It was just a matter of time before Shimano's Di2 electronic shifting made its way to the mountain bike. Di2 shifting means just a light touch of a button is all that is required to instantly and seamlessly change gears. Most riders consider the fast and effortless shifting the primary benefit of Di2, but some would argue virtually eliminating many maintenance tasks of greater importance.

Mechanical cables stretching, settling, corroding and becoming damaged create more than their fair share of maintenance issues. Di2 means you can just adjust the derailleurs during the install and never touch them again for the service life of the derailleurs.

Shimano's firebolt shifters take electronic shifting to new worlds with customizable synchronized front and rear shifting with only a single rear (right) shifter. As you shift, the microchip calculates the new closest gear ratio which may involve shifting the front derailleur too. This programmable feature takes all the guesswork out of shifting to the most accurate gear for the ultimate in efficient gear selection. Not everyone will want a computer choosing their gear selection. You can still program the shifters to shift in manual mode and both left and right shifters are required for operation in manual mode.