankset. Talk about a perfect match, for about $100 extra I can upgrade 3 bikes instead of 1. Who says that you can't find a deal on ebay still. So while I really wanted to explore hydraulic rim brakes this year; this deal was too good pass up and jim and everyone else that has Di2 swears by them. Of course that means double the work as I have to take the Vendetta parts and transfer parts to the Silvio, and some parts from silvio to silvo it should be all good.

Di2 is completely new to me so what are the best ideas for batteries and cabling? Anything special about mounting the front derailleur? Other gotchas, It comes with a 11speed cassette that will fit my 130mm drive wheel; and I have been told it will shift fine with the SRAM 10 speed cassette too.

 

[scabinetguy]

Di2

Bob, the Vendetta is made for Di2. The battery and junction box can all fit in the boom. Real clean installation. You do need a small plate bolted to the front derailleur hanger ( in pic ) so the derailleur has something to push against. The battery I used is the cigar shaped one meant for the seat tube on DF bikes. Once you use Di2 you'll never go back....Steve

 

[ratz]

And here come the questions.

Steve,


Question 1: How did you tap the hole the stem for the plate, a drill and then a thread cutter?

Question 2: rubber grommet on the wire hole; necessary or cosmetic?

Question 3: In an older photo you had just what looked like a pin on the steam now that's a flat shim; needed more stability?

Question 4: If the battery is in the boom how are you retrieve it for charging? A string maybe?

 

[scabinetguy]

Questions

Bob, Yes just drill and tap for mounting. I changed to a square plate to give more height adjustment for the derailleur.The grommet is available at your hardware store, looks better and probably necessary.The battery is charged from the control junction box strapped on the boom. One charge lasts several weeks if not months...Steve

 

[LarryOz]

Do you need the internal

Do you need the internal wiring setup, or is the V tube big enough to house the external stuff?

 

[ratz]

Batteries

That's a good question Larry,

I have been trying to piece it all together; and frankly it's not documented well anywhere which is typical of Shimano. I had to watch about 5 videos and read about 20 reviews to figure out what Steve probably had learned / done. Here's what I figured out. (if any of this is wrong, correct me pls).

1) The big battery has to be removed to charge.
2) The slim battery has the same charge potential and can be charged on the bike.
3) Both batteries are good for 500-1500 kilometer depending on how much front derailleur shifting you do; and how cold it is.
4) The batteries use different chargers.
4) Big battery good for ultra events and multi day events where you might want a spare in the car.
5) You can use either or both on the same electronics, but only one can be plugged into the junction at a time. (need to confirm)
6) If you put the big battery into the boom (if it fit) you'd have to remove it to charge. that might be a hassle.


So my kit came with the big external one; but I don't like big bulky stuff on the bike. I will keep it and rig the bike so that in an emergency the big one can be externally strapped, and used; then it will likely spend its life in the spares kit I carry around.

For the the build I've ordered the slimmer battery, its charger, and the more modern 5 port junction box. Those will be built into the Vendetta boom so that it is slim and tidy.

Lastly I will order a spare rear derailleur, as that is the component most likely to get damaged in a crash and wreck a big event or put the bike down for a week or two if replacements are scarce. The kit I scored has the short care derailleur. I will make the spare the medium cage; does so allows me to swap out the 26T cassette for a 32T, my climbing wheels have the 32T on them the Aeros are 26T. Again spares and flexibility.

After all the spares I'm about even with the best price I could have hit on new Force 22 Hydrualic. The more I read up the more this was the right way to go.


One thing I'm sadden by is that the software use to let you mix and match parts. A 11 speed derailleur is after all not really different from a 10 speed. Shimano changed their firmware now. You have to have 11 speed shifters, derailleurs etc or it will squawk at you and stop working. That is a lame money play; I hope in the future they get enough market share that such silly artificial limits are removed; software should solve problems not create them.

It do move wheels between 10speed and now 11speed bikes I will be checking to see if I need to run down-rev firmware to make that work that work or not. Fortunately there are still limit screws so there should be options to gehto config if needed.

 

[scabinetguy]

V boom

The boom houses the battery and a small junction box which connects the battery, derailleurs and shifters to the control box via small wires of specific lengths. The control box is strapped to the outside of the boom and you charge the battery from this box. I don't think the big battery would fit in the boom and yes you have to take it off to charge it.
I did a 200 miler in Malibu a couple of months ago, I must have shifted a thousand times and the battery was nowhere near depleted.

 

[BBL]

Di2 Ideas for Vendetta 2

Something you might want to consider is routing your rear derailleur cable inside the frame of the chain stay. It may be a little difficult to see, but I drilled a hole to allow the rear derailleur wire to be routed through the frame. All my Di2 components are contained in the boom, so the wire you see here comes out of the hole in the boom and into the hole in the chain stay, taking it back to the rear derailleur. No external wire routes.

I enlarged the breather hole so that the connector would fit through.

I am using the internal seat post battery. I made a battery holder from mini-cell foam. It is 2" dia. X 3" long. It has a 0.625" dia. hole in the center. I wedged the foam with the battery inside into the slider as shown below. It is a pretty tight fit, and I am confident that it isn't going anywhere. The wire in the photo seems to go between the battery and the foam donut, but it actually goes between the foam and the slider.

I plan to put a small piece of velcro on the cockpit controller box and imbed it in the slider, just barely, so it is out of sight and hopefully secure enough that it doesn't rattle around. I hope I don't end up having to fish it out one day.

 

[ratz]

Internal wires rock

Wow that is really really sweet.

I was thinking about that when viewing Steve's picture. My uncertainty was about the drilling of the exit hole and where to place it without weakening the chain stay. I'll have to get my nerve up to do that; but probably will.

The foam battery sleeve is a great idea I will definitely do something similar. I wonder if EPE foam would work better or worse. Battery heat when charging might make cellfoam the better choice.

Did you do similar to Steve to brace the front derailleur

 

[BBL]

Forward Derailleur Brace

At this point I am not planning to add the brace. I have Di2 on my Silvio 2. It is installed without the brace. On the S2 there is enough rotational movement in the FD attachment to play around with it and get it in adequate, if not perfect, alignment. His brace design and hardware is really nice. If it turns out that the V2 is different, I'll for sure borrow his design. I'll be able to answer this question more definitively after this weekend. I have just now gotten all of the parts to finish the job, well that is, if the job is really ever complete.

It has been a struggle getting 10 speed Di2 components, and I have had to pay a premium for some of them. Part of the reason for wanting to stay with 10 speed has been compatibility with my S2. Good luck with your Di2 build.

 

[Eric Winn]

It works and it works every time consistently

I really like the sound of this setup and the programmability/customization and the comment at about the 3:50 mark about "it works and it works every time consistently..."

The occasional subtitle pop-up to clarify certain British terms is pretty funny too.

-Eric

 

[ratz]

For the benefit of others

After reading and reading and reading.....

I have to wonder if XTR Di2 and Synchro shift might not just be a natural for any Cruzbike. It might be really interesting to have Hydraulic brakes from "anyone" and the XTr Di2 setup. For Massive Gearing on the cassette and those that love the clutch derailleurs this could be pretty cool.... Oh Rick... you bored?

http://reviews.mtbr.com/interbike-riding-the-shimano-xtr-with-di2-and-fox-ictd

http://www.bikeradar.com/us/mtb/gear/category/components/groupsets/groupset-mountain/product/review-shimano-xtr-di2-48474/

Seriously though I wasn't aware of this; and it has possibility for bullhorns and drop bars alike. Might have influenced my ebay staulking if I had known about it. Need to figure out the capacity of the front derailleur or if it's compatible with the road derailleur. hmm...

 

[Eric Winn]

Shift maps

I think the shift maps account for the changes you get vis-À-vis momentum/inertia/lag when you are accelerating/decelerating while shifting particularly when climbing but I need to ponder it more.

Here is the embedded version:

-Eric

 

[ratz]

Conceptually yes. but



I get the concept but I'm not sure I fully understand their shift maps/routes but it's really interesting. If you remember back to Maria TT Bars on the Vendetta in the skunk works that never got ridden on RAMM and Charlies prototype with the odd carbon back end. Something like this could be a real boon when exhausted after a long hard ride with twitchy in tight bars.

(sorry embedding not working for me, or someone needs to teach me)

 

[ratz]

Momentum....and custom maps

Eric that would make sense I hadn't consider Force Load at the crank.

I'm consider setting up some custom button function or adding some satellite buttons. The big one I was thinking is it would be nice to have a "macro" button for stop sign approach; one push; put me in low gear all at once; that would be handy. Rarely do I forget but it does happen and have a single push solution would be handy.

The sprinter buttons show promise. Setup the right had one to be under the thumb in the power position; I wonder if those are locked into a fixed function or if the programming sofware could be used to make them do something else.

 

[Ivan]

A macro button for a stop

A macro button for a stop sign! You guys are killing me! That would be very cool!!

Embedding videos is tricky and not obvious. In YouTube, click SHARE, EMBED and then copy the embed code that appears that looks like:

You can also click more and customize the size. Then paste the embed code into the EMBED MEDIA dialog box on this forum. Hassle is that if Cruzbike Forum asks you to enter verification, you have to redo the embed video.

So here's a video about BioShift - maybe I'll just wait for that skip over Di2 - ha ha!

 

[Eric Winn]

Editing post with embedded video

Also if you try and edit a post with an embedded video, the edit window doesn't preserve the embed and you will lose it unless you embed it again...

And what is with that droopy saddle in the bioshift video above?

-Eric

 

[Andrew 1973]

And what is with that droopy

And what is with that droopy saddle in the bioshift video above?

I know, right? That's the only thing I could focus on. Clearly it's an effort to making sitting on an ass hatchet a little more bearable.

 

[ratz]

Well there you go.

Ivan,

Looks like you need Di2 to use bioshift so you might as well get your order place....

An indepth hands on with BioShift. However I'd suspect it's bio-detection would be all wrong with a recumbent. Still really cool though. Oh an there's that saddle again; pray it's not a Sensor

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/10/bioshifts-automated-shifting.html

 

[Lief]

I couldn't help just a small bit of humor

(artistic license taken seat v saddle)

now, back to the coolness of BioShift and Di2.