See likes

See likes given/taken


Posts you liked

Pages: [1]
Post info No. of Likes
How to run Di2 and a dropper post on a Flyxii FE-02 (and possibly other bikes) I like electronic shifting, but I don't like DOT fluid, which means I have to use Di2. On my road bike, it took all of 10 minutes to install 105 Di2, but on my gravel bike I very much like also having a dropper post, which makes installation of the battery a problem. My goal with this post is to describe how I solved this problem on my Flyxii FE-02 frame, but the process should work for many other frames.

You will need:
  • Internal cable routing tool and an old cable (or just 2x cable routing kits)
  • A frame with a headtube large enough that you can a fit Di2 battery in while tilting it into the downtube
  • Bubble wrap and tape
  • Zip ties, with a length approximately 2.5-3x the diameter of the downtube of whatever bike you're working on

The process
  • Drop out the fork and remove headset bearings. Remove all hoses/cables from the downtube to prevent the Di2 wires from getting snagged or tangled. Remove any cable routing guide near the bottom bracket; the holes this leaves will be valuable for cable routing.
  • Route the cable routing tool through the top or bottom of the headset, whichever direction is easiest to insert the battery from. If you have 2 cable routing tools, use one for the front and one for the rear; otherwise use the tool to route an old brake or shift cable from the headset through to the rear derailleur. If possible, route these under the bottom bracket.
  • Wrap the Di2 battery in 3-4 layers of bubble wrap and tape to keep it in place. I used silicon self-fusing tape but any durable tape should work. Wrap several zipties around the battery in different directions. I used 8 zipties, spaced a quarter turn apart (i.e. 2 pointing in each direction).
  • Attach the Di2 wires to the cable routing wires (I used a little strip of packing tape which worked fine) and the battery. Pull the wires down into the downtube - make sure to do this evenly, i.e. pull the front and rear wires the same amount. It should be pretty easy to do this up until the battery has to go in the downtube. Lever the battery into the downtube, putting a little spin on it to get the zipties in a sort of spiral pattern.
  • Pull the battery down the downtube - this should be pretty easy until the bottle cage rivnuts are encountered. Your rear (and maybe front) Di2 wire should be long enough to be pulled out the bottom bracket cable routing holes and a bit more force can be used to pull on those to get the battery down past the rivnuts. Eventually the battery should make its way down almost all the way to the bottom bracket.
  • Finish routing the Di2 wires and tape them to the frame. Shake the frame to make sure the battery is secure and doesn't make any noise. If it does, you can push out the battery back through the headtube with a long, thin dowel or some other tool. Take a light that fits in the headtube, shine it down the downtube, and look through the bottom bracket holes to make sure there's enough space to run a brake hose and dropper cable.
  • Route brake hose and dropper cable as normal. I found this easiest to do by using the aforementioned light in the headtube, and carefully pulling the magnetized end of the cable routing tool past the battery. Doing this blind wouldn't be fun. After they get past the battery, I recommend routing the brake hose below the bottom bracket and the dropper cable above it, but this is more frame-dependent than anything.


Things that don't work:
  • Fitting the battery down the seattube below the dropper. This is what I tried first, but the battery has to sit down far enough that it blocks the port for the front derailleur wire, so the battery has to be shifted to the side to make room. Unfortunately, this blocks the needed space for the dropper cable, and also fouls on the rivnuts for the seattube bottle cage and derailleur mount. I got my battery stuck in the seattube and had to route 4 brake cables through the bottom bracket, up through the seattube past the battery, and use the heads of the cables to pry it loose. 0/10, would not recommend.
  • Putting the battery in the downtube without zipties: there needs to be a lot of bubble wrap to prevent the battery from moving, but little enough bubble wrap to allow it to be inserted into the headtube and get past the bottle cage rivnuts. I don't think this is possible, and if it is, it's far more practical to use zipties. Just for fun, I tried it, and the battery got snagged on the rivnuts and I had to fashion a tool to yank out the battery. Again, not recommended.

January 06, 2024, 12:50:13 AM 		1
Re: First gravel build project
Quote from: Fenrir on April 24, 2024, 04:26:23 PM
. I'm currently using Shimano so I wonder how the shifting works with the thumb lever ;  can you comfortably reach the lever frow the drops ? And from the hoods ? Would I be better off going for a Shimano GRX set from an ease of set-up/maintainance perspective ?


Have GR9 on my Salsa. The thumb shifter cannot be accessed from drops because its located way too high. If you are going to have flared bars, its even more difficult. Quality wise those shifters are strictly okay - the little down shift lever is wobbly and does not fall into place properly instead it sometimes tries to overlap brake lever (its supposed to stay under the brake lever but it doesn't). Mine is cable operated so I can't comment on hydraulic function but in general things are meh. Setup is probably the same as Shimano. The GR9 wasn't too complicated to setup and indexing went fine without any extra effort over Shimano. However the clamp band screw to tighten the shifters to handle is in a crazy inset position in a deep groove. Even when hood is fully peeled back, that screw is a bitch to tighten. Its just an unfortunate design. Small things like that that mar the experience.

The Shimano GRX stuff is going to be WAYYY better. A 2-3 year old used GRX can be found at great prices and will still be better purchase than brand new LTwoo.

Edit: actual shifting performance is great though. Can't find fault with it. Its the lack of finesse and that thumb shifter placement take away all the fun.
April 24, 2024, 04:55:54 PM 		1
Re: First gravel build project If you like the look of that bad boy, email petercycles@foxmail.com. You can also find him on the forum.
The geometry is very nice coming from a road background. I also have a VBGF002 but the geometry is just "meh" in comparison.

Out of 5 ltwoo er9 i installed, 2 died for no reason, and i m battling to get replacements, very frustrating. Out of 4 sensah 2x11 mechanical i installed last year, 1 RD died for no reason after 1000km. My point: if you re in europe where groupsets are stupidly expensive, consider 2nd hand shimano, because as much as i'd like chinese groupsets to work, my experience is that they simply are NOT reliable. When they work they work, but sometimes, they dont, and it's annoying AF.


April 25, 2024, 03:16:28 AM 		1