Di2 WU111 D-Fly fitting

Got one of the new EW-WU111 wireless units, this one:

The old one was easy, it was an “add on” item which you could shove anywhere, but this one being in line I can’t decide where best to put it. the shortest wire you can get is 150mm, and I don’t have 150mm of exposed wire anywhere. I guess I could put it between the junction A and junction B inside the down tube. Feels like it should come with a 50mm cable or something, then I’d add it onto the junction A before the wire enters the headtube. Anyone else fitted one?

Bit annoying that you need to buy an additional wire too, you didn’t with the WU101.

Eh? The old one was in line too. Never tried it with only one cable connected, suspect it’d probably still work ok. Suspect this one would too.

If internally routed i’d probably get a short cable (I’ve brought 50mm ones in the past) and stick it in line between battery and junction box. Probably the easiest and most discreet way to add to an existing setup.

Was it? Been a while since I fitted it, and I put it in the BB shell, so can’t check.

Thinking about it you’re right of course, as it’s designed to go on the rear mech. Maybe I’ll try it with only one end plugged in. 50mm cables certainly aren’t official, shortening them doesn’t look too hard though

You need a fancy new battery for this one, is that right?

I did hear that it only works with the new battery. Be interested to know if this is true.

I have the new battery, I thought it could only do stuff like the SyncroShift with the new battery, but if you just want it for broadcasting to a Garmin or whatever then it didn’t matter. The other bike (I assume) has the old battery, so perhaps I’ll try.

That would be interesting, thanks! Would quite like a new battery, ANT+ doodah and tiddly end-of-bars junction box thingy, but that would be quite a bit of cash…

Yes, the bar end junction box is quite nifty. Couldn’t be bothered with the requisite bars though.

I fitted the bar end plug Into the alloy bars I use then drilled a hole just in front of the plug for the cable then simple taped over the cable on its way to the sti.
Don’t feel the cable under the tape and that part of bar is low stress.

The wu111 is curently inline between where the cable exits the down tube and the shifters. But will hide it inside the frame when I find time

Best add its on a road bike

Mmm, I’m thinking inside the frame would be best, I’ll have to take the BB out, which is mildly inconvenient.

Yes, the bar end junction box is quite nifty. Couldn’t be bothered with the requisite bars though.

same here, i use ENVE bars and they have that integrated end cap thing, don’t fancy sawing them,

can you not put it inline with the seat post battery, saves taking the BB out

Yeah, maybe. Frame wasn’t actually designed for the internal battery, so it’s wrapped in pipe lagging and crammed down the seat tube, may not be that easy to get it out 😆

To remove the battery take out the crank and shove some gear or brake outer caseing up into the seat tube till it pops out the top

Gotta take the BB out too to do that, and as it wasn’t designed for internal routing there’s not much of a hole in the BB shell to get up the seat tube. Probably easier to go fishing from the top. Aero seat post, so quite a big hole.

Or maybe just turn it up side down and shake the buggery out of it.

Not that Ive tried this

Probably work! I’m not sure it’s that secure, may rattle like buggery when I ride it! Being Chinese that’ll probably be the bits falling off it mind.

I’ve done a whole load of Googling, and opinions are mixed on whether the new (EW-WU111 and EW-WU101) D-fly units will function with an old (SM-BTR2) battery. The consensus though, seems to be that they will not.

The (new) EW-WU101 is the same size and shape as the old D-Fly unit (SM-EWW01). The (new) EW-WU111 has the same functionality as the EW-WU101, but in a smaller package.

The EW-WU101 is effectively a replacement for the SM-EWW01. As a result they seem to have discontinued the SM-EWW01 – I can’t see anywhere showing stock. That seems to totally crap on anyone with an (old, i.e. 2016 & some 2017 bikes!) SM-BTR2 battery. In order to add ANT+ transmission we’d now need to pointlessly buy a new battery as well as a D-fly unit. Bah, that’s 200 quid or so in total just to get data beamed to a Garmin. I’m not bothered enough about bluetooth or synchroshift to care about getting those ‘upgrades’.

Seems fairly unlikely! Must admit it had passed me by that the EW-WU101 was not the same as the SM-EWW01, but I can’t see that being anything other than a product name change and the Bluetooth update, functionally it’s identical to the WU111, and what conceivable reason would they have for doing that when the WU111 is basically the same price? Particularly as they’ve discontinued the SM-EWW01.

As a complete aside… why is all Di2 stuff so damned expensive!? £20 a cable, £100 for a charger, £75 for a remote shifter. Piss take.

Can’t fit the climbing shifter on the new bike as I’d not noticed that the RS785 hydro STIs don’t have spare ports like the ST9070s, and I’m not buying a 5-port junction A as well as the remote shifter!

I agree that it seems daft, but it’s clearly claimed in quite a few places. My only hope is that when they say “not compatible with SM-BTR2” they just mean that the bluetooth aspect won’t work. That would be fine – that seems to rely on processing stuff that goes on in the battery pack. I guess I could just order one, plug it in and give it a go. I agree about the cost of cables etc. though. I guess we’re used to the prices of more mass-market stuff. I dare say there are plenty of factories in China that could knock out Di2 cables for a quid a pop if there was sufficient market for them.

njee20 – I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to try your EW-WU101 with a BTR-2 battery have you…? I’ve tried and failed to buy an SM-EWW01 from a shop, and they’re not that cheap on eBay. I’d rather have one of the new ones for futureproofing, but only if it actually works with my current stuff!

Sadly not, I don’t really fancy trying to get the BTR-2 back out of my seat tube as it’s very well wedged in, and the WU101 is glued inside the downtube of my other bike, which I also don’t fancy trying to get to, sorry!

OK, no worries – fair enough! I’ve not found any compelling reason to think that it’ll functional at all, unfortunately. I guess I’ll just make do without. The junction box is a bit tucked away on my Canyon, so it’s a bit of a pain to check the battery level / to charge it up, so I’d rather do it only when necessary. That’s nowhere near worth the cost of a new battery and D-Fly doodah though.