What piece of kit or setup represents the pinnacle of your hobby/profession?

Even if it's not expensive, Is there a high quality item every serious enthusiast owns?

Or maybe it's a highly prized holy grail item you'd give your right arm for.

Is there something you've had an eye on for a while and you're just waiting for an excuse to treat yourself?

peppersnail 20 points 3 years ago

I have electronically actuated (as opposed to cable actuated) gear shifting on my bike. It's becoming way more common these days, though...but still, it's a pretty expensive piece of kit for quite marginal gains.

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xenos 5 points 3 years ago

Woah that sounds amazing, how much of the system is electronic? Is the derailleur itself controlled by a servo?

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peppersnail 4 points 3 years ago

Front and rear derailleurs are servo controlled. These connect to a central unit that also has the shifters connected to it. This central unit can communicate with a bike computer (via ant+) to show gearing.

In addition, you can set it up so that when you shift the front derailleur, it automatically moves the rear derailler. You might want to do this in order to keep roughly the same gear ratio when changing chainrings. Or, there is a mode where you just shift up and down, and the system manages the shift for you, shifting either (or both) derailleurs, simulating a 1x drivetrain.

All of the popular group sets have a version of this: shimano, sram, and campagnolo.

It’s very expensive lol

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Fulthi 4 points 3 years ago

I didn't even know that was a thing.

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SentientMattress 3 points 3 years ago

Modern drivetrains are great but I love the feeling of friction shifters. It's like driving an old pickup with a manual transmission.

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peppersnail 4 points 3 years ago

Nothing wrong with that. There’s something to be said for going with simplicity. Way easier to fix if something goes wrong. If I was doing some really hardcore touring through remote areas, I would definitely favor friction shifters for this reason.

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HidingCat 3 points 3 years ago

WTF, first I'm hearing of this. Sounds really expensive. Is this a road bike thing? Sounds like a road bike thing, I can't imagine the mountain bikers wanting something like that.

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relicax 3 points 3 years ago

It's becoming pretty standard on the 'mid tier' specced mountain bikes. Anything with sram axs in the name. With that said the mid tier for mountain bikes jumped from 3-4k to 5-6k usd over the past few years.

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peppersnail 3 points 3 years ago

I have it on my road bike, but they also have it for mountain bikes.

In addition to shifting, you can even get electronically actuated dropper seat posts these days :)

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Xeelee 2 points 3 years ago

How's the dental practice doing, Fred?

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