I’ve gone and sent my deposit off to Crisp Titanium for a future new bike (he purposely avoided talking about lead time in his initial email to me, so this could very well be a retirement project) and I assume I’m now in the queue. I’m glad that I have a lot of time to wait because 1) I can find some way to put money aside for it, and 2) I need to make some crucial decisions. Maybe you can help.
Rim or Disc Brakes
I’ve already tested this question out on a couple of friends, so I think I know what answers I might get from the rest of you. I’m not against the though of disc brakes TOO much, but it’s still a question I have – and an important one, I think. Once the frame is made for one, I’m not sure it could be changed to accommodate the other (Crisp doesn’t do it, according to his website).
I still dislike the look of discs, for the record.
Mechanical or Electronic Shifting
This one is a bit easier. I think I would consider electronic, mainly because I know more about it and am comfortable that it’ll work. It’s also clean looking and probably doesn’t add much weight (or is it lighter?).
And if I go that extra step, is it wireless?
Compact or 1X
This is probably the only bit of tech that I’m on the progressive side of, perhaps because it simplifies, rather than complicates, things. We are finally coming to the day where road bikes can be ridden with one chainring and by the time I actually get my bike, it could be even more realistic. I still love the idea of not having to shift the front ring, no matter how easy it would be with electronic shifting.
Tire clearance
This one is only important if I think that tire widths will reach ridiculous proportions, which seems to be the way things are going at the moment. I’m still riding 23s on the Colnago, so even going up to max 28 would make me feel like I’m riding on a sofa, but I’d be tempted to go further. My fear here is esthetics – I don’t generally like the look of bikes with massively wide seat stays. Maybe max 30?
Whatever I decide on, if the finished product rides well and looks something like Darren’s latest creation, I’ll be happy. Poorer, but happy.
The Vicious Cycle 
I’m feeling envious! This looks beautiful. I have a Ti bike which I love. Go for disc and electronic. Mine is a gravel frame so I have 2 sets of wheels- one for rough stuff (42mm) and the other with 30mm for road in the Scottish winter. I now only ride 28 or 30 on the road (even on my ‘best’ carbon road bike) – more comfortable and better for dealing with the c… road surfaces. Look forward to images come the day.
Don’t be jealous, Julian, you already have a Ti bike! I have a feeling I’ll lean towards disc and electronic, like you suggest. I suppose it’ll be time to join the 21 century. And 30 seems reasonable for a tire, especially since I’m only going to be using it on the road.
Hi, lead time is the question. You never now, what will be available in 2026 😉
Market for rim AND electronics will be small
Italian bike, so campy? Super Record is rediculous expensive. I have an 2*11 EPS. Would not buy it again. If i would buy anything other than campy, and 2*12, it would be SRAM
I have two bikes with Ekar. One is multipurpose bike (Open UP) which could be my only bike. Gravel and road. I am quite sure, my next road bike will be Ekar. Even ok for an old mans sprint. Maybe electronic ekar in 2026?
Tire I am with Julian
I was thinking the same thing about Campy because, as you know, that’s all I know! I’m glad to hear your opinion on EPS. I don’t think I was going to consider it because of the price. Ekar, on the other hand…! I did have it on the Cinelli and I liked it. I did kind of feel the ‘gaps’ in shifting, but maybe I could get a more ‘compact’ set-up that would have a smaller range, but smoother jumps in shifting.
Electronic Ekar…that would seal the deal for me!
‘Ekar road’ would be better…what they have now is pretty heavy!
Congratulations on pulling that trigger. You know I already have a Ti Moots, with Ultegra 8000 Di2 / disc, and riding on 28c Conti Pro 5000’s. So you’ve got an idea of how it looks.
Apologizing ahead of time for the long winded reply, but…. you are soliciting input:
As for wired / wireless. I’ve recently set up a Time ADHX with SRAM Force 2x (after years on Shimano Di2), and I’ve been very impressed with how seamless that process works and it makes the build very easy to manage. Battery life is excellent, and if your RD battery dies, you can just swap the FD battery to it. A properly set up head unit will also alert you when it’s time to charge. It’s also lighter than Di2 and a lot easier to install. And if you want to add PM it’s “cheap” on SRAM (Quarq), and Shimano is STILL struggling to make a reliable power meter, let alone one that is cost competitive.
Campy is just too expensive, and their EPS is nothing to write home about it. The workarounds they made to avoid impinging SRAM IP are awful.
I’m not sold on it for road pressures, and still run latex tubes on my road. I love it for for my gravel wheels (36-40c @ 35 psi / 2.4 bar). That being said, I’ve also run my road wheels on the Time ADHX and they work perfectly.
David, thanks for the thoughtful (and detailed!) response. I’m starting to see a trend here that tells me if I don’t go to disc brakes at the very least, I’ll continue to be a Philistine when it comes to new tech…unacceptable in my line of work!
I’ve checked out SRAM Force and pricing is very reasonable. Even Red doesn’t seem too bad – one of the advantages of coming from a Campy world. Everything seems cheap.
And to prove my ignorance, I had to look up ‘sequential shifting’. I didn’t know such a thing existed. Do you use that all the time? I suppose it’s something you program?
Gerry,
I have been using sequential shifting since I installed Di2 in early 2018 on my Moots. It was the first thing I enabled when I set up SRAM AXS on the Time in July.
As for people being aware of this as a feature, hardly anyone I’ve met that has electronic shifting knows about this feature, and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that actually uses it. When I show it to them they are amazed.
I was out with someone the other day who suddenly noticed a double shift from the front and rear and asked me to show them how I did that with with only one command input. They had also noticed the automatic FD trim as well when the shift was completed.
To be honest, I’ve never met a bike mechanic (even in high end installs) that understood fully how this stuff works, or who has ever offered to upgrade firmware or enable either sequential or compensatory shifting. Most view it with some kind of suspicion.
Enabling is done in the respective Shimano or AXS app. Pretty simple really, but in order for it to work properly the system has to know what gear ratios are installed so it can do the math on the logical sequence. The nice part is all of that is shown on your head unit if you really want it, including warnings about when to charge your battery. There’s also a huge amount of other data if you train with power that can be correlated.
What you say corroborates the results of my informal survey over the past few days. Nobody I’ve asked about sequential shifting knew what it was either. Maybe the companies aren’t pushing that tech very much?
It’s good to know this thing exists!