Thinking of upgrading my TT bike (Felt B12 2008) to Di2.
Think all my wheels will only take a 10 speed cassette so will have to stick with that.
Reason for dong it is I just fancy doing some work on my bike and always liked the idea of electronic shifting.
Hopefully scour Ebay to try and find a bargain as I want to keep the cost to a minimum.
Would love to get the SRAM etap but wow way too much money!
Anyone else on here done this and have any tips.
Was it worth doing etc.?
Thanks.
I’ve done it, Di2 is brilliant and I wouldn’t buy a bike without it anymore unless I was getting something very budget (its more straight forward, more reliable, less maintenance and as someone who suffered with mitten hands when it gets cold the ease with which you can change gears makes it as good for your winter hack as it is for your race day bike!)
But…
It won’t make you any faster, its very much a, this is clearly better than the non-di2 bike, but would I rather have the money for something else.
Secondly, I doubt theres any economical sense in converting a bike, you’d be better off just selling and buying a bike already kitted out. Even scouring eBay whilst its easy to pick up the main group set your still having to get all the little bits like cable, junction boxes, rubber grommets for where the cables run in to the frame, specific brackets to hold the battery in the seat post or whatever. I don’t think theres any money to be saved unless you already have a lot of the tools and kit (and thats assuming you use a newer version of di2 that is more easy to program than some of the older set-ups) so unless you’ve got a really special bike that will lose you too much money just sell-up and buy again:)
10 speed Di2 is actually quite expensive for the mech’s, the original Ultegra version, don’t touch the first edition Dura-Ace 10 speed as there’s limited spares and it’s got no compatibility at all with anything else.
Not sure what wheels you have but you can get 11 speed cassette’s that fit on a 10 speed freehub if you can’t replace the freehub.
@itom150 thanks for the comprehensive reply.
I get what you are saying about selling up and buy a bike already kitted out but want to do it as a project really for as cheap as I can.
Will check some youtube videos out and see how easy/hard it is.
@jeffb I have a Planet-X 82 Carbon Tub and a Planet-X 60mm Clincher that are both quite old and state 9-10 speed hub.
Do you reckon I can fit an 11 speed cassette then?
I’d agree with all of the above. Di2 is great, but I also thought about retrofitting 10 speed to my roadie. It’s just not financially sensible in my opinion. People with 10sp di2 already are so desperate for the spare bits, the mechs in particular seem to go for ridiculous money. Whereas I’ve been able to pick up spare 11sp mechs for my TT bike for pretty cheap.
If you did go for it, the odd person often seems to be selling a used full groupset (like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143619669234). That’s not too bad really, especially if you sold on the cranks, brakes, etc. Everything you can find is likely to be well used, given how long ago 10sp di2 was discontinued (2014)
I’ve converted bikes to Di2 and Etap, for a few reasons I no longer recommend Etap.I think Di2 is worth the upgrade but I wouldn’t do 10 speed, either get an 11 speed cassette that fits your 10 speed wheel or just get a new wheel, loads about now as everyone moves to disc brakes. Buy Di2 piece by piece and it is pretty cheap to do.
I have the original di2 dura ace 7970.
The system is bomb proof apart from the rear mech.
An unused one, if such a thing exsists, would be £5-600?
I’ve known people but whole bikes just to get a rear mech.
One went on eBay yesterday for £191. It looked battered but the seller claimed it worked.
I have had one rear mech fail, I bought a complete spare groupset but I really don’t trust it, they start to ghost shift usually down the block… not good when your going uphill !
Then fail completely.
I have 5 nice bikes that are all 10 speed with a silly amount of spares, but if I was buying / making a di2 set up now I would go 11 speed.
Decent pre loved 11 speed wheels are cheap too.
Thanks for the replies.
It looks like I can upgrade the freehub on my wheels to 11 speed which I didn’t think i could so that is a positive.
Will have a look on Ebay at 11 speed Di2 now as that would make more sense.
You’ll probably pay less for 11 speed than 10, I sold a front & rear Di2 Ultegra 10spd mech about 2 years ago and was very surprised how much they were going for.
You could almost save the money and get an 11 speed rear wheel second hand, but if the freehub is swappable then that’s better.
Following…
I put Etap on my TT bike, although I like it and you don’t have to run cables through a TT frame I’m not sure I’d get it again.
Biggest weakness is the blipbox, they go missing easily and are like gold dust ATM. Although there was a rumour that SRAM were going to make some more a week or two ago.
People have also mentioned phantom shifts or missed ones, but I’ve never had that.
The current 12 speed set is also out of the question unless I buy wheels.
With Di2 there’s quite a lot of spares in the markets, a lot of it is interchangeable.
That said, the separate batteries for etap is good if one goes flat mid-ride, but they are also easy to steal!
Blip box goes missing … fails?!
If I’m going to do it for my argon I would get the bars with the gubbins inside… expensive but the front end looks mint.
Stolen, falls off etc. or you lose it in the garage 
That’s heavy…!?
Going to say never heard any talk of them failing…?!
Garage made me laugh.
I think the falling off was probably quite rare and more than likely linked to some customisation, but if the battery goes in the blipbox you are single speed after that. That’s not different to other electronic groupsets though.
I think I stuck mine in the bento box on my top tube and only put it on in transition on race day.
Interesting @jeffb that you aren’t sure you would use it again.
I think i am a bit worried with Di2 and all the cables and batteries and different options etc. and thought that Etap would be an easier option.
Will have another look online regarding fitting Di2 to see how difficult it actually is.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good stuff, less fuss with wires etc., but the first gen is obsolete now, spares are expensive, a blipbox on eBay is £260 ATM and mech’s are usually north of £250 I think.
12 speed will probably be around longer, and there’s 2 tiers of it I think? But, I’ve got no 12 speed wheels I think, and I’m not sure if some of my Zipp’s are compatible or a freehub available. So an expensive upgrade.
Di2 has plenty of spares, you can mix most of the newer stuff, but wiring can be a faff even if your frame is compatible.
I reckon Shimano will have wireless at some point.
Edit: apologies for thinking 
I like the operation of etap and I’ve got it in my TT bike and road bike but the actual gear changes on Di2 front & rear mech are better. I’ve had to return 2 rear mechs on the road bike and now it’s out of warranty a replacement would cost 500 quid! You can pick up di2 rear mechs on ebay for less than 100. The hydro calipers are a bit finicky to work on, the tiniest torque screws to bleed (I cant get one out). The levers on my road bike have an anoying rattle. There was something else but I can’t remember it.
That’s it, batteries. Don’t last any where near as long as di2 and I’ve been cought out with a flat batter a couple of times.