I’ve currently got a gravel bike that I’ve been using as pretty much my go-to bike for the past year or so. It’s running a 1×11 Sram Force groupset with the 10-42 cassette.

After reading up a bit about them and speaking to friends who have them, I fancy trying electronic shifting.

Options at the moment seem to be:
Ultegra Di2
Etap HRD
Ultegra Di2 with XT/XTR derailleurs

Obviously the Ultegra and the Etap won’t have the benefit of the clutch rear mech’s but I was wondering if anyone’s running Di2 or Etap 2×11 on a similar bike and how they’ve found it with regards chain retention?
I’m thinking that running something with a 52/36 at the front and 11/32 at the back should give a wide enough spread of gearing to cover pretty much any eventuality.

The Ultegra seems to be pretty good and I like the idea of the synchro shifting but the cable free design of the Etap seems to appeal to me a bit more!

Any recommendations either way?

I have eTap HRD on a Bokeh with 44/30 Sugino cranks and 11/28 Ultegra cassette. Seems to work well, I like the shifting and the halving of spaghetti is nice.
(Edit) I’ve not dropped a chain yet in about 2500km of mixed riding including Paris-Roubaix, Gravel Dash, Surrey Hills road and off road, Exmouth Exodus, etc etc (/edit)
Certainly for long day/ multi day riding the simple push-click gear change is good when hands start to get a bit tired. I’m picking up some spare batteries tonight so that should make longer ie 750km+ rides more manageable.

Have a look at an Arkose LTD 😀

Thanks for that aP.
Have you had any issues at all with the Etap? Is it easy enough to set up?

It’s interesting to hear about the type of riding you’re doing as it’s quite similar to the stuff I’ve been doing.

Have a look at an Arkose LTD

Interesting, but the Hylex adapter kit looks a bit awkward. Fine on the hoods but I’m not sure how well they’d work on the drops. Assume the XT Di2 rear mech won’t work with the Di2 road STI as that would seem the obvious solution.

Edit… looks like you can…

The official word is that you can use the Deore XT front and rear derailleurs with the R785 hydraulic/Di2 STI levers, or the Ultegra and Dura-Ace Di2 STI levers, you just can’t mix and match road and mountain bike derailleurs.

I wonder why Pinnacle didn’t do this?

Like aP, I have a Bokeh, but with Di2 and less miles covered. 50/34 with 11-32 and no chain issues. Loving the zzzt-snick and ease of use, and looking forward to bulky winter gloves and no problems changing gears.

another Bokeh here with 9170 Di2 – 50/34 & 11/32

chain dropping was never an issue with 2x & 3x MTB systems was it pre clutch?

chain dropping was never an issue with 2x & 3x MTB systems was it pre clutch?

That’s a good point, I’m thinking about 1x systems like I’m currently running 😆

Xt/ultegra di2 1x works nicely!

I’ve been looking at Ultegra Di2 for my Bokeh for a while but I do like the looks of the eTap due to the lack of wires.
I was toying with the idea of an Ultegra/XTR Di2 set-up but I’m starting to think that a normal Ultegra set-up would work just as well as I won’t be running 1x anymore.
The flexibility of being able to set up Di2 to suit with the app is very appealing as well.

I was almost convinced that eTap was the way forward but the lack of clearance for wider 38mm tyres on 700c wheels puts me off.
From reading everything above it seems that the Bokeh works pretty well with either of the electronic shifting systems.