Modifying my Giant Propel

I am lucky enough to have been able to afford a really nice bike - a 2014 Giant Propel, with Di2. Given its specification (and cost) i have generally only ridden it in good weather and kept it almost stock. I have made a few small changes over the 4 years I have had it but I have started to make some changes as its worn out or other drivers have forced something

Here its is after the 1st or 2nd ride:

 Here it is about 9 months later - still no changes

 Here it is when I added a 4iiii left hand crank power meter

Here I an riding it at Mallory Park race circuit - still no major changes

In 2018 I bough the "official" Giant rubber bungs to plug the holes in the frame for the Giant Cadence sensor - these bungs fit in the non-drive side chainstay. I got these from www.giantbikespares.com. The postage cost as much as the parts. I got this because I was now sometimes riding the bike when it was damp and did not want to get water in the frame

This year (so about 3.5 years after I bought the bike) I finally gave up and downsized the chain rings from 52-36 to a more normal Compact (50-34). I bought Ultegra rings even though the cheaper 105 rings are completely compatible to keep the specification correct

The main difference between the Ultegra rings (above) and the 105 (not shown) is that the Ultegra big ring is a metal/nylon composite whilst the 105 is all metal (with integral strengthening "ribs"). You can see the nylon quite clearly above. I also needed to change the chain at the same time as it had done over 4000 miles, although the chain wear checker did not suggest that it was over the recommended 0.75%. Obviously changing the front rings (a 2 tooth reduction on both rings) meant I needed to also look at the chain length and the position of the front dérailleur. I took some photos before for all the gear extremes (52-28, 52-11, 36-28 and 36-11) to look at the original chain relationship and to compare to what it was going to be like with the new extremes  (50-28, 50-11, 34-28 and 34-11).

52-11

52-28

36-28

36-11

 I decided to start with the same chain length as for the 52-36 chainset when I fitted the 50-34 rings:

50-11

50-28

34-28

34-28

It's not perfect in the 34-11 combination and the chain could probably be ideally 2 links shorter, but it functions completely OK (and in reality I never use the 34-11 gear on the road anyway). It also means  that should I found a sudden burst of youth, strength and knees, I can refit the 52-36 rings without changing the chain again.

I also noticed that although the original chain was not over 0.75% wear, the new chain actually ran more quietly and smoothly and shifted better, so clearly the wear indicator method does not always show a true real world level of wear.

Some careful photos also meant that I could reset the front dérailleur into the new lower position:

There was one real benefit here with Di2 - this was that I didn't need to do anything to reset the cable length like I wild have had to with a traditional mechanical set up

This photo is with the original 52 ring so I set the same height gap for the 50 tooth ring

The change to the smaller front chain rings is by far the biggest change to the bike - and the outcome is that it is easier for me to ride and I can use more of the cassette, so it was money well spent. For info I got the rings from Rose Bikes (ignore the .uk domain - they are a German company). Its clear that although the 6800 series Ultegra is only one generation old it's already seen as obsolete as I could not get these rings in the UK

I have also needed to swap the rear tyre out - it was still just about OK at 4600 miles but the wear indicator was long since gone and the tread area no longer round:

The tyres are Giant P-SL1 700 x 23c. These are around £30 each and are starting to be replaced by P-SL2. However by compete chance I looked on EBay and saw a pair of almost new P-SL1 tyres. I bid and got the pair for only £22. They really had done only a few 100 miles at most - what a bargain

The final changes I have done are to fit a Shimano SM-EWW01 unit so I could read the gear position and other Di2 data into my Garmin. This is documented here: di2-monitoring

So - my bike is still almost as built but has some small changes, some more visible than others. It's a great bike but as I will freely admit - a better bike that I am rider

Di2 Monitoring - Update

In this post: http://midlandscyclist.blogspot.com/2019/01/ultegra-di2-upgrade-or-not.html I wrote how I had tried to set up my Di2 System to read and transmit the Di2 Data to my Garmin. 

This failed as I had not realised that I needed a Shimano SM-EWW01 device rather than either a EX-WU101 or EX-WU111. The SM-EWW01 is is obsolete so the only routes forward were a new battery that supported the newer WU series devices or I needed to get a second hand SM-EWW01 from (for example) EBay

I spent the past 9 months or so looking on EBay and bidding on the few units that came up for sale, I was unsuccessful on 2-3 occasions missing the winning bid by a few £. Amazingly in early September another unit came up and I bid again (not holding much hope of winning) and I ended up the winning bidder for less than my maximum bid. This particular item came without the O-Ring strap, spare rubber grommet/seat nor a cable. I ordered the shortest cable you can get (150mm):

Coming in at ~£18 one can only guess at the profit margin.

When the cable I arrived I fitted the device - it took about 5 minutes all in and most of that was fiddling with the visual appearance rather than anything difficult.

Without the O-Ring (official part at ~£8) I fitted it in position with Electrical tape:

Here's a direct side on view

Here's a slightly oblique view

I was able to push the original rear derailleur cable back into the frame to lose some of the excess length. With it fitted in this location it's not that bad a sight. I taped the excess length to the seat stay as well to avoid it getting caught and pulled off

Clearly with the newer unit (the EW-WU11) it is smaller and able to be hidden in the frame - if I could use one of these I would have fitted it in the seat tube below the battery, so this unit is less visually satisfying.

Turning the unit on (by initiating a gear shift) my Garmin found the unit and I was able to set up a screen on it:

There are other screen elements available

A week or so later I was looking through my "cycling odds and sods" drawer and found a suitable O-Ring, which is now fitted instead of the electrical tape (rubbish phone photos):

I have however left the electrical tape to hold the cables to the seat stay. A bit of belt and braces perhaps if the O-Ring fails.

A couple of rides in and it's not transformed my riding. I need to edit one of my standard screens to add the rear gear number and this is what will be a big change and will stop me keep looking down at the rear cassette. However now that the dirtier autumn and winter rides are here its less likely I'll be riding my Giant which is after all my "best" bike and the one I try to keep clean and dry. What will be useful is being able to read the battery level as a percentage rather than the standard process of pressing and holding a lever and reading the LED flash code from the junction box

At the moment the Di2 data from the Garmin remains locked in the .fit file, and Strava does nothing with it. I have found a .fit file SDK which will allow me to get the data out. At this time the plan is to write a small standalone utility just for the Di2 data and then incorporate that into my Strava Data Analysis tool (Here).

The first aim would be to plot the gear number vs. time or distance and also calculate and display a statistical analysis of the time in each of the gear. Now (it's September 2019) that the evenings are drawing in this is more likely to happen than in the summer

It is important to note the newer models (EX-WU111) supports Bluetooth as well and allows the owner to programme the Di2 System using an App as well as the original method of connecting via the special USB adaptor and using the Shimano E-Tube software. I am more than happy to use E-Tube as I am much more of a laptop person than an App person:

Ultegra Di2 Upgrade (or not)

See Update Here:  Di2 Monitoring - Update

I am lucky enough to have a bike with Ultegra Di2 - my Giant Propel:

I have had it since about April 2016 and have done nothing to the gears except charge the battery a few times

A rash moment during the 2018 Black Friday sales saw me buy a Garmin 1030. No real reason for this other than the mapping is much better as is the range of sensors that can be connected. For 2018 Christmas I got some Amazon vouchers, and coincidently I needed to use my IHG loyalty points - I did not have enough for a free night so redeemed them for more Amazon vouchers. As a result I had enough to buy some toys - namely the Di2 D-Fly unit that would allow me to read selected gear and battery level on my Garmin. 

I carried out some research as there appeared to be several types of unit - the "old" type and the "newer" type:

This is the older type - part/model number: EW-WU101

And this is the newer type - part number EW-WU111.

The main difference is clearly the physical size and shape. The older model is normally fitted to the seat stay 

Whilst the new model is small enough to fit inside the frame or discretely under the handle bars by the A Box for example

The other difference is that the EW-W111 supports Bluetooth and using a Shimano App can be used to update and configure Di2. This is an alternative to using the wired connection and Shimano's PC based E-Tube software (apparently E-Tube is Windows only so this is a huge advantage for Mac users). I was not bothered by the Bluetooth feature and capability as I was happy to use E-Tube and bits of wire

There was various documentation and discussion on the internet and it seemed that whilst there was some mention of needing battery upgrades (newer batteries have more processing power apparently) in order to support synchro shifting this did not appear to be a prerequisite. My Giant has an internal battery which I believed was a newer type. Given the different sizes between the 2 units (and availability - the WU101 unit seems harder to get hold of) I ordered the WU111 with the intention of fitting it in the seat tube with the battery.

I also needed to order a cable as well. Whilst its not unreasonable to assume that different bikes will drive different installations, the fact that a cable is required, but not supplied, is rather annoying

I did also have an internal dilemma about the price and output. Basically (Jan 2019 prices) its £70 for the D-Fly unit and £15 for a 250mm cable. I am sure weight for weight this is more expensive that gold. So about £90 to get a few numbers on the a Garmin. I rationalised it as its was mostly "free" as I was using Amazon vouchers which I had no paid for. So a few clicks later and Amazon's massive logistic operation was working to deliver the items. (I used free delivery and like most times they came in less than 2 days - I never pay for deliver and am always pleased with the delivery time)

The following weekend I was all geared up to fit the unit. The first action was however to update the Di2 firmware on my bike

The E-Tube software is not the greatest. A few comments are that the window is a fixed size and does not show all the components fitted, and there are quite a few conflicting and unclear prompts and messages. Here's a typical sequence of what is required to update:

First start the software and then make the physical connection.

Once it has connected it will display the components it found. Note that I was asked if I had sprint shifters fitted to the primary shifters as part of the process. Above it shows both front and rear dérailleurs and the Left and Right shifters. I then needed to scroll the window (poor software so I said above) to see the rest of the components:

Here the battery and A Junction box are shown. Note that at this point I have no wireless unit installed.

The E-Tube software also identified automatically that there were later firmware versions available:

Selecting OK allows you to select which components to update (all are selected by default):

This shows that battery was the latest version and the dérailleurs were quite outdated.

Select and the update process starts:

This took about 3-4 minutes at most.

Having  completed the update I then removed the cable and checked all was still functioning which it was. I then removed the seat post to insert the WU111. 

A good thing about my Giant is that the seat post is marked:

 

With the seat post removed the battery connection can be seen:

There is a special Shimano tool to remove the cables:

However its not possible to use this on the battery cable - and was in fact not needed as it was easy to get a firm grasp of the moulding rather than the cable itself. I fitted the spare cable to the battery and connected the WU111 between the two cables.

And the shifting stopped. I removed the WU11 and refitted as standard - and it worked again. Repeat the connection of the WU111 and it didn't work. So I replaced the original cable to the battery and added the WU111 between a shifter and Junction Box A - and it didn't work still.

So I reconnected the E-Tube software and let it search for the components. In this case it showed the WU111 but it was in red - with a note about checking the compatibility chart with a URL link. Following THIS link gets you to a Compatibility pdf file that I had not seen before. The key data was here:

This clearly shows that my battery needs a SM-EWW01 to broadcast the data. Any other unit is not compatible. 

I had not seen this data sheet before - if I had I would not have bought the parts.

So to summarise:

• I have updated my Ultegra Di2 system to the latest Firmware
• I cannot use an EX-WU101 or EX-WU111 with my battery
• SM-EWW01 are impossible to find (obsolete and none second hand on EBay)
• I need to spend ~£100 to upgrade my battery in order to use an EW-WU111 to get Di2 data onto my Garmin
• I need to send my purchases back to Amazon

One change I noticed after the firmware update was a changed battery level check behaviour of the lights. Prior to the update a battery check would use the green light only. Post the upgrade I saw that the orange light flashed as well. Some double checking showed the following behaviour (my battery was fully charged):

• Solid Green light
• Solid green light and solid orange light

Here's a short video of the new behaviour (Planet Rock in the background!):

I was concerned I had somehow induced an error state but a quick Google showed:

The first light is the battery charge indicator.

• Solid green = 76 to 100 percent charged
• Flashing green = 51 to 75 percent charged
• Solid red = 26 to 50 percent charged
• Flashing red = 1 to 25 percent charged

The second set of lights indicates the which shift mode is selected.

• Green and red flash once = manual shift mode
• Green and red flash twice = semi synchro shift mode
• Green and red flash thrice = full synchro shift mode

I didn't think (from my initial research) that my battery supported syncho shifting so I am not quite sure what is going on here. I have no intention (at present) of using synchro shift. 

Therefore despite this minor panic all was well

I hope there is some useful information for others in this post

Finally - my Giant supports "Ride Sense" - Giant's own wheel speed and cadence sensors. This involves a couple of holes in the frame that let water in. Some recent Google use found the spare parts that are blanks, Although these were £1.99 postage made it closer to £5 - however I bit the bullet in the hope that the Bottom Bracket might last a little longer. Its just possible to see the parts fitted here: