Gear

The 14 tech innovations that changed road cycling

Fourteen bits of kit that make the bike of today

13. Di2

Disc brakes and Di2 - two of the tech innovations that make the modern road bike
The safety bicycle was developed in the late 1800s (Pic: H. Clarke via Wikimedia Commons)
The invention of the pneumatic tyre significantly improved comfort
The invention of the rear derailleur made it much easier to change gear
We may take the QR for granted but it revolutionised things back in 1927
The yellow jersey is worn by the leader of the Tour de France
Helmet design has come on a long way since the ‘leather hairnet’ style of the 1970s
French company LOOK pioneered the design of the clipless pedal
The Shimano Total Integration system was introduced in 1990
Greg LeMond first used TT bars to effectively win the 1989 Tour de France
German company SRM developed the first power meter in the 1980s
View image | gettyimages.com
Garmin GPS computers are now almost ubiquitous
Shimano brought the first successful electronic groupset to market back in 2009
The future is here: disc brakes are to be trialled in professional road cycling in August and September

13. Di2

While electronic shifting isn’t limited to Shimano’s Di2 system, it was the Japanese company that first brought a successful electronic groupset to market back in 2009.

There had been previous unsuccessful attempts to produce an electronic groupset back as far as the early 1990s with SunTour’s BEAST an Mavic’s Zap, but none caught on due to various and multiple issues that made them difficult to use. Although it is worth noting that Chris Boardman won the 1997 Tour prologue using a version of Mavic’s Zap system.

But Di2 changed the game. It worked seamlessly, making shifting powerful, accurate and crisp and taking shifting to a level that hadn’t previously been achieved by manual, cable-based systems. While some might argue that electronic shifting isn’t absolutely vital, there’s no doubting that the inception of Di2 was a serious innovation.