I was renting a bike last week that had Ultegra 8170 shifters. It might have been down to the position and rotation of the levers but I was getting some numbness in the web of my thumb (I typically have my levers set a bit higher round the curve of the bar). It got me thinking about which of the Di2 levers were most comfortable should I decide to "upgrade".
I really like the (mechanical) GRX levers on my Topstone and don't have any problems with 11 speed (mechanical) levers on my Cube Agree either.
Any feedback from folks who've ridden a few of the variations would be appreciated.
They are very sensitive to positioning I find. On my original Cannondale bars on my Synapse I was aware of similar. When I upgraded the bars to Zipp SL70 XPLR they became instantly comfortable.
Yeah. Your positioning is closer to my own. They also felt narrower than my "older" levers.
Ive had 10, 11 & 12 speed Ultegra & Dura Ace Di2 on a few bikes and ive never had any hand issues, as far as i can tell there is no difference in shape between the 12 speed Ultegra and DA shifters, not tried GRX although i do have Sram Rival AXS on the gravel bike and the shifters are much bigger than Shimano's which is great for my shovel sized hands
Comfort is mainly down to postioning of the shifters, i mainly ride on the hoods so find i need to make minor adjustments of the lever postion when riding a new bike for the first time
I've no idea, but GRX has a Di2 version if you like GRX levers.
I know nothing about Di2, but since it's wireless and you're not shackled to cable pull ratios, I assume that any Di2 levers would talk to any Di2 mech. (I'd have thought that even speed was configurable as they're effectively just switches, but perhaps I'm being naïve).
I like a nice flat transition from bar to shifter. That often means sloth rotation of the bars up, and sliding the shifters slightly. As for brands, not much of a difference when all set the same.
I've recently bought a bike with Ultegra Di2 12sp, I find the levers comfortable enough (not a whole lot of difference to mechanical 10sp 105 & Dura-Ace on other bikes I have), the hoods do seem to have a bit more length though which I had to compensate for with shorter reach bars.
Have had the same on a rental bike.
Whoever set it up must have had more than one wrist per arm.
Or hyper mobility.
FWIW i had the identical groupset, even down to crank length and gear ratios on my own bike, which i can ride for 4-5-6 hours without pain.
I have 12spd ultegra Di2 on my bike, a cube allroad, I found the hoods ok, but when I changed the bars to non flared ones they instantly felt better, so much so that I now run them slightly lower.
having said that, the 11spd mechanical grx levers the bike came with were (slightly) comfier from the off.
I have two identical bikes with 11 sp grx, one mechanical one di2. Much prefer the di2 levers, find them a really good fit for my hands. Don't know if 12sp has different shaped levers.
@PJay you can mix di2 shifters and rear mechs - I have an xt on one of my cross bikes. But there is some restriction if you run a front mech - I think front and rear might have to match.