Drill and Build
Ok it was time do the build out. Working off of what Steve and Buddy did I achieved a pretty nice result.
This is an 11speed Ultegra setup; but I keep my SRAM Crank Set and Rotor Q-Rings. I went with an all internal cabling setup the same as what Buddy did.
First step was to enlarge the Drain hole in the chain stay. Using a drill I enlarged the hole to accommodate the wire; pictured below is the rough cut after drilling. I then used a round file to clean up the burs and to put a slight angle to the hole; about a 60 degree tapper to make routing the wire easier.
Next at the far end I had to drill a matching entry hole. Again rough cut pictured; then cleaned up with a round file. In both cases I drilled the hole to match the cable size; and then enlarged ever so slightly with the file; to allow for routing.
For the battery insert; I used air foam plastic, from home depot. Cutting 3 pieces to support the battery and keep it in place in the boom. Nothing fancy here I just shoved it into the boom to cut to size.
Next I assembled the wiring harness that would be inside the bike.
This part took the longest as I worked out the lengths of wires that worked best for each task. My kit didn't come with all the wires I would need. I was short Qty 2, 750mm wires for the run from the brifters to Junction A, and Qty 1 350mm.
The short fall was because I bought an external battery kit off of ebay and converted it to internal. It was still cheaper that way. The External kit includes a y-cable with a battery meter that takes the place of the 750mm wires and junction A that the internal battery uses.
Key Notes:
1) Junction box B winds up by the Bottom Bracket.
2) 350 mm lenght front derailleur wire allows for the wires to be feed up the boom from the hole at the BB for assembly
3) 900 mm is longer than needed a 650mm would just work, and 750mm would be fine. 900mm makes fishing the wires, assembling and future maintenance A LOT easier; Yes there will be a lot of extra wire inside, but it seemed a good future proofing.
4) 300mm and 650mm for the battery and junction A route make separating the boom easy to do; and for my 5'9" configuration there was no slack to spare on those wires. Taller people should use longer wires there.
Insert the harness and battery into the upper boom. Fit is good.
Then insert the wires and junction box in to the lower boom. Feed the wires up from the bottom connect to junction B then slide everything together. Now is also a good time to add the grommet to protect the wires.
With the boom reassembled; hang the Chain stay from the BB. I put a wood dowel through the BB and hung the chain-stay from the dowel while I worked.
Feed the wire through the stay. This is was really hard and wasn't working I spent about an hour failing. Then I found this video.
How to make and use a Di2 wire routing tool. I had all the parts to make that tool so I did and I had the wire routed in 3 minutes. Again install the grommet.
Reinstall the crank, bb and assembly the chain stay in the normal way.
Then Install the front derailleur and connect the wire. All the wiring is nice and neat.
Likewise hang the rear derailluer and plug it in.
Lastly install the brifters and connect to Junction Box A.
Mine is mounted just like Buddy's picture, with the exception that my boom is set longer. Junction A; stays by the Boom opening not the boom clamp. That was simply the best place to put it. Run 750mm wires from the brifters to the Junction Box A alone the same path as traditional shift wires. 650mm was too short 750 had just enough to spare.
- Tear down time: 1 hour
- Cleaning bike: 3 hours (it was dirty)
- Staring at wires and figuring out the best options: 5 hours, hopefully the wiring photo helps someone else do it much faster
- Frame modifications: 2 hour
- Frame and wiring assembly: 2.5 hour
- Brifter and Brakes: 30 minutes
- Derailleur setup: 5 minutes
Yes Derailleur setup was 5 minutes. This electric stuff is amazingly easy to tune; or rather it tunes itself for the most part. The outstanding lack of wires on the outside of the bike is just freaky. You can't really appreciate the precision motor alignment until you do and install and realize that there is so little calibration.
That's it until Christmas break. The only thing left on the V2 tunes ups; is a new seat, and the rear wheel cover. This bike should be all done by middle of January
December - February will be about retro fitting the Silvio with the Brifters recovered from this bike and making bullhorn brifters, and finishing up the Quest refurbishment (see other threads)
All and all this is a great setup, I'm very satisfied with the result, Di2 was the correct choice, I have zero buyer's remorse. Hopefully the chain-stay's strength isn't compromised by the modification; I'll ride it hard so we'll find out I suppose.
Based on the way this went, I'm sure there will be more Di2 in the future. Mrs Ratz was immediately open to upgrading her next year. None of the usual eye rolls that I get for crazy ideas. It's just that nice she immediately spotted that she'd never over shift the big ring; with the Q-rings that's a nice nice result.
On a side note; the Ultrega brakes are superb; I taken back by how great they are for rim brakes. They did weird me out; as they are the first brakes I have wired that don't use and cable ferrules at all.
(edited out the 3am typos and add some missing thoughts)
