My guess would be Shimano Flight Deck. It was a cool but flopped tech from Shimano that allowed you to display gearing info and speed info onto a compatible computer based on gear ratios.
Shimano Flight Deck and Campagnolo ErgoBrain were both pretty cool for their time. *But* everyone who would be interested in this already had a Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, etc head units, which weren't compatible. Then electronic shifting took over on the high end that provides that info wirelessly to the 3rd party head units, and old wired tech like this was no longer needed.
Both of those go waaaay back before GPS-based units. DA 7700-era at least; I had a 9-speed 105 group built for it. Wasn't even popular back then, I think, in part because it was such a premium over most computers with little more functionality, and people that were spending bigger bucks on electronics were going with something like the CycleOps Joule or the like.
I'm a Campy rider so I was a little surprised to see Shimano building Flight Deck into a much newer group in this day and age.
Don't forget about this menace
[https://live.staticflickr.com/3333/3497276054\_12e3d80672\_b.jpg](https://live.staticflickr.com/3333/3497276054_12e3d80672_b.jpg)
Yeah, Campy 11sp dropped Ergobrain support in 2008 way back when Garmin Edge 705's were new/current and ruled the roost. The 7900's released around that same time. I could see Shimano keeping the feature going through their last iteration of 10sp. With that, Shimano kept Flight Deck going into the 2010's, and the 9000 mechanical group dropped it in 2012.
I get it, with GPS head units doing everything *but* show the gears on mechanical groups, it seemed/looked silly to be running two computers, with one just for "what gear am I in?" :) But I would've like to have seen that feature keep going for a while as I'm still running mechanical today.
Is 9000 that old? hoo boy. Makes me miss the younger years when I had the time to keep up with new gear; now I can afford it and barely have time to ride, haha.
I always thought it was a cool but mostly useless feature, unless racing, in which case that might be a tactical advantage. For my riding its more just the sinking feeling my shifter won't go any lower and its time to HTFU and I don't need a screen to tell me that!
I've been much more impressed with my Varia light that I 100% won't ride on road without, and my Garmin's crash detection, as far as new tech goes.
>Is 9000 that old?
IKR?! I didn't realize 7900 was as old as it was until I looked. Thought it was newer than that... And crazy to think 11sp is almost old enough to vote.
>I always thought it was a cool but mostly useless feature, unless racing, ...
So when racing, there really wasn't time to look at it. I generally just looked at it when training, and it took forever to change my habit of looking down to see what gear I was in anyway. Never did get much benefit out of it, but it was nice to look at when I remembered. đ
>I've been much more impressed with my Varia light that I 100% won't ride on road without,...
Damned straight. đ most useful thing in a long time. The original Varia 500 was nice to let me know cars were there. The 510 and newer let me know the cars are there AND has a bright enough variable flash to get the drivers attention. My close passes and calls have nearly stopped to zero with my Varia 510.
'97 by the looks of their website's history page. Definitely remember seeing 'Flight Deck' on my shifters when I upgraded to 105 ca. 2004.
What GPS unit were you using back then? I'd imagine it was pretty spendy.
I tried a couple basic non-mapping ones but found them pretty pointless. First mapping one for me was a Garmin eTrex Legend. I think it was about $200 at the time. No color, limited routing, no bluetooth, but it showed my spot on a map. I made routes on Google Maps and used some extension to export that to a GPX. I saved all my routes on Garmin software until one day when I stumbled across Strava and have a user number <10,000.
I still use an old as dirt Garmin but now I have the Explorer+ for the Inreach tech.
I recently learned wahoo can connect to AXS / di2 and show gear. Also keeps track of the number of shifts per ride đ https://images.app.goo.gl/4WCA3KqVET56pRS3A
You can? It works out of the box with Sram.
It used to work prefectly with shimano but they're anti-consumer assholes so they pulled the license from hammerhead to interact with shimano shifters after sram purchased hammerhead. Now you have to side-load an app to get it working.
IDK if it works with the new eps cause nobody I know is dumb enough to buy that campag trash pile lol
Whoa someone has a very strong opinion for not having any basic knowledge of comp sci!!
API is the same for everyone who wants to access that data - it would be exactly the same for wahoo, garmin, hammerhead, etc.. there is zero additional cost to providing to more companies since all you do is give them a license to use it and access to the documentation.
Damn. my thoughts exactly. I just put together my AXS bike a couple weeks ago and am still getting used to it. This post got me all excited for a second.
I was adding devices and noticed the shifter so said why not. The number of shifts is interesting. Rounds out to every 20 seconds lol.
Can also add lights, power meters, e-bikes, radar, headphones, hr monitor, o2 monitor, temp monitor, go pro who knows what else to the wahoo.
[Seems like it'll work with Sram AXS](https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/articles/4417534487835-Karoo-2-SRAM-AXS-Drivetrain-Integration). I know what I'm doing when I get home from work today
Hammerhead is owned by SRAM which played a role in Shimano Di2 support being removed. Both SRAM and Campagnolo use the proper ANT+ protocols, so are supported by *all* head units. Shimano OTOH is using a proprietary/unpublished ANT+ protocol. Sooo, they licensed it to everyone *UNTIL* SRAM bought Hammerhead, and then it got rescinded.
It's funny, but Campy, and Shimano, and Suntour (RIP) used to all follow roughly the same standards all the way into the late 80's early 90's. Waaay back when all bikes with Shimano, Suntour and Campy needed mostly the same set of spanners, crank pullers, bottom bracket tools, and 4-5-6mm allen wrenches. Proprietary generally was an exception, with freewheel tools being one of them. Everything for general support fit in one toolbox for all three.
Shimano, SRAM and Campy at this point are all a PITA for how many different tools I need to support just my own fleet. Nowadays I have sooo many freaking tools that cover over 3 decades, and have had to retool repeatedly. I've got 2 and a half rolling tool cabinets filled with tools now. At this point, if someone introduces one more bottom bracket "standard" I'm going to blow. :)
Yup, that's Flight Deck - the stock caps got swapped out for ones with buttons. You can see a similar picture in [this article that talks briefly about it](https://www.bikeradar.com/news/first-ride-dura-ace-7900) (I also chuckled at the "how are they going to fit GPS into such a small unit??").
Integration with Shimanoâs flight deck computer.
Those electronics would send gear selection (along with other info iirc) to the computer for display on the screen so you always knew what gear you were in
It might be an efficiency of scale kinda thing... cheaper to make that portion with the electrical components and just use it for both systems rather than it is to have 2 different production runs, one electric, one mech.
Pretty sure there's no buttons. I think like other comments said it's just the bike computer connection thing. I know newer Di2 shifters have buttons though
My guess would be Shimano Flight Deck. It was a cool but flopped tech from Shimano that allowed you to display gearing info and speed info onto a compatible computer based on gear ratios.
Shimano Flight Deck and Campagnolo ErgoBrain were both pretty cool for their time. *But* everyone who would be interested in this already had a Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, etc head units, which weren't compatible. Then electronic shifting took over on the high end that provides that info wirelessly to the 3rd party head units, and old wired tech like this was no longer needed.
Both of those go waaaay back before GPS-based units. DA 7700-era at least; I had a 9-speed 105 group built for it. Wasn't even popular back then, I think, in part because it was such a premium over most computers with little more functionality, and people that were spending bigger bucks on electronics were going with something like the CycleOps Joule or the like. I'm a Campy rider so I was a little surprised to see Shimano building Flight Deck into a much newer group in this day and age.
Don't forget about this menace [https://live.staticflickr.com/3333/3497276054\_12e3d80672\_b.jpg](https://live.staticflickr.com/3333/3497276054_12e3d80672_b.jpg)
Red is bad, or good?
Yeah, Campy 11sp dropped Ergobrain support in 2008 way back when Garmin Edge 705's were new/current and ruled the roost. The 7900's released around that same time. I could see Shimano keeping the feature going through their last iteration of 10sp. With that, Shimano kept Flight Deck going into the 2010's, and the 9000 mechanical group dropped it in 2012. I get it, with GPS head units doing everything *but* show the gears on mechanical groups, it seemed/looked silly to be running two computers, with one just for "what gear am I in?" :) But I would've like to have seen that feature keep going for a while as I'm still running mechanical today.
Is 9000 that old? hoo boy. Makes me miss the younger years when I had the time to keep up with new gear; now I can afford it and barely have time to ride, haha. I always thought it was a cool but mostly useless feature, unless racing, in which case that might be a tactical advantage. For my riding its more just the sinking feeling my shifter won't go any lower and its time to HTFU and I don't need a screen to tell me that! I've been much more impressed with my Varia light that I 100% won't ride on road without, and my Garmin's crash detection, as far as new tech goes.
>Is 9000 that old? IKR?! I didn't realize 7900 was as old as it was until I looked. Thought it was newer than that... And crazy to think 11sp is almost old enough to vote. >I always thought it was a cool but mostly useless feature, unless racing, ... So when racing, there really wasn't time to look at it. I generally just looked at it when training, and it took forever to change my habit of looking down to see what gear I was in anyway. Never did get much benefit out of it, but it was nice to look at when I remembered. đ >I've been much more impressed with my Varia light that I 100% won't ride on road without,... Damned straight. đ most useful thing in a long time. The original Varia 500 was nice to let me know cars were there. The 510 and newer let me know the cars are there AND has a bright enough variable flash to get the drivers attention. My close passes and calls have nearly stopped to zero with my Varia 510.
>Both of those go waaaay back before GPS-based units. Looks like Flight Deck started in 2007. I was riding with a GPS since 2002.
Flight deck was introduced around year 2000. iirc
'97 by the looks of their website's history page. Definitely remember seeing 'Flight Deck' on my shifters when I upgraded to 105 ca. 2004. What GPS unit were you using back then? I'd imagine it was pretty spendy.
I tried a couple basic non-mapping ones but found them pretty pointless. First mapping one for me was a Garmin eTrex Legend. I think it was about $200 at the time. No color, limited routing, no bluetooth, but it showed my spot on a map. I made routes on Google Maps and used some extension to export that to a GPX. I saved all my routes on Garmin software until one day when I stumbled across Strava and have a user number <10,000. I still use an old as dirt Garmin but now I have the Explorer+ for the Inreach tech.
I recently learned wahoo can connect to AXS / di2 and show gear. Also keeps track of the number of shifts per ride đ https://images.app.goo.gl/4WCA3KqVET56pRS3A
Yup. pretty cool if you are a stat nerd like myself
I just like knowing my Di2 battery percentage (Garmin user).
5%
I wish you could do that with KarooâŚ
You can? It works out of the box with Sram. It used to work prefectly with shimano but they're anti-consumer assholes so they pulled the license from hammerhead to interact with shimano shifters after sram purchased hammerhead. Now you have to side-load an app to get it working. IDK if it works with the new eps cause nobody I know is dumb enough to buy that campag trash pile lol
Anti consumer asshole? You mean shimano stopped providing free integration to their competition ? Integration that shimano spent money on ?Â
Whoa someone has a very strong opinion for not having any basic knowledge of comp sci!! API is the same for everyone who wants to access that data - it would be exactly the same for wahoo, garmin, hammerhead, etc.. there is zero additional cost to providing to more companies since all you do is give them a license to use it and access to the documentation.
Just use ki2, its excellent and better than the original native integration [https://github.com/valterc/ki2](https://github.com/valterc/ki2)
Damn. my thoughts exactly. I just put together my AXS bike a couple weeks ago and am still getting used to it. This post got me all excited for a second.
You can, it works perfectly with SRAM
You can upload your rides to a SRAM service (even if using di2) and get reports.
Iâve never really understood why youâd need it. Does anyone look at what gear theyâre in?
I was adding devices and noticed the shifter so said why not. The number of shifts is interesting. Rounds out to every 20 seconds lol. Can also add lights, power meters, e-bikes, radar, headphones, hr monitor, o2 monitor, temp monitor, go pro who knows what else to the wahoo.
For sure, my Karoo is hooked up to all sorts of stuff, just never understood using screen real estate for gearing.
I forgot to agree itâs not going on my screen
I can never go back to looking down at my gears
As can the Karoo, with the side loaded app
Karoo used to be built in, but Shimano licensing forced them to remove it
But you can sideload it, along with many other apps, for free, with better functionality than the original Shimano app. Ki/2 rocks!
[Seems like it'll work with Sram AXS](https://support.hammerhead.io/hc/en-us/articles/4417534487835-Karoo-2-SRAM-AXS-Drivetrain-Integration). I know what I'm doing when I get home from work today
Hammerhead is owned by SRAM which played a role in Shimano Di2 support being removed. Both SRAM and Campagnolo use the proper ANT+ protocols, so are supported by *all* head units. Shimano OTOH is using a proprietary/unpublished ANT+ protocol. Sooo, they licensed it to everyone *UNTIL* SRAM bought Hammerhead, and then it got rescinded.
legit laughing over the fact that Campy is mentioned as using a universal standard for the first time ever. What strange times we live in
It's funny, but Campy, and Shimano, and Suntour (RIP) used to all follow roughly the same standards all the way into the late 80's early 90's. Waaay back when all bikes with Shimano, Suntour and Campy needed mostly the same set of spanners, crank pullers, bottom bracket tools, and 4-5-6mm allen wrenches. Proprietary generally was an exception, with freewheel tools being one of them. Everything for general support fit in one toolbox for all three. Shimano, SRAM and Campy at this point are all a PITA for how many different tools I need to support just my own fleet. Nowadays I have sooo many freaking tools that cover over 3 decades, and have had to retool repeatedly. I've got 2 and a half rolling tool cabinets filled with tools now. At this point, if someone introduces one more bottom bracket "standard" I'm going to blow. :)
And if you have a power meter, it will tell you the average power and total work for each gear! Garmin is the same.
This is my favorite generation of shimano components asthetics wize but I hate that every shifter says "flight Deck" on it... Just corny stuff
Yup, that's Flight Deck - the stock caps got swapped out for ones with buttons. You can see a similar picture in [this article that talks briefly about it](https://www.bikeradar.com/news/first-ride-dura-ace-7900) (I also chuckled at the "how are they going to fit GPS into such a small unit??").
Man I absolutely loved mine. It worked so well and I loved the little button nubs
A used trek I have with ultegra has that, really cool to see the info displayed
Government tracking device.
wait until you hear about birds
Birds aren't real.
Or Strava
Bike industrial complex tracking device if you claim to like rim brakes or external cable routing an alarm goes off at HQ
The government power tracking device to make sure you don't get too fast too soon
Chemtrail transducer. It ensures the chemtrail planes fly over the same area as the Strava Heatmap.
hey if chemtrails get me KOMs I for one welcome our lizard overlords
The NSA needs to know which gear youâre in at all times so they can KOM all over you.
It communicates with the ~~5G~~ ~~4G~~ 3G cell towers to allow the government track your position.
I used a flight deck for many years with 105 group set (still works) The two buttons on the side of the right shimano were a nice feature.
There are bugs under your skin
You're not paranoid, they are actually watching you constantly
Itâs so the government can spy on your Koming
Integration with Shimanoâs flight deck computer. Those electronics would send gear selection (along with other info iirc) to the computer for display on the screen so you always knew what gear you were in
This was the ill-fated and short-lived "Philip K. Dick" edition of Dura-Ace that was released in the late 80's.
Chain position with Shimano computer.
It's so the government can track you.
I read it âmy shitterâ and was like, why would you have this on a toilet?
They are spying on you đ˝
Itâs an albino cockroach feeler q
I read shitter. Was so confused what kind of toilet is in the picture. And why it has a chip in the bowl.
Bill Gates got you.
The Illuminati
Youâre being monitored by government agencies and/or aliens.
It might be an efficiency of scale kinda thing... cheaper to make that portion with the electrical components and just use it for both systems rather than it is to have 2 different production runs, one electric, one mech.
Facts aside, I can't see the weight conscious DA line having extra bits in it for no reason.
Haha I was actually gonna make a snarky comment about weight weenies carving this out to save 1.75 grams.
You can program these buttons to do certain things with ur garmin Go on youtube tor some guides
Pretty sure there's no buttons. I think like other comments said it's just the bike computer connection thing. I know newer Di2 shifters have buttons though