An Update in the eTAP

Getting dangerously close to doing a product review, I thought having been asked by fellow blogger The Book Munchin, that I would do an update on my dramatic move to going wireless!

It's been 3 weeks now since I set to work, in the back of my local cycle shop, stripping out all the Shimano cables, wires etc to replace them with, well, air! Yes, I took the brave leap into the world of SRAM's wireless gear change.

Before I go on to share my experience of this leap into the brave new world of wireless cycling, it won't surprise you to learn, that my evenings are currently devoted to catching up on the goings on of that little cycle race taking place over there in France. Interspaced between the racing and ads, one of the presenters, cycling star Chris Boardman, will take to his bike to share a mountain climb, descent or sprint section and to cover a magazine slot looking at a piece of cycling technology. It was during one of his spins along a sprint finish that I spotted the tell tale battery blister packs on his derailures that could mean only one thing, he was running the same SRAM eTAP as I now have. It surprised me then to hear him say,  in his later magazine pitch about the evolution gears, that he did not see the point of electronic gear change .. until, that is, I let him finish his sentence when he added ".. until SRAM released their eTAP"! Like me, he agreed that getting rid of wires and cumbersome batteries in down tubes was revolutionary. I felt vindicated in making my leap. Since then, I've seen that in addition to Boardman Bikes, many frame manufacturers have quickly taken to adopting eTAP.

The Tarmac eTAP en route to Dartmoor

Anyway, back to my experiences on the Specialized Tarmac, has eTAP lived up to expectation. Well yes and no. Firstly, the not so much: I've had a couple of times when the chain has dropped off the outside of the chainset. To be honest, I think this is just the way things are and it's probably both user error and a some slight adjustment that's still required. My Roubaix does this quite a bit too, but with a bit of quick thinking it's easy enough to get it back on the small ring while keeping the pedals going.

The other disappointment is that it is not 100% silent in all gears, there is still a little chatter in the mid range, particularly on the big ring.

But, on the plus side, there is no chatter either side of this, and in the small ring which I can stay in for much of the time, it's smooth and quiet. Also the move between gears with the flick of a finger is awesome, as too are the glowing gear numbers on my Garmin, letting me know just how many teeth I have left on my gears during a climb, avoiding that embarrassing moment of going for the next gear only to find I'm already there! Yes, I love my SRAM eTAP.

The Venge .. must remember it's not eTAP 

There is one other challenge I've come across. When out on the Venge the other day, it was a blue sky day, so definitely a day for the orange Venge, and it was a Team Time Trial ride, so definitely a day for the aero speed machine. I got on the wheel of my mate in front and then proceeded to forget how to change gear! I got dropped in my failed attempts to shift to the big ring and had to put in a mammoth effort to catch them back up. There's only one answer, I'm going to have to fit eTAB to the rest of my fleet! "Dear Bank Manger ... "