First Impressions of Shimano’s New Dura-Ace Groupset
Hydraulic disc brakes and an integrated power meter mark the biggest developments
Hydraulic disc brakes and an integrated power meter mark the biggest developments
On the descent into Xaló, I came at the hairpin turn at a screaming speed. Well, my “screaming” speed may not have been as fearsome (or fearless) as the others in my group. The roads near Calpe, Spain, where Quick-step Floors and Team Sunweb were for early-season training, were new to me. Rain that had fallen earlier was on the road in patches. Still, I descended better than I had the day before on dry pavement. At that time, I was on rim brakes. Heading to Xaló, I was riding the new Dura-ace r9100 hydraulic disc brakes. Shimano had announced the rotor and calipers for i ts top-of-the-line road gruppo in June 2016, just ahead of that year’s Tour de France. By the end of January, many pro teams still hadn’t ridden them. The caliper is the lightest one yet by Shimano. The listed weight is 256 g per pair, 33 g lighter than the older rs805 calipers. The rotors use a new vision of Freeza, the heat-management technology that has an aluminum core sandwiched between stainless steel. On that descent, the disc brakes made me feel more in control. I could brake later coming into turns compared with the rim brakes I had used the day before. With the discs, the stopping power was smooth and regular as I applied force to the levers. As esthetics go, the rotors, with more surface area when compared with their mountain bike siblings, seem better suited to the road. The other bit of technology that I and a few others were trying for the first time was the power meter integrated into the Dura-ace crank. Shimano also introduced the power meter at this past year’s launch. The company plans to roll it out this summer. “Getting into the power-meter business was from requests from the teams,” said David Lawrence, road and pavement product manager for North America, part of Shimano’s global road product team. “They needed something that was going to be incredibly reliable. They needed something that was going to be very accurate. They were kind of getting both but not at the same time.”
The power meter has two strain gauges set in the cranks, giving you left/right power. The gauges, however, are hardwired together. Their data is transmitted, via ant+, from one point, and then interpreted at the head unit. The advantage of this system is that you only need one battery – in this case, a narrow cell in the spindle. You charge the battery with a cable that has a magnetic end, which fastens to the surface of the crank. If you want to change chainrings, you can. The accuracy should remain at plus/minus two per cent, which is standard with power meters. Shimano recommends that you zero the meter at the start of each ride for best results. One noticeable feature of the power meter is how unnoticeable, or at least subtle, it is. It’s nicely integrated into the system in terms of look and function.
During my short time with the power meter, I was able to capture some data via Ipwatts, an Android app. Each second, it records whether it receives a signal from the power meter. It’s common for signal drops to happen on all power meters; head units simply smooth out the data. While I need to do some more tests to come to stronger conclusions, it seems the Shimano power meter transmits data well, similar to Powertap P1 pedals. Any issue I may have had with the power meter’s numbers was more about what they said about my
early-season fitness than the quality of the data.
Shimano also added to E-tube, the brains behind the Di2 electronic shifting system. E-tube first appeared on the Ultregra 6770 group, roughly six years ago. Since then, it has expanded to other component lines and has expanded its features. With the Dura-ace r9150 Di2, synchronized shifting has come to the road from Shimano’s mountain bike xtr group. With synchro shift, you can use your full 2 x 11 gear range with one shifter. If you’re in your small ring and you’ve reached your limit with the small cogs at the back, the system will then shift to the big ring and an appropriate cog to put you in the next hardest gear. R9150 also comes with semi synchro: a shift from the large ring to the small ring is followed by a correction shift at the back to a smaller cog. If you shift from
“Any issue I may have had with the power meter’s numbers was more about what they said about my early-season fitness than the quality of the data.”
the small to large ring, your chain is also moved to a larger cog. Campagnolo has a similar functionality on its eps system. The Shimano correction shift, however, is speedier than its Italian counterpart’s.
With the new E-tube Project app, you can customize the semi synchro behaviour. In Spain, my test bike was set to move the chain two cogs if I went into the big ring or the small ring. There was something unsatisfying about this arrangement. Later, I found that when I shifted into the small ring, a correction of just one cog smaller felt better. You have three shift modes with the system: manual, and two others you can program for synchro or semi synchro. These options are great if you are swapping rear wheels with different cassette ranges.
In all, I spent two days learning about and testing these features of the new groupset. It was a good introduction, but not nearly enough time to really delve into the system. Riding more with the new Dura-ace is definitely something I’m looking forward to.