Semi-serious cyclist chiming in about this part of the article: "Well understood mechanical bike shifting transitions to electronic shifting which requires you

Semi-serious cyclist chiming in about this part of the article: "Well understood mechanical bike shifting transitions to electronic shifting which requires you to pay more and charge your pedal bike (Not sure about this example, as in theory a bike derailleur needs not be a repeated purchased)" One of my bikes has a Shimano electronic shifter. The others are a mix between mechanical SRAM and Shimano components. The electronic shifter has two advantages that mean something to me. First, you never have to deal with "cable stretch" whereby the alignment gradually shifts off-center and you have to use the micro-adjustment knob to re-align. It starts out perfect, and it stays perfect. Second, "oops" shifting (i.e., failing to shift before you've hit a hill and have to shift at low a RPM while applying force to stay moving) is much smoother. Those are both real advantages to me. The problem I've run into, at least with the Shimano electronic shifter, is durability. Both the front and rear derailleurs have failed on me mid-ride for different reasons. The front because there's a part that pushes against a plate when up-shifting, and that fatigued to the point of snapping off completely after a couple of years of use. The rear because of a minor slide-out. Some sensitive part broke in the mechanism, and the entire thing had to be replaced. I've slammed plenty of mechanical rear derailleurs into the pavement or a tree stump or whatever, and they've all survived just fine, so long as the hangar was intact. I've even subjected a mechanical rear derailleur to the dreaded "get caught in the rear wheel spokes" abuse, and it came through just fine after replacing the hanger. I've never forgotten to charge the battery, but I've heard of people on longer group rides (think 70+ miles) losing the ability to shift when they're 40 miles out into the countryside because their battery died. The electronic shifter just seems much more fragile to me. But it's a really nice shifting experience while it works! All that said, my N+1 bike I just picked up last weekend has mechanical shifters. I'll adjust the knob when the cable stretches and deal with the occasional "oops" when I hit hills in the wrong gear because I value durability and robustness more.