The shifters communicate wirelessly and are individually powered by a coin cell battery, and while the derailleurs pick up the wireless signal put out by the shifters, the front and rear derailleurs are connected by a wire and powered by a shared, internal battery.

The internal battery, which is charged via the front mech, has a claimed battery life of between 4,000km and 6,000km, while FSA recommend the coin cell batteries which power the shifters are changed once a year, regardless of use.

Customisation also extends to the shifter design. The carbon fibre levers are available in two lengths, with 6mm difference between the two, in order to find the perfect fit. Reach is also adjustable through three different positions, using a screw under the rubber hood.

The front derailleur is fairly chunky compared to its electronic rivals, but it’s where the main brands of the operation are housed, so there’s no external junction box, as is the case with Di2 and EPS. FSA have used a rack and pinion front derailleur design which is said to provide fast, precise and quiet shifts between chainrings (the standard options of 53-39t, 52-36t and 50-34t will be available). The front derailleur also has an auto-trim function, while LED lights indicate battery life. If you do run out of battery, the front derailleur will automatically shift into the small chainring (you can also use the app to see how many shifts you have left). The ‘Set’ button on the derailleur allows the user to index the gears.

As for the rear derailleur, rather than using a traditional parallelogram design like most, K-Force WE is driven by a triple gearbox which, according to FSA, allows the derailleur to remain compact, with the sides of the cage remaining parallel, in order to improve the accuracy of shifts. The derailleur will be compatible with a 32t sprocket, with FSA launching the groupset with three cassette options: 11-25t, 11-28t and 11-32t.

Moving on and the chainset is based on existing K-Force models (K-Force is FSA’s flagship range), though it has been updated with slightly thinner arms to reduce the Q-Factor – the distance between the outside of one crank arm to the outside of the other. FSA say this better matches a rider’s natural position and improves aerodynamics (marginal gains and all that). The chainset has a four-arm design, pioneered by Shimano with the launch of Dura-Ace 9000 a few years back, made from carbon fibre and paired with an aluminium BB386EVO axle.

Finally, the brakes have also been tweaked from an existing K-Force design, and while FSA haven’t revealed much about the design, they do claim that the WE design offers more power and is better suited to wide rims.

That’s it for now. All that’s left to mention is that claimed weight for the entire K-Force WE groupset is 2,090g. Pricing is yet to be set but FSA are pitching this somewhere between Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and SRAM Red eTap.

Website: Full Speed Ahead