the bike industry took a small break from electronic shifting during the early 2000s, but way back in the late 90s, mavic released a pretty (conceptually) awesome wireless rear derailleur- the mektronic. the royal h booth at last year’s philly bike expo saw an example from each era, and inspired much debate amongst attendees. nothing stirs conversation in the cycling community like electronic shifting. truly.
i have a good friend from my days at seven who has a real mavic problem, and we were joking one day at lunch about building a bike around the rarest and least well understood mavic group, the seldom seen mektronic.
this was a few months before the 2014 philly bike expo, and i thought it would make for a great show bike- a really 90s looking machine would get people in the booth. spinergy wheels, check. 120mm stem, yes. all mavic group, absolutely. pearl white marble with ragged transition to candy red, it’s a show bike, right!? but there are some subtle niceties to this bike as well-
zeus fork crown.
massively machined bottom bracket shell.
columbus semi horizontal dropouts.
this bike was incredibly fun to build, and i came to love the unusual (grotesque?) looking shifters. but i was BLOWN AWAY to find the mektronic shifted flawlessly. maybe i got one of the few good ones. with little more than two new button cell batteries and setting the throw limits, the system shifted crisply. and it was light! there’s no motor in the mektronic- the shifting is powered by the rotation of the derailleur pulley. it hasn’t picked up any interference yet either. there are rumors of system shutdown if you pedal too near a radio tower, so i just told mike to avoid radio towers. so far he’s been doing alright.
the front derailleur is powered by your thumb. it’s basically a thumb shifter bolted onto the side of the hood. not technically impressive at all, but 100% radio interference resistant. so i guess at worst you’re down to a two speed if the system crashes. see more shots of this 90s tribute on the royal h flickr.
MEANWHILE, in the next stand over was a thoroughly contemporary bike. with hydraulic disc di2 electronic shifting. shimano has recently re-visited the electric concept with a wired system. it’s incredibly well engineered and shifts perfectly. they extended the electronic system to the front derailleur, so i guess they are more electronic. the derailleurs are powered by small motors, and a battery is stored inside the seatpost. still, hats off to mavic for the motor free wireless design.
the massive paragon 44mm head tube dwarfs the 1″ steerer bikes i am used to building, but is necessary to adequately distribute the forces from the beefed up carbon disc forks. the larger head tube also transitions nicely to the tapered steerer carbon whiskey fork, and is very pleasant to fillet braze.
i was able to use a double oversized bottom bracket lug for this bike, so it isn’t completely fillet brazed. it’s always nice to have a lug or two on a frame.
s-bend seatstays and seat tube reinforcing sleeve. there is a carbon fiber insert in the seat tube to bring the inner diameter to a traditional 27.2mm. i can’t eschew ALL conventions in once bike.
this little part was fun to make- combination headset spacer and di2 junction box mount. more involved than the rubber strap the system comes with, but nicer to look at. there are more detail shots on the royal h flickr- go there!
so who won? obviously, the bikes aren’t exactly the same style. the mavic racing road bike and shimano di2 gravel grinder have different strengths. in terms of long term reliability and consistency (and ability to approach radio towers), i’m going to say the shimano system is a clear winner. however, i was pleasantly surprised that our mavic project worked so well. they were great bookends to the electronic shift movement and made for a great show booth. everyone wins!
big thanks to eric baumann for the excellent photography.
