E-bike specific version of Shimano XT Di2 features ‘Free Shift’. Put simply, this allows riders to change gear without pedalling.

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By ben_haworth

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Change gear without pedalling with Shimano FREE SHIFT

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While this does sound awesome, all I actually wanted was a gearbox in the motor. Or failing that, less gears that will last longer – a wide range 8 speed on an ebike is MORE than enough

So if you happen to bump into your mate John and he is riding an EP6-equipped bike, you could legitimately say, “Hello, John, got a new motor?”

Or use a sensible gear system? Then this is normal

Wonder if it will be possible to hack the rear derailleur and shifter with a road Di2 battery for riders wishing to ride a pedal only mountain bike rather than an motorbike e-bike?

@BikeBroRadradbikebro They do have the Linkglide version, which is (one) less gear, and lasts longer

I’m not sure AUTO SHIFT WITH MANUAL OVERRIDE could deal with inordinate amount of time I spend on the big sprockets!

It sounds a good idea on paper, but I think in reality it’ll be awkward and unintuitive to use – a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

You can change gear without pedalling on a Sturmer Archer 3 speed…

When is the mountain bike version coming

Greybeard

You can change gear without pedalling on a Sturmer Archer 3 speed…

And Shimano Alfine. Its great on my town bike as you can be really lazy coming up to junctions and shift down to the right gear when just sat waiting.

Very little is new in the world of bikes!

edd

Wonder if it will be possible to hack the rear derailleur and shifter with a road Di2 battery for riders wishing to ride a pedal only mountain bike rather than an motorbike e-bike?

It’s a regular bike 12 soeed group also. Just auto when plugged into the new motor.

Even the old Di2 11s could be plugged into a Shimano eBike

I’m guessing this is useful for ebikes with the listed shimano motors, is the E801 a hardware change over the E800 (E8), so does it work with older models, as it’s powered by the ebike i take it that its wired into the ebike in some way, either via the motor or cable from the battery?

Seems a bit of a big show of new mechs and so on, but with a very limited scope, will this be more seeing them on newer ebikes in 2023, rather than sold separately, again as always, shimano are a lot of fuss to fit over the cleaner AXS system.

How do you change gear when that flimsy looking power cable to the mech gets ripped off of your bike? Every MTB rider knows that rear mech is probably the most vulnerable part of your bike why put a power cable in such an exposed position and right next to moving pivot points on the suspension?

Commuters on e-bikes who don’t want to have to think about the gears. Ever. From a maintenance point of view as well as whilst riding along

until they drop the bike on the right hand side and bend the rear mech hanger, nothing will ever be maintenance free until they get rid of the vulnerable parts sticking out from the bike.

Commuters already have Nexus Di2, I don’t actually see what problem this is trying to solve other than taking even more engagement out of the process.

having the wheel driving the chain around the crank, even if briefly seems like a recipie for disaster once the drive chain isnt box fresh.
better off putting efford craming a reasonable gear range inside the motor and running a singlespeed, even free-wheel free back end.

“having the wheel driving the chain around the crank, even if briefly seems like a recipie for disaster once the drive chain isnt box fresh.”

Surely it’s turning the chainring using the motor to shift when you’re not pedalling? It knows what gear it’s in. It knows how fast you’re going. So it can turn the chainring to shift normally without providing any propulsive force by making sure the sprockets are turned slower than the current wheel speed.

You can do the same thing with a front freewheel mechanism, as sometimes seen on trials bikes (obviously not so much now that they’re pretty much all singlespeed)

Main issue here would be finding a freewheel with more than 22t I think!

The additional ports are a big add.

a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

eh? Mine never does that. (DSG is auto innit?)

Right. Decision made. When this auto gear changing is included on eMTBs, I’ll be buying one.
Hopefully one day: auto-steering and it’ll be like a self driving car! But on 2 wheels! Tap in the route on your Garmin and sit back! What a life.

How much will you cry when you smack that on a rock?

I assume the thin weak cabling so they can sell more replacement mechs at high prices whe inevitably you rip a couple off the bike ?

having the wheel driving the chain around the crank, even if briefly seems like a recipie for disaster once the drive chain isnt box fresh.

there is a freewheel. the chainring is driven by the motor, so you don’t need to turn the crank for the ring to turn. the computer tells the motor to turn the ring.

a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

i’ve driven many automatic cars and i’ve not experienced this. i think it is a rumour started my jeremy clarkson when he reviewed a lexus on top gear.

Right. Decision made. When this auto gear changing is included on eMTBs, I’ll be buying one.
Hopefully one day: auto-steering and it’ll be like a self driving car! But on 2 wheels! Tap in the route on your Garmin and sit back! What a life.

it’s all a bit weird, isn’t it?

a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

Old autoboxes used to be terrible when mated to small engines. Modern ones work much better. I think this would only hunt if you were on constantly shifting terrain with constant variations in speed, in other words, when you’d be constantly changing gear anyway. If it’s programmed sensibly, it should be fine for normal terrain.

a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

eh? Mine never does that. (DSG is auto innit?)

i’ve driven many automatic cars and i’ve not experienced this. i think it is a rumour started my jeremy clarkson when he reviewed a lexus on top gear.

Lucky you, I can assure you the auto boxes in Vivaro’s/Masters do exactly that on gradients as the one in my mums does it all the time. Pain in the hole. It will depend entirely on how smart the controller is.

a bit lìke an auto box in a car, it’ll hunt for gears when it doesn’t need to in certain conditions.

Ah, got it. So it (might be) a (tiny) bit like (rarely experienced) auto boxes in (very few) cars. Cool. Yeah it’s bound to (not) be just like that 😀