Is there a market for reproduction parts?

[2manyoranges]

I think there’s something interesting in what you say regarding performance - Grafton made tweaks, Critical Racing made tweaks. The tweaks to Critical cants put the performance through the roof. Easily as good as Vs. I could see repro parts but with modern knowledge (of materials, design, geometry) applied to them, so that they are the next step on....I can see that applied to cants, U brakes, levers, mechs etc

 

[Tootyred]

Not really repro, but I have been wondering what quantity we'd have to order for Shimano to do another run of the M730-735 groupset. Perhaps with some minor improvements (the overly soft cups and cones of the hubs come to mind).

Hell, they can put "classic" logos on there for all I care, Like Panaracer did with the Smoke and Dart re-runs.

Fantastic idea, but.....

I think the problem here would be the problem of getting a company like shimano to now make a product in the old way they made them! Their "advances in technology " should read " saving us cash by making worse, less durable products, we can turn out as cheaply as possible without the help of humans".

Their advances over the last 30 years are a bit like the letter from natwest middlelloyds bank, telling me " we are closing the local branch for your convenience "!

The idea that they might be able to cast a m730 chainset for less than a gazillion quid is highly unlikely, if they could actually manage it in the first place now.

New chainsets are made of recycled kitkat wrappers bonded into layers with used chipfat and carry a similar level of quality and residual value to their constituent parts.

Its why the likes of grafton and pauls seem expensive. They actually make a good product, made by humans, who care, out of good materials, in a first world county, with some human rights..... Even if sometimes they are a little fragile. (The things....not the rights, that is).

 

[hookooekoo]

I too would like to see Shimano do a rerun, but the realist in me says it won't happen. For a start, all the old groupsets are based around rim brakes, and I don't think the rim brake era is ever coming back for off road bikes.

 

[2manyoranges]

Gosh we need some reproduction terminology - in the 1990s if something was ‘pants’, then it was usually ‘made out of cheese’.


I think there’s at least one Mint Sauce cartoon which makes a subtle joke and reference to ‘cheese’.

 

[Tootyred]

How things change. These days cheesy pants is normally a prerequisite for the application of live yogurt or a trip to the docs.

Also, is there an alternative to rim brakes? I must have missed that meeting.!

I would love to see a re run of products too, but its not just the brakes that have changed.......square taper anybody? 26" wheel....you remember those surely?

With the lack of supply from china, rising € to £ prices and tariffs, is this not the golden opportunity for uk engineering.....no....ALL uk business to get of its arse and start making stuff again.


Well it is.....but we won't.

 

[2manyoranges]

Tooty there was a golden moment during the ‘90s, when some of the most gnarly (yes I said it) and experienced machinists were being made redundant in the North and South Wales. But they’ve mostly gone now.....

...the timing was just not right to construct a dominant UK specialist cycling industry...the energy and capital (and mass cycling culture) may not have been there, but the callus-handed, highly-skilled engineering labour force was.....

 

[hookooekoo]

Mavic appear to have totally given up on off road rims for rim brakes.

https://shop.mavic.com/en-gb/mtb/rims.html

Just try clicking the 'BRAKE TYPE' drop down selection box on the link above.

 

[hookooekoo]

Give it a few more years, and we'll all be riding on rims that are 'made of cheese', and have been obtained by buying a reproduction Muddy Fox from Sports Direct for its 26" rims and tyres!

 

[doctor-bond]

Got lost with the detail, but a few simple bits I’d pay for spring to mind

moon units
funky monkeys (as someone else suggested)
brass ferrules
ti quill steerer bolts.

 

[Rampage]

Got lost with the detail, but a few simple bits I’d pay for spring to mind

moon units
funky monkeys (as someone else suggested)
brass ferrules
ti quill steerer bolts.

Brass Ferrules?