Poll: Electric shifting vs mechanical shifting

I think electronic shifting works well, but I don’t want any technology on my bicycle that ruins a ride if the battery runs out. My only exception for this is lights for night riding for obvious reasons. 
If my GPS, phone, or even a power meter dies, it’s unfortunate but I can finish my planned ride having just as much fun as if the components were at full charge. If an electronic derailleur, dropper post, or suspension dies, the enjoyment of that ride is significantly reduced. And that’s not even mentioning driving to the trailhead and realizing that you have a dead battery. 
I don’t own an E-bike, but if I did then I would have no issues with electronic components on it as you already have to be cognizant of the motor charge before, during, and after a ride anyways. It seems like it would be easy to get into a habit of getting all the batteries charged at the same time. 
All that said, I think electronic components are cool but they’re just not for me and how I choose to enjoy riding bikes. 

I dont feel strongly enough either way to swap from one to the other, I run mechanical because that's what my current bike came with and if my next one comes with electronic, that's what I will run

Im all about cost, my last 2 bikes came with transmission and they were discounted so i got back a heap of money back swapping to XT.
was cheaper in end than the lower spec with XT lol.

for NZD sake, I dont need $2000 worth of drivetrain hanging off the side of my bike. However, dont get me wrong, the Transmission/AXS works amazing, its just purely a cost problem.

I don’t care all that much about cost or a little extra weight. I have Transmission on 10 of my MTBs (sold 1, used to be 11)  and have installed it on several more for friends or other bikes I have sold. Never once had a battery issue and have never even considered batteries as a thought. It is just something I do as automatically as checking my tire pressure before leaving the house. So much easier for the vast majority of people to setup and maintain, looks cleaner and no longer a concern about messing something up when banging my derailleur off a boulder. 

Did see one buddy bang one hard enough to eff it up but he bought a new cage and I fixed it for him as good as new in less than 10 minutes. For old AXS, I’d call it nice to have but Transmission has been a magic leap forward in many ways and incompatibility with a couple of bikes has prevented me from purchasing those bikes. 

I get the cost concern and hope it comes down to a place more people can afford. Don’t love that people in that position might not have options. That part just stinks. 

I do find it annoying that there’s an assumption that incompetent rich posers are the only people that like it. Best XC rider I know loves it and he’s won plenty including national level events. I can also assure you that my ability to afford expensive crap doesn’t mean I care any less than anyone here. I work my butt off to keep improving even at 52 and care about this sport as much as anyone. Don’t assume things about people with money. I’d ride a $200 Ozark if it was all I could afford and still love the sport just as much. 

Option 6: I've never used an electronic drivetrain so I have no opinion at this time.

I'm fundamentally a tightarse though and SRAM mechanical drivetrains are already poor value.

I'll add something to this discussion. I'm too dumb for electronic drivetrains. I've been lucky enough to own them on a road bike and a mountain bike, and on both bikes I had to constantly think (hard) about how to use the shifter. Months into riding them, I would still shift the wrong way because I forgot which direction the shifter went. I have so much muscle memory into physical cable-operated shifting that my brain struggles to learn a new shifting habit. It doesn't help that there's absolutely zero kinesthetic feedback for your thumb in an electronic shift beyond an agnostic "click" of the button. I ended up taking both drivetrains off after several months, defeated. The shifting quality was phenomenal by the way, but my performance on rides was markedly worse. Try shifting the wrong way in an already tough climb for a great whole body workout. And yes, I don't think this will be a big impediment for a newer rider, just for old dogs trying to learn new tricks.

I tried my best to love Transmission, but 3 problematic derailleurs in 8 months is a lot considering their price. And the worst one was when the contact pins for the battery stopped working on the first day of my Alps holiday.

It’s not for me, but that/this is just my opinion. I am a bit gutted to see that the new trend might be wirelessly gears only and I can understand why but are theses companies doing it a few years too early? Personally I would like to see wireless gear only frames once the gear cable hole is pretty much redundant. 

It’s also not as bad as it is being made out though, it looks like Specialized will be doing a Alu Stumpjumper that takes a gear cable and the other company getting a lot of heat in the other thread, well that’s all based on rumours. Whist some of those rumours might be true it’s not the full story and I think there will be gear cable options. 

Let’s face it the majority of people buy complete bikes now, if someone is going to be buying a complete bike with a high end frame it’s fair to say that from now on it’s going to have a wireless drivetrain. 

I am probably part of a very small minority (the sort that would look at tech forums) that likes to buy a high end frame and build it up with the parts that I want. I get why I am not being catered for. That could push me to look at other brands and you know what I’m ok with that. 

Why don’t I like electric gears? I like all the tech stuff probably just as much as I like riding a bike. To me bikes just just be simple. 
It probably comes down to that image of just being a child and being able to grab a bike and get that sense of freedom. Anything that adds an additional step to just grabbing that bike and going out is a bit of a turn off for me. 

I like the mechanical nature of a bike, I know that my cable gears could fail on a ride but there is a very good chance that I could get a set of mechanical gears into a better rideable state than I would do if a wireless mech’s firmware locked out. 

I also fix bikes for a living and I like fixing things, you can’t do that to the same extent with electric drivetrains. Yes all these electrical drivetrains work really well, but when there are problems it’s usually just fit a new part.

GX AXS (none T Type) seem to have a two max year life span if ridden a lot,  they develop a lot of play and the shifting is all over the place, fit a new mech and the shifting is sweet again (X0 and above seem to be a little more durable). I had a job the other day where the GX mech looked in good condition but it just wouldn’t shift smoothly in the higher gears (10-12) the rest were fine. Tried everything, new hanger and alignment, checked chain length, b screws position, new jockey wheels and new chain. All of that made no improvement. Send it off under warranty and SRAM replaced it, fitted the new mech today and the gear changes in the higher gears were instantly lovely and smooth. Then we had another bike in a few days ago with the exact same issue. 

Then you have got the risk that the battery or mech could just stop working, not saying that a common issue but that’s not a problem you get with a mechanical mech. 

I would say I personally haven’t seen too many problems with T Type AXS. But one thing I have seen on high mileage e bikes is once there is some wear in the chain the shifting quality goes down and there is no adjustment on the mech to account for that. Fitting a new chain if the cassette allows fixes the shifting. 

It’s not all SRAM and wireless. We have got a current issue with a Shimano di2 road bike where it battery is very randomly loosing charge and we have been troubleshooting it with Shimano for several months now and still no answer. It has got to the point where we will just have to try different parts to see what part is draining the battery. But the bike can be fine for a number of weeks then it can just loose charge overnight (and it’s not something a simple as limit screws). 

I got caught up in all the T Type hype when it came out and I was so close to buying it the only reason I didn’t was the crank length I wanted wasn’t it stock. By the time the cranks were in stock I realised I just didn’t need to spend money on it. 

It’s also a lot of money and to me it possibly hasn’t got a long life span. I have got an 11sp XX drivetrain which must be close to 10 years old as Eagle came out in 2016. That drive train has been downgraded to multiple bikes over the years but it’s still on a bike I use every now and again and still works really well. Would a 10 year old AXS drivetrain still be working?

I was holding a SRAM Eagle X0 mech the other day and I just thought how good that part was, it feels light and just works well. I also used to think they were an expensive part but now compared to a AXS mech they look cheap!

Keep bikes simple

I find the light touch on the shifter with electronic shifting to be a big advantage, but that's because it aggravates the nerve damage I have in my wrist less than cable activated shifting. 

I'm very unlikely to go back to cables 

Which is one of the reasons i like it, but i cant justify the cost - my thumb on my right hand takes a beating from normal shifters.
I also use a Deore shifter on my XT because its actuation is much lighter

For me I like my NX 11 speed (shock horror) cable actuated drive train running an Ali cage extender and a 11-50t sunshine cassette. I don't race, I have mechanical sympathy for the drive train (don't change underload) and mostly ride winch and plummet style trails. It's never missed a beat or pissed me off and has cost me 3/5ths of fk all.

I'm not interested in spending all the dollars on axs transmission. I like cables. I draw parallels to my preference for car manual transmissions over slush boxes. 

I just prefer manuals. They aren't better or anything. I just prefer them. 

EDIT: To head off any "of course if you are poor you won't buy transmission" comments. 

I have all the moneys to spend on bikes, but as I said I like my NX 11 speed so see no need to spend my dosh on transmission. 

And when it comes to a new bike purchase. I am totally OK with the (dubious) prospect of possibly only being able to buy an alloy frame with cable routing. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one here with a cellphone constantly below 50% battery. I simply can't keep up with charging anything enough to justify batteries on my bikes anymore. My latest MTB build went back to being fully mechanical after running AXS since it dropped in 2019 and I couldn't be happier as a self admitted luddite. AXS can be ok if you've got two or more batteries on the bike to swap between incase of emergency (eg. AXS rear derailleur and AXS Reverb or 2X AXS road setup). I've dealt with too many dead batteries pre-ride or mid-ride to run it on my MTB anymore, especially with AXS batteries slow draining while you drive if you don't pop the battery out which for me is a recipe for dead batteries at the trailhead. For many I'm sure this isn't an issue but, I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't keep up with charging electronics of any kind. 

Not a fan. Most of it has already been pointed out, electronic shifting hardly adds anything to the average bike experience, bar a few exceptions to the rule (lighter actuation to take care of wrists, automatic shifting for the ebike crowd). It only adds cost, weight and complexity for the majority of people.

As I've said in the rumors thread though, to counter @Johnboy , always having had manual cars, I would LOVE an automatic transmission in my car (or an electric car for that matter) when it comes to the daily driver. I couldn't care less about noticing which gear I should be in, for the highway commuting I only want to go or stop. If the car can do it by itself, even better. If we are talking about a spirited drive, we are talking about a weekend car which would be a whole different story and that would of course be manual or at least driver operated automatic (dual clutch or something of that style). I wouldn't want the ECU to decide which gear I should be in during a corner only for it to drop gears when I press the gas pedal to accelerate out of the corner. Bikes are similar to that, the mountainbike is a 'weekend car' category. On a commuter I guess automatic shifting would be OK too. But I don't commute by bike. I ride for the fun of it.

"I would say I personally haven’t seen too many problems with T Type AXS. But one thing I have seen on high mileage e bikes is once there is some wear in the chain the shifting quality goes down and there is no adjustment on the mech to account for that. Fitting a new chain if the cassette allows fixes the shifting. \"

Tom - I'm guessing by wear by you mean more lateral flex in the chain and not chain elongation.  But I'd greatly appreciate a touch more info on your experience.  

That new Abbey chain checker is so long overdue.  I've played around with a new chain and an older chain trying to measure the increase in lateral flex.  I'd be super curious to know the dimensions of their tool.  My experience with XO1 mechanical is that too much lateral flex in the chain and wearing down of the shifting ramps comes before too much chain elongation (I've got one of the three-prong tools, so I think I'm measuring it as best as possible).  But were I live the only time I really ride in the wet is at private bike parks.

I've though about Transmission for my mid-powered eMTB to see if I can get more life out of the chain and cassette.  But I'm very worried about TeamRobot's experience.  I think it'd drive me nuts to go back and forth between mechanical and electric shifting, and I have zero interest in going electric on three bikes.  I've ridden electric around the parking lot and personally find it to feel very disconnected. 

I think people's opinions on this issue are highly influenced by whether they buy frames or buy complete bikes.  People discerning/picky enough to buy frames and build them up are much more likely to allocate dollars to suspension, brakes, etc. and not have any interest in electric shifting.  Avid riders that buy complete bikes are likely buying higher-end models, so they probably have had electric shifting foisted upon them, gotten used to it, and accepted it.  

Also, whether someone has a single bike they lavish with all the most expensive things or multiple bikes across which they are allocating dollars probably plays a role.

I buy frames (or base model eMTBs and part them out) and have three bikes, so I'll probably hold out against electric shifting until the bitter end.  I'd bet my number of and approach to bikes describes a lot of the people who feel similarly about electric shifting.

I'm fortunate to have GX Transmission on one bike. It works really, really well, but I'd strongly prefer mechanical T-Type due to cost and battery anxiety.

Here's my spending priorities:

00. Great tires
1. Good fork
2. Good brakes
3. Good shock
4. Carbon frame
5. Good wheelset (only lower priority because I'll kill the rims in year 1 then lace up my own with a DT350)
6. Robot derailleur

I live for long rides deep in the mountains. Usually involves a lot of driving, which drains the battery if you forget to remove. Batteries are just one more thing to manage for this type of riding, mechanical would simplify the checklist of mission critical things to remember. This may not be a rational worry, but humans aren't rational creatures.

For local riding, I've got zero qualms with electronic, beyond +$$.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I retrofitted a T-Type cassette to an non-UDH frame and 12 speed mechanical GX, with modded B-Bolt to remove slop and Hall Lock the thing. Required some creative engineering, but the results are perfection. I LOVE the cassette, it has the smoother jump to the big cog vs SRAM's old 42-52 jump. Shifts great mashing under duress on technical climbs and is brilliantly quiet with this hack setup.

Don’t want to risk derailing another thread as this was I think created from the tech rumours one going off track. 

But yeah regarding T Type and drivetrain wear. I can’t remember all the numbers and details (got them at work if needed). This customer puts a lot of miles in on a full powered e bike and he knows that and would regularly buy GX Eagle cassettes and XO chains. The sales pitch of in SRAM’s own word “It simplifies, strengthens and extends lifespan to new limits.” Sold it to him and he brought the GX T Type group set. 
After a bit of time he brought it in saying the gears were not working properly. They were not shifting very well, the set up was correct to what sram said and the only adjustment available is the trim adjustment on the mech, that made no difference. With a Park CC4 chain checker I think it was just over 0.5 but not yet 0.75%. Fitted a new chain and the gears work perfectly again. 
I think the problem partially as you said lateral wear but also as the chain wears and elongates there is no b tension adjustment. 
What was good, was that the T Type cassette took a new chain. 
I have found the rule book about chain wear and chain replacement go out the window with a full powered e bike. Until replacing that chain on a T Type cassette I don’t think I have ever successfully replaced a chain on an e bike and it hasn’t slipped. I remember replacing one that had only done 200 miles and even that slipped! 

In regards to full powered e bikes and none T Type gears, we just advise customers to wear their drivetrains into the ground and just replace everything at the same time. 
You can test the bikes with the motors turned off and they seem fine, turn them on, put them in turbo and they then start slipping. 

He started with a GX chain and I fitted a X0 chain as previously none T Type Eagle X0 and higher chains last a lot longer than GX and below. I keeped an eye on his chain wear and surprisingly the X0 T Type chain didn’t seem too last longer than the GX one. He eventually needed a new chain again but this time the cassette did not take it and was slipping under load. 
I think it’s probably far to say on a full powered e bike you should get two chains worth of wear out of a T Type cassette. 

We haven’t really seen much Shimano Link Glide in the shop, but we did have one case where a customer had it on his e-bike and he changed his chain when he thought was the right time and it slipped on the smaller cogs which are replaceable but they hadn’t come into stock at that point so he had to buy a new cassette too. 

These large cassettes also seem pointless on full powered e bikes. You can tell customers to use the full range of gears but most of the time gears 1-3 look untouched on quite a lot of bikes we see. 
If I had an e bike I would just run the cheapest gears I would be happy to run. Probably 11sp XT Link Glide shifter and mech with a 10sp Deore Link Glide cassette. 

I understand if you have got an SL e bike you might want something a bit lighter with more range and T Type might be the way to go   

For what it’s worth I think SRAM cassettes wear very well on 100% human powered biked X0 cassettes and hight can take many chains. So SRAM’s claims of “It simplifies, strengthens and extends lifespan to new limits.”  Might be very true on those bikes. 

As for chain wear tools, to be honest it’s all a little educated guesswork. Personally I have had good experiences replacing eagle X0 chain once they read 0.5% and that can take a long time to get to that point.  I have used the Pedros, Park and SRAM three peg tools. 

Interestingly I have just looked at Sram’s replacement wear recommendations and they don’t seem to list a wear reading any more for T Type.

——————

“CHAIN, CASSETTE, AND CHAINRING REPLACEMENT

The chain, cassette, and chainring wear together over time as a result of normal use. Parts will last longer with regular cleaning.

To determine if the parts need to be replaced, consult the Transmission Service Matrix. Depending on use case, it may be best to change the parts together to restore optimal drivetrain performance.”

——————

It used to say the same as the road flat top chain replacement, but I wouldn’t want to leave a chain to get too 0.8%

————     

CHAIN REPLACEMENT

Replace your chain at 0.8% elongation to maintain performance and limit wear to the cassette and chainring.

NOTICE

Flattop chains last longer than 10/11 speed road chains. Replacing a Flattop chain too early may prematurely wear the chainring and cassette.

For a list of approved chain tools, consult the Eagle, Flattop and 11 speed Chain Compatible Tools compatibility map on www.sram.com/service.

————-

I personally find the SRAM tool very vague to use, I think the idea is to put pressure above and below the two prongs then just let the third prong drop into the chain to get your reading, but it’s very easy even on a new chain to put the third prong in too far and get a faulty reading.  
The Abbey tool is interesting (I will probably end up getting one) and should give accurate repeatable reading with more reading points. I like the idea of the 0.25 reading. The lateral wear reading is interesting but still left up to the user as what to do as it only says “consider replacement”. Also it’s not very practical in a shop environment to take a customers chain off to measure it especially if you were to go by the guide lines of not reusing split links! 
Lateral wear is a good consideration, I just had a play with a Park spoke tension meter. Measured a chain at different points in the same way but got a different readings so that’s pointless. I think the measure area was too short but a longer tool in that style could work.

Thank you for all that detail.  Hugely helpful.  Spoke tension meter was brilliant idea.  I may play around with it some.

I hope people don't think it's too much of a thread derailment.  If it became accepted truth that a GX Transmission chain and cassette lasted substantially longer than XO mechanical ones, I bet the results of the poll would shift a decent amount.

I'd hapilly go wireless eventually, but my issue is with 12speed rather than the electronics:

The cassette range is needlessly high, requiring long derailleurs that hit more stuff. I currently run a 10-42 11s cassette, it is much lighter and cheaper than anything 12speed. I live in the french alps yet almost never use the 42t and never use the 10t cog, just run a smaller front chainring if you need to climb steeper stuff. When I was competing in enduro races I did multiple seasons on ZEE 1x 11-36 on my enduro bike, the derailleur was tiny, and looked as new after multiple seasons because it was always out of the way. 

Especially now with powerful ebikes, I would love to see a mostly wireless 10/11s system powered by the main battery using tiny cables from the motor/battery.

Regarding T-Type X0 chain, I think it was said it's not hard chromed, only XX chain is for Transmission. X01 chains were hard chromed and that was the main difference to GX and was probably the reason for the longer life.

@Mugen do you run a 20T front ring? Or a 24" bike? I do not imagine not running a 50T in the alps on a 29er, at least not without a 26 or a 24T chainring in the front. I'd prefer to go 28T on a 29er over a 32T if I was to move from a 30T.

Regular pedal bike: 30t front on full 29er, although admitedly as I approach 40y old and ride a lot less, I could not climb with a 36t out back like I used to. 

Obviously it's not the same, but 32 front on the Ebike in turbo rarely needs anything larger than 40t out back. (80kg unfit rider). My argument is mostly for shorter derailleurs for ebikes, but I'm pretty sure I will get a pinion MGU or competing gearbox in the next 3 years anyway.

(edited for clarity)

An eBike is a different story. I was talking about normal bikes and I was very happy to get the 52T with the current bike over the 50T on the old one out back for our alpine terrain and the steep climbs this brings with it.

An electronic drivetrain creates more problems than it solves for me.

Pros:  No cables; Light action shifter with buttons that can be placed anywhere; Precise shifting

Cons: Expensive; Have to charge it; Heavier; Doesn't shift that much better than mechanical; Bulkier derailleur; Harder to source parts in an emergency

At the end of the day, my mechanical drivetrains shift fine, cost less, weigh less, and require very little maintenance.  I don't really see any compelling reason to change.  I'm sure eventually I'll end up with a bike with Transmission, which is ok.  But I'll resist that change for as long as possible, mostly because I don't want to have to remember to charge my drivetrain.

I still view drivetrains as practically disposable as tires, so keeping the cost low is paramount. They have to just work well and not cost a lot, because as soon as you install a drivetrain and use it, it's wearing out and you're saving for the next one. This is going to keep me in 12spd Shimano and away from electronics and SRAM as long as I can manage. Cost is a real barrier. I have been wrenching on my own bikes for 20 years, so I don't need the purported ease of setup of electronics.

I don't view going from traditional to electric drivetrain as driving any real improvement in my mid-upper pack, local, late 30's enduro performance on the bike, so I'm not interested.

for me its more about not having the choice; the direction things are going if you want a high end drivetrain electronic is going to be your only option (at least for shimano/sram)

Never used electronic shifting.  The question I have is for the "ride it until it fails completely" guys on here. My best example is right now, my drivetrain isn't wanting to backpedal. The spring is getting too weak, the clutch is wearing out & b tension is off a bit.  
But...I can manipulate my XT shifter constantly to just keep on riding to make it last for as long as I can afford to get to the next thing I want to buy.
Cable lets you squeeze the piss out of a worn drivetrain for way longer than you should sometimes.
And sometimes...you gotta save up.

What the heck happens to all that digital, fine tuned, auto programmed, self adjusting wizardry when you take it past it perfectly shifting prime & try to limp it along to the next phase of your personal journey in the war on climbing???
I literally don't know how a digital tranny self tunes or gets a gear to go up when you have rust or crust or goo in it and all of the red baked clay of Georgia refuses to let a gear turn????

How does it just auto move despite the shit storm between the gears and crapping out pivots & springs?

I have a lot of words on this topic. Sorry for the rant. I've had some thoughts bubbling on this for the last few bike rides/travel dates for work/technologically-induced downtimes. The good news is yesterday I stopped thinking about this when I broke a rock with my leg. That's a story for a different time.

I work in audio/music.

We use A LOT of digital and wireless tools in music recording and live sound reinforcement. They're all "foolproof" and "bombproof" and "will never randomly fail because of the new design" and "just use the app for any adjustments" and "super simple" and "precision made" and "near endless usable frequencies" and "better RF resistance" and "100,000 hours of testing with no failure," etc..

...and also "no user serviceable parts" and "replace the entire system" and "only [this] connection" and "no longer in production" and "no longer supported" and "iOS isn't compatible with this software" and "app no longer available for download" and "please allow 4-6 weeks for software re installation and shipping" and "scan for a different frequency, if none found scan again." Having two tested and functioning pieces of every piece of digital/wireless gear and also bringing all of it with you wherever you go is not in most anyone's reasonable budget but it's the only way to make sure everything goes off without a hitch every time. Nor is it something that we should be expecting of consumers. Even dental clinic business consultants riding dental clinic business consultant-budget ebikes shouldn't be required to have an extra GX Transmission drivetrain laying around with an extra iPhone dedicated to only running the Sram Transmission software.

I have enough stuff that is working perfectly one night and an expensive paperweight the next. I literally just had a Roku go from my wife watching Frasier on Wednesday to "there is an error..." and completely nonfunctioning on Thursday morning. Now we have to contact a customer service agent at Roku to tell them what's happened, read via a two-week wait for an email reply for them try to wiggle out of it being their product's failure, find the receipt, send them a picture, wait another 10 business days for a reply, email them back when they don't follow up...nightmare waste-of-time shit.

I can create some workarounds and land the plane with a finicky, cumbersome, inflexible analog recording console from the 90s when half of it randomly stops working. I have no options when a middle-sized, made for the rigors of touring but hasn't been moved in 5 years, digital console from 2019 decides it doesn't want to boot back up at 6:47pm for a 7pm recording session. Turn it back off. Turn it back on. Nothing. Turn it back off. Turn it back on. Nothing. Well, fuck.

My life is significantly improved by every piece of non-vital technology I can remove. Not because I don't trust and love technology - most of it is truly phenomenal and life is way better with it - but because fewer things that can go wrong means I have more things that are right. There is no amount of my time that I wish to dedicate to large corporations relying on me - a consumer who has paid for their product - to find and fix the bugs in their product development that they would have caught and fixed themselves had they hired a couple people at a reasonable salary to do it and took home to their affair partner $175,000 less in payroll expenses (but who knows how many more additional units they'd sell AND how many free pieces they wouldn't have had to throw on the technological wastepile).

I'll be kicking and screaming to resist wireless drivetrains. My next bike purchase will be largely influenced by who has a mechanical GX (or better) drivetrain option. I'm more accepting of headset cable routing than wireless drivetrains. When I have to go wireless - which is a closer inevitability than I probably realize - I'll acceptingly jump into a system that has been streamlined by drivetrain companies pleased as fuck to have been using unpaid alpha and beta testers/consumers to iron out the kinks in their systems for years.

Again, sorry for the long rant.

You know I've already had a friend who have ran into the instance of electronic shifting works great, until it didn't. When it didnt the headache of replacing derailleur, hanger, chain, and still not finding a solution drove them back to mechanical which was setup and worked immediately. It cost less too. Luckily a shop just returned parts when it didn't work and he didn't get screwed financially by it. 

I'm too much of a cheapskate when it comes to derailleurs. Yeah they've gotten tougher and I'm sure UDH helps, but one wrong move and your $400 AXS derailleur (retail) is smoked, where as an 11 speed XT derailleur is $110 retail, and I you can find them a heck of a lot cheaper than that. Cool that rebuild kits are available on the new T type, but still pricy though. I've bought slightly used XTs for $25, as well as a combo 11 speed GX shifter/derailleur for $50.

I love the idea of one less cable and the consistent shifting, but there are so many other parts I find value in spending extra on. I'm a luddite, still on 1x11 and don't plan on going to 12, let along electronic shifting. 

"Electronic shifting is so much more precise than mechanical" 

When was the last time you lubed your chain or measured it for stretch? 

"Measured my what now?"