Following the release of Dura-Ace and Ultegra at the back end of 2021, it maybe shouldn’t have been a surprise as to what was in store for 105. Shimano seemed to have waited a while to get this release out, especially since SRAM has been running their top three road groupsets in with both 12 speed and wireless for what feels like some time now.
Not one to be rushed or be dictated to by SRAM, Shimano did the inevitable and gave 105 the digital treatment. It does share a lot of the same DNA as its bigger brothers as well as an inflated price over the mechanical counterpart – which is still readily available.
Shimano 105 has always been one of the best road bike groupsets for any amateur rider, with most only dropping to Tiagra as a cost cutting exercise or by simply not caring as much about what adorns their steed. Since this new groupset shares so much with Ultegra and Dura-Ace, I had a fairly good idea of what I was going to be faced with.
I’ve been riding 105 for over a few months and have shown it some typical three hour days in the saddle and some hour long lunch time smashes. Having been lucky enough to own a Dura-Ace equipped bike and have also ridden R8100 Ultegra for a number of months I have quite a lot of experience with Shimano’s first forays into 12-speed road gearing. However, while the new 105 shares a lot with the other groupsets, there are still some key differences which are worth knowing about.
Shimano 105 R7100 Di2: aesthetics
As with any bike that comes into Cycling Weekly HQ, the first thing I can judge is the way it looks and the 105 Di2 equipped Ribble Endurance certainly looks the part. With only the brake hoses needing a home, it makes set up a lot easier and adds an arrow to the quiver of reasons to utilise an integrated cockpit.
The satin black chainset looks smart and does resemble the gloss black Dura-Ace to an extent. In reality, this should mean that bikes wearing this groupset should be punching above their weight aesthetically, increasing their allure over bikes equipped with the mechanical version. But the mechanical 105 groupset isn’t the only victim of 105 Di2’s attractiveness: to me, 105 Di2 also looks much better than its closest rival – Sram Rival – but as we all know, this is purely subjective.
Compared to the other more expensive 12-speed Shimano groupsets, it does look part of the set. If you were to strip the names off you wouldn’t even necessarily assume…