Go, Go Gadget - Electric Shifter

So it looks as if Campagnolo is coming out with an electric shifting option that will shift both front and rear derailleurs. It is still unclear if this will ever hit the market. Given the dismal failure of previous attempts (namely Mavic's ZAP back in the early 90's) this may never see the light of day. Saeco used the electric shifting during the Vuelta a Espana in 2004. That fact combined with how refined and non-prototype looking the bits are at this stage make me think they are going to start offering this as an option soon. It is currently a wired system as Campy indicated they simply could not get a wireless system to work reliably without interference or cross talk with other systems.

Here are some pics of the system. Click to view full size.









More photos, comprehensive descriptions, and the state of development are available at cycling news.

While the design of this electric shifting system looks pretty bulletproof and pretty tidy too, I can't help wondering if the whole idea is a solution in search of a problem. It seems to me one of the great things about a bike is the mechanical simplicity. There are not many things that can go wrong with a bike that make it impossible to get back home (provided you have brought a minimal tool set along). While a failure in this system would not make it impossible to finish your ride, it introduces a point of failure in the shifting system which is generally not very prone to problems.