First look: FSA’s electronic groupset

by CyclingTips

July 21, 2015

TECH BROUGHT TO YOU BY VELOFIX

It’s been known that FSA has been developing an electronic groupset for a year now, since we spotted it at the 2014 Tour de France, and as expected it’s finally been shown to the public at the Tour de France. GCN takes a closer look at the prototype on one of Michal Kwiatkowski’s bikes in this video.

What we know so far:

The top of the shifter button moves the chain up the cassette, while the bottom shifts the chain down the cassette.
The system is mostly electronic wireless, however there is a wire connecting front and rear derailleurs.

FSA isn’t giving out anymore details until Eurobike in late August.

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Tags: 2015 Tour de France, electronic shifting, FSA

Robert Merkel

Looks nice – and the real benefit is that more competition means lower prices for everyone.

However….wireless groupsets bother me because you just know some arsehole is going to try jamming the signal at some crucial point in the Tour.
- Sean Doyle
  
  Possible, but lets climb that Col when we come to it. I am sure with the coding these days it can be encrypted well enough for this sort of thing.
  - Robert Merkel
    
    There is a news story doing the rounds today of a Jeep being shut down remotely by hackers, demonstrating the vulnerability of cars to this sort of thing. Car companies and their suppliers have engineering resources far, far beyond what FSA have available to them (no offence to FSA and their engineers, just sheer weight of numbers here), and they screw their embedded systems up regularly.
    
    But even if FSA choose an appropriately secure communication protocol (and implement it properly), that still leaves them vulnerable to jamming. If you’re just trying to jam the signal, encryption is irrelevant. Obviously, there are ways to reduce the effectiveness of jamming, but they require more sophisticated (and thus more costly and power-hungry) electronics to implement; the very low transmission power from the radio in the shifters further eases the job of the jammer, who has (in comparison) unlimited transmission power available to them.
    
    I hope it wouldn’t happen, but I’d hate for Kwiatkowski’s gears to mysteriously stop shifting at, say, the bottom of La Redoute next year.
    - Sean Doyle
      
      A room full of dumb engineers will never compensate for one smart engineer and we are talking about car companies that would rather pay for compensation if and when someone gets injured or killed than pay for recalls. By all accounts they have fixed the back door and sent the updates out. The bike system is going to be a lot simpler so you would expect less opportunities for breaking in.
      
      Couldn’t you just jam the jammers. ;-P
      
      Yeah I know it’s possible and plausible and will probably happen and yes it’s a concern but I’m more concerned about motor vehicles being hijacked and causing carnage.
      - Sean Doyle
        
        I know diddly squat about the codes and protocols etc. but this is SRAMs system. I have no idea how hard that is to crack.
        
        “2.4 GHz transceiver utilising AES encryption and DSS spread spectrum technology supporting 16 channels and the IEEE 802.15.4 communication protocol”
        
        Robert Merkel
        
        SRAM are using something called ZigBee.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee
        
        As to its vulnerability, here’s a thesis from a student at Dartmouth about the attacks he was able to pull on ZigBee devices:
        
        http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2011-689.pdf
        
        Short version – it’s highly jammable.
        
        The student has gone on to join a company that works on ZigBee security, and has continued to expand their ZigBee toolkit.
        
        http://www.riverloopsecurity.com/
        
        Sean Doyle
        
        Cool. Interesting stuff. I’m not too concerned to be honest though. can you imagine what would happen if the team got caught…..oh wait…. never mind….
- Hamish Moffatt
  
  Wireless groupsets bother me because they’re stupid :-| There’s just no need. It’s not solving a problem, but creating new ones (jamming, multiple batteries, needing a pairing process).
  - Samuel
    
    Thibaut Pinot – Stage 4 TdF 2015 – Groupset not shifting due to empty battery.
    http://www.cyclingpro.net/velopro/road/le-derailleur-de-thibaut-pinot-a-lache [French]
Andy B

That would be a tough market to crack
I feel like you need to be offering something significantly different to get the sales
Shimano do it pretty damn well and Campag offer electronic for those who want to spend more..
Not sure wireless is enough to do it if SRAM are going down that avenue as well
I love how subtle the PROTOTYPE graphics are
- Sean Doyle
  
  Given Shimano’s shipping issues at the moment it’s probably the right time to get in and get a foot hold. Especially if it’s cheaper and available………as long as it works.
Chris Little

“Here are my four highlights. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.”
Ed

Has anyone considered SRAM is taking a long time to come to market with their electronic? Or that’s the way it seems to me…
- Hitted
  
  Media Work 698.77$/day
  
  >!…….
  http://www.BestMedia Point Network//Digital//money
smw

This is very similar to Tiso’s 12 speed wireless electronic.. FSA may have bought the patent.. i also hear Tiso do develop for FSA..
SeanMcCuen

wireless, why?
- sss
  
  Electronic shifting, why? :)