The big news of the day comes from Shimano, who just announced that its Ultegra and Dura-Ace Di2 road groups have been completely overhauled as 12-speed drivetrains with wireless cockpits. Is this a sign of what’s to come for GRX?

While Shimano’s completely revamped Di2 road groups might not resonate with all of our core readership, the new tech is pretty interesting so we thought we’d post a quick Dispatch about it. In a nutshell, both the Ultegra and the high-end Dura-Ace groups (formerly 2×11) are now 2×12 and the Di2 electronic shifting system was completely reengineered to provide a wireless cockpit. Shimano claims this redesign makes for 58% faster rear shifting and 45% faster front shifting than the previous iteration. We hope to see this translate to a wide-range GRX group in the future, but for now here are a few details on how it works…

Shimano Di2 Wireless

Shimano Di2 Wireless (partially)

As Shimano describes it, the new Di2 system was designed to be “wireless where it matters.” The front and rear derailleurs are still wired to a central battery—which lives in the seatpost in most cases—but the shifters are now wire-free and communicate with the derailleurs using an unspecified wireless signal (“Wireless Di2 connectivity”). Similar to SRAM AXS, there’s also a new Shimano app called E-TUBE. This allows you to connect to the shifters and customize shift speeds, change what buttons do what, set automatic shift modes, fine-tune shifting, and connect with third party bike computers.

  • Shimano Di2 Wireless
  • Shimano Di2 Wireless

Another interesting addition is a new battery charging port on the rear derailleur, which eliminates wires going to the cockpit for a charging port in that position.

  • Shimano Di2 Wireless
  • Shimano Di2 Wireless

Both the Shimano Dura-Ace and Ultegra systems get an all new suite of components and brakes, too. The largest cassette option is 11-34T and the smallest ring combo on the new cranksets is 50/34T. In case you were left wondering, here’s the list of components in the second-tier Ultegra group with pricing and weights where available.

  • FC-R8100 (Ultegra Cranksets with Chainrings): $314.99 / 716g
  • FC-R8100-P (Ultegra Power Meter Crankset with Chainrings): $1,159.99
  • ST-R8150 (Ultegra Di2 Shift/Rim Brake Lever Set (Left and Right)): $424.99
  • ST-R8170 (Ultegra Di2 Shift/Disc Brake Lever Set (Left and Right)): $809.98 / 382g
  • CS-R8100 (Ultegra Cassette (11-30/34)): $111.99 / 297g
  • FD-R8150 (Ultegra Di2 Front Derailleur): $259.99 / 110g
  • RD-R8150 (Ultegra Di2 Rear Derailleur): $409.99 / 262g
  • CN-M8100 (12-Speed Chain): 252g
  • BT-DN300 (Di2 Battery): $184.99 / 53g
  • EW-EC300 (Di2 Charger): $49.99
  • SW-RS801-S (Shift Switch for Drops (pair)): $139.99
  • SW-RS801-T (Shift Switch for Tops (pair)): $139.99
  • BR-R8170 (Hydraulic Disc Brake Caliper Set): $170.98 / 282g
  • RT-MT800 (Disc Brake Rotor (140mm and 160mm)): $55.99 / 212g
  • J-Kit Brake Set (Ultegra Hydraulic Disc Brake Calipers and Levers): $536.99

For more info and details on the new Shimano Di2 wireless, 12-speed drivetrains, head over to Shimano.com for Dura-Ace and Ultegra.

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