Coolwall October 2011 - Entry Level Groupsets

[john]

For those who are new-ish to the site the coolwall is an occasional vote we run to decide if a component, manufacturer or anything else really is cool or uncool. The retrobike coolwall can be found here. An archive of previous votes can be found here.

So, onto the October 2011 coolwall vote. This month up for the vote are Entry Level Groupsets. We're going to be fairly specific here, after much deliberation we'll limit the vote to Shimano 70GS, Shimano 100GS and Shimano 200 GS which (I think) later morphed into Altus. The tournay groupsets we'll ignore since these are mostly sold on supermarket bikes. 300LX and up we'll assume are mid range for the sake of this poll. Similar level groupsets from other manufacturers are of course also welcome here.

Entry Level Groupsets cool or uncool? You decide!
I'm sure many will have started on these groupsets. Many will have tales of how they bettered epic wilderness rides on 7 speed and plastic canti'd 200gs which todays modern trail centre riders would baulk at with 30 speed XTR and disc brakes.
Equally these groupsets didn't have the materials and finish of the better groupsets. For the most they were manufactured from plastic and cheapish quality steel (and possibly dairy products). They also weighed a tonne and could be deformed by a stern glare.

A few pics to help you decide

 

[cce]

shonky, poorly functioning heavy rubbish, which down my school, would have got you bullied.

 

[kaytronika]

Heavy but functional. Something that does the job it was intended to do pretty well with no flair or grace can never be considered cool.

 

[jonnyboy666]

sort of, because we all started somewhere

 

[makster]

Horrible. And wtf are those pedals on the bottom pic? :shock:

 

[merckx]

sort of cool. one of my early bikes as a teenager was a diamond back sorrento, running 200GS. yes it was terrible, but it was also quite good in a way. shimano did a great job on the shifters.

but non replaceable cahin rings, plastic brakes, terrible lever feel and plastic coated cranks...i dunno...overall on balance, perhaps uncool.

but i will still vote cool...

 

[pete_mcc]

sort of, because we all started somewhere

Don't confuse cool with nostalgia. That argument doesn't make the Vauxhall Nova 'Fun' cool, it was my first car but it was a rusty shit heap that got me no browny points with the girls. Neither does it make 'the frog chorus' by Paul McCartney cool despite the fact that it was the first record I bought.

Nobody aspired to shite groupsets, no one lusted after shite groupsets, no one was ever jealous of a shite groupset. They were there as functional parts that allowed the masses to get from a-b on a fashionable BSO, or allowed parents to buy cheap but buy often for their kids who actually bought into the sport but grew too quick to splash the cash on.

Funny thing is that while I don't conciser low end groupsets as cool, I also don't consider any shimano group as cool. They are functional and practical, they are robust, long living and efficient but then none of those things are indicative of coolness...

 

[jesterisking]

Aren't they folding pedals?

 

[pete_mcc]

..and even the camera that took this pic knew that the parts were uncool as it refused to focus:

 

[RAFbikes]

Definitely not cool, the first thing you upgrade after your wheels.