Bicycle Mechanics - Shimano questions?

I'm a noob and I hear a lot names and model numbers thrown around with Shimano. Can someone explain their names and levels? I know deore is Midlevel and Ultegra is the best (i believe)

Also, When a Walmart bike has Shimano, does that mean its decent quality or do they also have a "junk" line for cheap bikes?

My trek 7500 has Deore lx group I'm assuming that means everything is mid-level decent parts.

Ok so Shimano does make a crap line for cheap box store bikes.

For road bikes the entry level bike shop bike will have 2200/2300 shimano parts. From there it goes Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, Dura Ace.

For mountain bikes I am not sure what the order their product lines are.

Hope that helps a little.

And by the way Deore parts are from Shimano's mountain bike parts.

The group levels and component details for current offerings can all be found at Shimano.com

Shimano Components - Ranking (highest quality to lowest)

Road:

Dura-ace
Ultegra
105
Tiagra
Sora

Mountain:

XTR
XT / Deore XT
STX
SLX / LX / Deore LX
Deore

Cheaper Mountain / Hybrid:

Alvio
Acera
Altus
Tourney

What line do the use for big box stores? Also I'm assuming weight and durability are the only major difference between the levels?


http://genbikes.com/road/Genesis_G500_Road_Bike.php

^ big box bike

The RD-2300 rear derailleur and FD-2300 front derailleur is the lower end components (lower than sora/tiagra).

According to the specs, it comes with ST-2300 brake lever/shifters, but in the Shimano catalog ST-2303 is the 3x8 speed version and ST-2300 is the 2x8 speed version. Maybe there is a mis-print in the specs.

how about the Shimano Nexave 301 FD my bike is a 2002 trek, discontinued?

Weight, durability, and also performance. For a road bike anything lower than Tiagra level components start to suffer in shift quality.

how about the Shimano Nexave 301 FD my bike is a 2002 trek, discontinued?

Other than the road bike groupset and the mountain bike groupset, Shimano also makes comfort components. This is mainly for recreational or City bikes. ALFINE, Nexus, Nexave and Capreo are the models in their catalog. Nexave have been discontinued but you could use other Shimano FD that fits your crank.

It's all about meeting price point , and automated production..
top tier is hand polished , the stuff that goes on $300 and less bikes
all automated.. even have a machine to put it in the box and the boxes in the carton.

It's all about meeting price point , and automated production..
top tier is hand polished , the stuff that goes on $300 and less bikes
all automated.. even have a machine to put it in the box and the boxes in the carton.

lol wow that's hard to believe, my bike was $750 new. It's ten years old and I'm not having any problems yet so that's good.

How do these comfort parts rank in quality? Like I said besides regular maintenance I haven't had any major failures. My only complaint is my shifter sometimes doesn't grab when down shifting. My LBS took it apart and lubed it up and it seems to work about 90% of the time now.

I had a Nexave crankset and RSX front derailer on my Diamondback Interval and they shifted just fine with RSX brifters. But I yanked 'em in favor of a 52/39 Sugino and Mirage FD just cuz I like doubles.