Rather than hijack @AWVelocetec86's intro thread about his rather nice Raleigh, I thought I'd move some comments within it to their own discussion:
AWVelocetec86":nsxiedcq said:Out of interest, why the irrational bias against Raleigh and Shimano?
I":nsxiedcq said:(blah, blah, blah ... many years ago, I) felt quite strongly that Shimano basically ripped off Suntour's technically superior designs and then "won" with a bigger marketing budget - in much the same way that VHS triumphed over Betamax. Shimano pretty much pioneered the concept of the group set in everyday bikes, which eventually led to the demise of component specialists.
LeGrandFromage":nsxiedcq said:Shimano 'won' because of the indexing and the later ramped cassettes. Suntour made a big error in forgetting to renew their derailleur patents too which Shimano leaped upon and the rest is history.
I":nsxiedcq said:I do wish another (British?) Suntour would emerge in the market to shake things up a bit. Surely there is a space for design-led, well-engineered components? Hummingbird are perhaps the closest to what I'm thinking.