Coolwall Jan 2011 - Shimano MTB groupsets

[CAPIN]

Otherwise i must say im in state of shock!

60% of voters think S H I M A N O is cool. :shock: :shock: :shock:

Incredible!

I made joke at the end of campa thread about this and its real!

Im speechless

Its so surreal i feel its total vaste of time debating it.

wow :?

 

[CAPIN]

I would go as far as to say that if Shimano is voted cool ,its basically end of coolwall.

It seemed like a great idea, but after this, there is no point of continuing..

 

[al]

I would go as far as to say that if Shimano is voted cool ,its basically end of coolwall.

It seemed like a great idea, but after this, there is no point of continuing..

You're not going to kill yourself are you? :shock:


al.

 

[CAPIN]

I almost did
I had to open my box full of superbling ultracool retro NOS non-shimano stuff
and it gave me new strength in dealing with my life and this thread

 

[hydorah]

Geekery

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!

Well said that man!

The Micro$oft analogy crossed my mind, but they (despite having a similar level of ubiquity) don't have the parallel of a massive range of products at all price points

And besides which there is the somewhat insurmountable point: Their stuff doesn't work properly! So the analogy which maybe seems promising at face value gets nowhere

But as we're getting g33ky, let's kick it up several notches:

Microsoft got where they are today largely by luck - IBM wanted an O/S so they went to MS who bought a company with an OS

Seattle Computing Products was their name and the OS was called QDOS - Quick and Dirty Operating System. Sounds like Microsoft's methodology to this day

IBM signed a non exclusive deal with MS. Which was a 'so what' move as the OS only ran on IBMs and licensed compatibles

meanwhile, elsewhere Compaq hatched an amazing plan... They reverse engineered the IBM BIOS in a legal way

It's called the clean room approach. Two independent teams of engineers went to work

One team took apart the IBM BIOS and figured out what it did - and wrote a spec sheet

From which the other team wrote a new BIOS. Therefore no IBM code at all, they hadn't even seen it, not one line of code...

All of a sudden everyone can make IBM PC compatibles, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Packard Bell and all the rest of them

And who should be waiting with an OS for this new exploded market? The computing equivalent of MacDonald's, that's who

All of a sudden non exclusivity is a gold mine

The rest really is history

That has nothing to do with Shimano's path. They have innovated and contributed to the improved operation of the bicycle as a form of transport

That's cool

XT even looks cool, many think XTR looks cool, both work awesomely well, that's cool

And how cool is it that you can buy a bike with low grade Shimano on it and it will work enough to get to work and back for years? And if you are so minded you could upgrade that to the top line components? that's cool

If it weren't for Shimano there would be all sorts of compatibility issues with components but as it is even the bespoke stuff will fit cos they need a market... That's cool

Also as a bonus g33k out: Apple folklore has it that they had the first windowing OS, this is also BS

They even tried a couple of lawsuits on this basis

But the truth is Xerox had a team that wrote the first windowing OS at the Palo Alto Research Centre known as PARC

I'll shut up now

Getting into whether Apple are cool is a can of worms

I'm writing this on a Linux machine...

 

[doctor-bond]

Re: Geekery

They have innovated and contributed to the improved operation of the bicycle as a form of transport

That's cool

No it's not: it's nice, useful and good business practice, but cool is something else.

Like this:

 

[hydorah]

It's cool

OK that's cool agreed

However, it's not an MTB groupset

I'll also bet the tubing used lacks any of the mechanical properties required for serious off road use

 

[al]

I almost did
I had to open my box full of superbling ultracool retro NOS non-shimano stuff
and it gave me new strength in dealing with my life and this thread

Hang in there my friend and keep the faith.

al.

 

[doctor-bond]

Re: It's cool

OK that's cool agreed

However, it's not an MTB groupset

I'll also bet the tubing used lacks any of the mechanical properties required for serious off road use

I'm sure it's made of Prestige.

But if we can agree on an image of cool, then the next job is to work out how much of the Shimano range could make such a claim.

Early XTR? Yep. Deerhead stuff: why not? 600 headset with the beveled lockring? Oh yes. Even though I've missed a bunch more cool examples, they still can't outweigh the vast abundance of servicable, mediocre, ubiquitous stuff associated with the brand.

So overall, too much:

not enough Miles.

 

[CAPIN]

Re: Geekery

@hydorah

yeah, i saw Pirates of Silicon Valley.
Funny and very informative

guess what machine im writing it on