Bicycle component manufacturer FSA (Full Speed Ahead) confirmed at the end of 2014 that it was working on the development of a complete groupset and during the recent Tour de France a working example of the FSA electronic groupset was spotted on the Specialized Tarmac of World Champion Michael Kwiatkowski.
>>> New: FSA K-Force WE Groupset
Details are sparse and all the components are marked with Prototype markings but what is apparent from the GCN video below is that the FSA electronic groupset is semi wireless, that is the shift levers appear to be wireless and from the front derailleur rearwards appear to be wired.
Possible FSA Electronic Groupset specifications
What are the obvious and not so obvious specs from the video?
Shifters appear to be wireless between each other and the rest of the groupset, it is possible that the shifters could be wired together hidden in the handlebars and then wireless to the front derailleur.
Derailleurs connected by wires and both marked Prototype like the shift levers.
Battery assumed to be hidden in the seatpost similar to Shimano Di2 internal battery.
Shifting two buttons per shift lever, one shifts up and one down. I would expect these would be programmable to use either way around.
Like all other commercially available current road groupsets it’s 11 speed, and given the rest of the team are using a Shimano drive train currently then it would be either a Dura-Ace cassette or a prototype FSA cassette using the same spacing as Shimano (and SRAM). The Tour de France unveiling by FSA is similar to how the SRAM Electronic Groupset prototype that was released during the 2014 Tour of California. The wireless SRAM unit is still not commercially available but was used by AG2R in this year’s Tour de France.
The crankset and brakes have been available for a while now and make up the groupset.
More details will be released at Eurobike on August 26, we’ll also update our 11 Speed road groupset weight reference database once they are released.
