We can't cut holes in the frame. But a headset cover is being designed. All cables will enter the frame from the holes in the headset cover.

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

Hey guys i'm new to the forum this is my first post here. IIRC Patrick Lino introduced me to the forum. Shoutout to you, love your content! Got the VB-R-268 on the way. Size M in the beautiful pearl white glossy colour. Build will be as following:

Groupset: 105 Di2
Crankset: Magene PES505 Powermeter
Saddle: Ryet Carbon 3D printed
Wheels: Elitewheels ENT 2.0 38mm
Tires: Continental Grand Prix w/ tpu inner tubes

I already got the wheels as a secondary wheelset for my gravel bike. Since i realized that i really like roadbiking i've decided to build a dedicated roadbike around those wheels. If i had known that i will build a roadbike with these wheels i would probably have gone for a slightly deeper rim but i think the 38mm will work for the beginning.

Before all my parts arrive i have two questions about installing the Di2 on this particular frame:

- A lot of people said that they had to drill out the hole for the front derailleur cable because it isn't large enough to run the cable. Is this still a thing or have they updated the frame. If not what tools did you use for that task? I've never drilled into carbon before and don't wanna f it up.

- My second question is about the rubber grommets to cover the holes for the Di2 cables. As far as i'm aware there are none included. Do you have a recommendation for grommets that fit well for this frame?

Would love to get your help regarding these two questions. Of course i will post pictures as soon as the build is finished. Greetings from germany!

Have you ridden a true SL8 in order to compare to your frame ?

- A lot of people said that they had to drill out the hole for the front derailleur cable because it isn't large enough to run the cable. Is this still a thing or have they updated the frame. If not what tools did you use for that task? I've never drilled into carbon before and don't wanna f it up.

So here's my followup on the Thinkrider X2 i ordered for my brother. The price was 277,69€ using a choice day coupon. Shipping took only four days from Madrid to my address in germany. The parcel wasn't damaged or anything and the trainer was well packaged. I was actually surprised by the fact that there was an english manual. All the necessary adapters for through axle or quick release are included. The only thing that seems a little cheap is the power supply. If i compare it's weight to the one of my kickr core i can't imagine it will be the same quality. So if i had to guess one thing that will fail on this thing it's the power supply but that should be replaceable fairly easy. Apart from that the build quality looks and feels solid. The base is attached by four screws and seems solid. I calibrated the trainer using the Thinkrider app which worked like on the kickr.

I did two rides on the trainer, one relaxed zone 2 ride in erg mode and one ride up alpe du zwift (on 50% trainer difficulty). The only real difference i noticed between the x2 and my kickr core is that the x2 leans slightly more to left and right, which isn't a bad thing in my opinion. ERG mode was really smooth and the resistance adjustments were fast. Resistance up alpe du zwift also seemed realistic.

This is absolutely not an in depth review, i just did some test rides before my brother picked it up. But so far it really felt like a great alternative to the kickr. With the right deals you can get it for half the price of the kickr which is insane. The only questions are longevity and warranty if something fails, only time will give answers to these. Apart from these two questions it's a great cheaper alternative to the kickr core. I kinda regret not going for the x2 myself and saving 230€.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. If my brother faces any issues with the device i will let you know here.

Those aero/D-shape seatposts sadly are all a pain in the ass to replace. Almost all of them are proprietary and you can only use the one that came with the frame or replacements directly from the frame's manufacturer.

I wish you luck though finding one. If this is a re-brand from another frame, you might be lucky but usually it's a dead end :/