Coolwall Jan 2011 - Shimano MTB groupsets

[hydorah]

By use of the word 'poncy'... I guess you maybe voted uncool for Campag on an MTB?

Yup. And Ringle,Klein,Day-glo and kooka.

You misunderstood what I meant about Shimano standardisation. (fair dos - I didn't make it very clear). I meant the opposite - as in Shimano making its own weird standard which then becomes obsolete and impossible to get parts for - and some of their chainring BCDs have been plain obtuse. And UG/HG. You can't put HG cogs on UG hubs. Rapid-rise. Assymtrical chains. Refusal to adapt ahead standard as someone else invented it. Shall I go on?

Al - there's more than a little self-ridicule in the "counting myself in as one of the 33.3%" statement. Sorry you didn't spot it.

Haha! you misunderstand me! Re: UG/HG you are correct, but so am I!

What I'm talking about is you can put a UG onto an early(ish) HG freehub is what I meant (they had threads and splines for expressly that purpose) new compatible with old...

BCDs yeah I'll agree with that and those bloody spiderless chainsets grrr! I don't want to run 44t. Ha tough! best you buy another chainset then or at least get a spider....

Not all cool certainly

 

[hydorah]

Not cool


There's a lot of (financial) love for M900 at the moment, but for me personally, back on 1990 as a 14yr old, I didn't aspire to own Shimano (even tho my bike came equipped with such). And really now, I feel the same.

Don't get me wrong, it works better than a lot of other stuff, but cool it is not. It's like having a Ford Mondeo or VW Golf - good at what they do, but nothing that sets your bloody pants on fire, with desire....

To make it cool, surely you would like to part with many wonderful things, for money, or make some sacrifices to own it, and as far as Shimano the brand goes, this isn't really the case is it??

just a tuppence worth from someone who's not an Oracle..

Fair enough ~ So what is cool for you? You must use something?

About the car analogy:

I think there is such breadth in the shimano range that you go right from: Fiat Cinquecento through Ford Mondeo to VW Golf and on to Mercedes-Benz SLK and...

But the analogies break down a bit really because certainly in terms of a bike drive train, it's best if the stuff works together as harmoniously as possible

A boutique grab bag of Ferrari and Lamborghini ain't necessarily gonna get results and could be an expensive way of achieving the opposite

Accordingly the values I prioritise Shimano is cool

~ Personally it's XT for me late '80s to mid '90s

~XTR is somewhat over hyped, over priced and it's grey!

Edit: not that I'm saying XTR is uncool...

But it sells! 'Cos Shimano is cool... Maybe for some XTR is reassuringly expensive?

 

[dbmtb]

What I'm trying to say is...

Retrobiker - technically brilliant and admired by his peers, yet shunned by the rest of the world.

Does this man have any say in what goes down as cool or not?

 

[GT-Steve]

Not cool


There's a lot of (financial) love for M900 at the moment, but for me personally, back on 1990 as a 14yr old, I didn't aspire to own Shimano (even tho my bike came equipped with such). And really now, I feel the same.

Don't get me wrong, it works better than a lot of other stuff, but cool it is not. It's like having a Ford Mondeo or VW Golf - good at what they do, but nothing that sets your bloody pants on fire, with desire....

To make it cool, surely you would like to part with many wonderful things, for money, or make some sacrifices to own it, and as far as Shimano the brand goes, this isn't really the case is it??

just a tuppence worth from someone who's not an Oracle..

Fair enough ~ So what is cool for you? You must use something?

About the car analogy:

I think there is such breadth in the shimano range that you go right from: Fiat Cinquecento through Ford Mondeo to VW Golf and on to Mercedes-Benz SLK and...

But the analogies break down a bit really because certainly in terms of a bike drive train, it's best if the stuff works together as harmoniously as possible

A boutique grab bag of Ferrari and Lamborghini ain't necessarily gonna get results and could be an expensive way of achieving the opposite

Accordingly the values I prioritise Shimano is cool

~ Personally it's XT for me late '80s to mid '90s

~XTR is somewhat over hyped, over priced and it's grey!

Edit: not that I'm saying XTR is uncool...

But it sells! 'Cos Shimano is cool... Maybe for some XTR is reassuringly expensive?

I use Shimano, Sram, Suntour and Campag.... oh and some mavic drivetrain too. Don't think any of them are cool, cos they're mundane day-to-day components. A necessity for a bike to function, but not particularly cool, hence my analogy.... A vw golf and Mondeo get you from a to b in comfort, reliably and without frills..... and Shimano do this too, but that's about it for me... Never liked any Shimano brakes (Canti's) either, and their bottom brackets can double the weight of a frameset.


I'm more than happy with the way their gearing works, but it's just not a cool brand in my eyes.

 

[pete_mcc]

All of it (including XTR) is so uncool it hurts. Too much energy spent on getting it right that it all comes across as too contrived.

On the plus side it was Shimanos fault that I got into Retrobiking. I hated the fact that they kept on making tiny cosmetic changes and calling it the next big thing, so I ditched every bit I had and went suntour, campag or cnced exotica that was timeless in my eyes and was cheap, cheap, cheap secondhand as everyone wanted XTR.

Built in obsolescence, upward incompatibility, faulty bugs, abuse of its market leading position, ridiculous costs blamed on all manner of bizarre things. If Shimano was an operating system it would be Microsoft - not cool at all. Give me Apple any day, it may not work as well, but damn its cool!

 

[GoldenEraMTB]

can I vote both "cool" and "uncool"

 

[hollister]

If Shimano was an operating system it would be Microsoft - not cool at all. Give me Apple any day, it may not work as well, but damn its cool!

^^my point^^

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net ... =macs_cant

 

[hollister]

So a third of the members on here are trying to be cool?

yes, glad to see you're following along

I have news for you, we are men riding push bikes!

captain obvious strikes again

99.9% of the human race think we're just weird.

they aren't here on bike forum, f*ck em

So from what you and hollister are saying, I along with many others on here are trying to impress you?

no, someone else. try and keep up

Gets better and better.

al.

couldn't have said it better myself

ps: I'm not familiar with all the slang used overseas, what was the plum thing about?

 

[al]

A plum is a soft fruit.

Any clearer?

al.





I really like plums.

 

[CAPIN]

Microsoft analogy is not very good.
Shimano despite being in similar situlation marketshare-wise was alway a benchmark for quality and good function..

UNLIKE MICROSOFT!