Shimano’s New Dura-ace R9100
Five new features of the top-end road group
Before this year’s Tour de France, Shimano revealed its updated top-end road groupset, Dura-ace. The event is a big deal. Not only do you get to see the best the Japan-based company has to offer, but you get a glimpse into features that will appear in the Ultegra and 105 groups. Here are five of the most significant developments in the new groupset.
1 It’s really four new groupsets
The new 9100 series Dura-ace boasts four sets of shift/ brake levers, depending on your desired brake and drivetrain configurations. You can pick either rim or hydraulic disc brakes and mechanical or electronic Di2 shifting. Arguably the hoods are the most important component in any drivetrain. Sure, you need your brakes to stop and the derailleurs to shift, but the hoods are where all of those interactions are filtered through. Your hands are also on the hoods 90 per cent of the time. As a result, ergonomics were a big focus for Shimano, with the goal of giving consistent feel across the different hoods. “Getting the brake lever shape to where you can go back and forth between a standard rim brake, Di2 lever and a hydraulic Di2 lever and not feel a difference is probably the greatest engineering accomplishment,” said Dave Lawrence, Shimano road product manager. The new Di2 hoods for rim and disc brakes are extremely similar in feel, virtually indistinguishable from one another.
2Hydraulic disc brakes see true road refinement
When Shimano launched its road hydraulic disc setup, the R785, it was conspicuously labelled as a non-series group, roughly equating to the Ultegra level, which led to speculation that there would be a Dura-ace set. The rumours were confirmed with this latest update. The new top-end disc brake features a new rotor with a sleek look and aluminumalloy sandwich construction extending to the centre mount for increased heat dissipation.
The flat-mount calipers are smaller than Shimano’s previous version, fitting more discretely into a rear triangle and fork, giving a clean look more in line with traditional road setups. Mechanical rim brakes are also smaller than before, although the differences are less obvious to the eye.
3A new Shadow is on the road
Disc brakes are not the only tech that Dura-ace has borrowed from mountain bikes. The flagship road group now uses a Shadow-style rear derailleur, which can be mounted from a hanger or in a direct-mount fashion to the bike’s frame. The direct-mount method provides a stiffer platform for more accurate shifts and better clearance, allowing for the use of a wider-range 11-30 tooth cassette. Shadow appears in both the Di2 and mechanical Dura-ace versions, putting the rear derailleur under and inboard of the rear triangle.
4Synchro Shift automates shifting
Synchro Shift first appeared on the xtr mountain groupset in 2014. With this feature on Dura-ace, road riders will no longer need to dump gears to maintain cadence when switching between chainrings: Di2 will do it automatically. The electronic brain of the shifters will make the rear shift first, followed nearly simultaneously by the front shift. This process relies on the powerful servomotors within the electronic derailleurs, which are able to auto trim, as well as shift faster while under much greater load than spring-driven mechanical setups.
As with xtr, the new Dura-ace Di2 can be programmed with two customizable Synchro Shift modes. Full-syncro will make shifts at both the front and rear, while semi-syncro only adjusts the on the rear cogs depending on your shifts with the front derailleur. Manual shift is accessible at any time and will override the preprogrammed shifting. For traditionalists, Syncro Shift can also be disabled entirely.
5New integrated power meter
The new crankset retains the familiar four-arm design, but it is even bigger for improved stiffness and to house the integrated power meter. The entire power-meter system is housed within the crankarms. The only thing you can see of the meter is a small transmitter protruding near the driveside crankarm. There is also an led for diagnostics and a magnetic charging port for the power-meter battery. The new device has many features, such as independent left/right power and torque analysis. Full pricing is not yet available, but expect it to land near the top-end of the market.
Limited availability for North America is slated for fall, starting with the mechanical Dura-ace 9100 rim-brake group, followed by the Di2 rim-brake group in January 2017 and the hydraulic disc-brake groups (both mechanical and Di2) in March. We’ll finally see a TT disc-brake groupset next summer.
“The only thing you can see of the meter is a small transmitter protruding near the drive-side crankarm.”