The Golden Boy 

I love a lot of Shimano stuff.

I love the BR-MC70 Cantilever brakes- the orignal XT brakes. Deore XT from M730-M735, MT-60/62. IMO- the 732-735 are among the best looking RDs evAr. Tricolor 6400 stuff. The 6206 and M730 cranks. The dual slotted levers- BL6207, 6208, Z306. The Z206 FD- That was a nice looking, great functioning FD, doubles, triples.

And don't forget the freewheel/cassette teeth and chains and housing...

Out of "new-er" stuff- I like the look of some of the Ultegra 6600 DA7700 components.

There's lots of stuff that I'm forgetting- They made and make a ton of fantastic equipment.

IMO- I like the Suntour stuff a lot better for most of it. As much as I love the M735 RD- the XC Pro and even XC Comp look nicer and feel better. The SunTour RD-SB00-SS8 Superbe Pro RD is one of the prettiest pieces of equipment ever made- as are the XC Pro cantilever brakes.

I'm sure some of that is driven by the whole "Suntour is no longer around" thing- but I objectively think that a lot of the Suntour components are nicer looking and better performing than their contemporaries.

I really don't like Arabesque stuff. As much as it's pretty- it just doesn't function well. On my 78 Trek frame- I replaced most of the Arabesque parts with Suntour Cyclone, Superbe, Sprint and Stronglight cranks- and the bike just feels and performs SO much better.
@ThermionicScott that "Cosby Show" descriptor totally works!

The Golden Boy 

7400 is the Dura Ace group from 1985-1993. It's that model's catalog number, kind of like a model year sort of thing. Sort of like how TriColor is 6400. TriColor was never an official name. Where 600 could refer to anything from the first 600 group to Ultegra, and Ultegra can refer to anything from the last 600 group to present- the 6200, 6400, 6600... etc names describe which group of parts- same with DA7400 stuff.

1987

Now I am even more confused. Thanks Shimano

Michael Angelo 

I like the fact that most of their products are not rebuilable.

The Golden Boy 

It totally makes sense.

It's the catalog number.

Dura Ace AX is Dura Ace 7300. It's different than Dura Ace 7200 and 7400.

When you say DA AX you know what that means.

Dura Ace AX brakes are BR7300.

BR for brakes, 7300 for that particular Dura Ace group.

1987

I feel a little bit better now. But still what is 7300 etc, they can't refer to the year.

Beic

Their fishing gear, I'll close the door after me.

The Golden Boy 

It's the series.

VeloBase.com - View Brand

1987

Yes of course, I just don't see the logic = bad name.

jimmuller 

Shimano invented a bunch of names like Ultegrow, Exema, Vinagra, DuraAx. Except when they used numbers instead because they got tired of trying to make up names. But they didn't invent the numbers, they just found them lying around and put them to good use. Well, use anyway. But the good thing about numbers is you never run out of them.

The Golden Boy 

Most everything has a catalog number, for the manufacturer, for ordering, for the stockers. Usually for the consumer they have a fancy name like Dura Ace.

As far as the company to the customer is concerned, it's "Dura Ace." They're not making different series concurrently. There's no need to define or name the series because it's the only one available new from Shimano. It's just Dura Ace.

Whit51 

I like 600 Tricolor and RSX STI

CroMo Mike 

I like the old Shimano Lark RD's and the SIS (indexed) derivative of it. Junk to look at but they were $8 brand new and they work forever if you keep them clean.

I like their chains.

But none of my current road bikes have anything Shimano except the chains.

BradH

Tiagra 4500 & 4600 hubs. I have built three sets of wheels using these in the last few months. Impressive quality for not much cash. I do however repack and adjust the bearings, something I'd do to any hub now that I've opened up a bunch of new and old ones.

I like how I can take a 1988 Deore MT60 derailleur, or any SIS rear derailleur, and connect it to a new ten speed road shifter and it works flawlessly. The interchangeability between road and mountain groups and old & new is nice.

SL7700 and SL7900 DT shifters. I've used one set of each recently. Expensive but nice.

DiegoFrogs

Modern internally geared hubs.
Modern dynamo hubs.
Cassette hubs.
The ability to mix road and mountain stuff from the recent era to make touring-type and climbing bikes.

rhm

The thing I like best about Shimano is, oddly, exactly the same thing as I loath the most about them. Namely, that they never give up on improving stuff.

They have never made a really good internally geared hub, but they kept trying even when the rest of the industry had pretty much given up on internally geared hubs; and Shimano hubs keep getting better. I still don't like them, but their influence is really good. The same goes for their dynamo hubs; better in some ways than the original Sturmey Archer ones, but some of the improvements are not improvements at all. I'm really glad they make them, though.

Shimano's improvements to the shape of freewheel/cassette teeth, and to chain plates, have been widely copied and for good reason. Their centeron derailleur jockey is also a brilliant idea.

I think they made significant improvements to the shape of freewheel/cassette teeth and the shape of chain plates. Also, the centeron derailleur jockey is a really good idea

cbresciani

I really like their MTB XT and XTR stuff. I still have it on my 97 Giant MTB. The 7700 Dura Ace groupset is pretty nice, I had it on my C40 when I first got it. The brakes worked great, smooth shifting an all but I didn't like it enough to keep it on my bike.

Dfrost 

Their better grades of cassette hubs. I've converted a bunch of used Deore XT hubs (those with the skinny centers) from 7 to 8-spd (which is the same as 9 or 10) by swapping freehub bodies. The bearing labyrinth seals on their higher quality hubs seem to work very well. Everyone of them is a sweet rolling hub now.

Their individual cog Hyperglide cassettes. These days I build whatever 8-speed cassette I want from loose cogs that I've collected by disassembling decent used 8 or 7-spd versions, so I've got a drawer full of 'em now. They just about all shift really nicely, regardless of the helper teeth orientation.

I combined those with Wheels Mfg conversion spacers for my wife's Campagnolo 8-spd Chorus rear wheel when we couldn't get replacement Campy cogs any more. Her Ultegra hub with re-spaced Shimano cogs shifts works fabulously well, no problem getting replacement cogs, and the available range of cogs goes much larger. The plated silver ones seem to hold up really well.

Their mid-range (RX-100 through Ultegra) dual pivot brakes. Those work especially nicely with Campagnolo Ergopower levers - now there are two brake quick releases so that the brakes open wide enough clear my wider tires. BTW, two springs have broken on my wife's Chorus DP brakes over the years. Never had one or anything else fail on any of my Shimano DP brakes.

vjp

I have been mainly "all Campagnolo all the time" (one "Tout Mavic SSC bike) but I have a 6 speed Dura Ace 7400 Group and it is amazing and I won't part with it soon.

Rabid Koala

My Waterford Paramount has 600 tricolor, I love it. I have two other newer bikes that have Dura Ace 7700 and one with Ultegra 6500 9 speed, nothing to complain about there either.

Jeff Wills

First series XTR (-900 stuff). Really good design and exceptional finish, made before they switched to 9-speed everything and V-brakes. Yummy.

djkashuba 

I love that Campagnolo 10 plays so well with Shimano 8. I am using Veloce/Centaur with XT and 600. Slick.

-D

kunsunoke 

This, plus their bar-end shifters up to the latest iteration (e.g. the one that eliminated friction mode - bastards).

The Ultegra 6700 group isn't bad - I have it on the Bianchi gravel pig right now, and it continues to shift and be hammered.

IMO Shimano's best contribution to humanity was ramped cogs on their cassettes and freewheels. They created index shifting that actually worked.

1987

+1