Rise of the machines

From shifting to suspension, electrical technology is taking over

ot so long ago, the only electrical device to be found on a mountain bike was the humble bike computer, with a magnet fixed to a spoke, a wire winding its way up from the fork sensor to the handlebar, and a crude LCD screen displaying your maximum speed and how many miles you’d racked up.

But technology marches on, and one thing that’s been impossible to ignore at this year’s trade shows and product launches is the rise of electrical components. From Shimano’s XTR Di2 electronic groupset – a first for mountain biking, but already proven on road bikes – to Fox’s iCD lockout system and RockShox’s e.i ‘intelligent’ suspension (which adjusts the rear shock damping based on fork and crank movements), this ‘futuristic’ tech has well and truly arrived.

It’s not just components that are going electronic – the likes of Cube, Haibike, Lapierre and Giant all offer power-assisted full-sussers. To the fit and healthy they may seem like cheating, but if they let physically challenged riders experience off-road cycling, surely that can only be a good thing?

So what’s next? The rumour mill has gone into overdrive, with talk of everything from wi-fi controlled SRAM gearing to a servo-equipped dropper from KS that would remove the need for the rider to use their weight to drop the post. Where this revolution is going to take us next is anyone’s guess.