Hand pain

[shouldnobetter]

Hi.

I suffer a bit from painful hands these days which seems to be mostly due to a little arthritis. It seemed to get worse when I put thicker grips on my MTB then let the gear changes get stiff so that I had to give the levers a good push with my thumb to change gear. I've fixed those things now but still have some pain.

I'm thinking of getting a new road bike and was wondering if going to one with DI2 would help minimise the pain by requiring less effort to change gears than having a mechanical shift. I've never ridden a modern bike with Ultegra or 105, so don't know how effortless their changes are, but the idea of almost just touching the trigger to make the change seems like it could help. Is there much difference?

[robbo mcs]

One of the complaints some people have with DI2 is the lack of feel with the gear changes, more like pressing a computer button than a lever. I personallay like it.

However, I think there is some variation between different versions / spec levels of DI2, and notice in the latest versions one of the upgrades is in the "feel" of changes.

If you do have hand problems one of the big advantages of DI2 is you can program any switch to perform any function, and you can also program sequential sifting. So if you like you can do all the shifting with one hand, program it so you only need the front or rear levers etc. Also, you can add additional buttons elsewhere, eg on the flats etc.

One thing of note, you say the problem is with your thimb, which you use for shifting with trigger shifts on flat barss. With sti dropbars the shifts are all done with the fingers, both manual and di2