Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
.... I have more important things to do with my money then to buy expensive Italian bikes. Besides I have 4 vintage Japanese bikes and 2 American vintage bikes all from the 80's, I good with those. ...
This crap about Suntour never winning a TDF and only Campy did in the 80's, left out one important fact...neither did Shimano until 1999!!! Why? Because European racers and a lot of American racers snubbed Japanese equipment. I use to race, not pro just cat 3, in the early to mid 80s, and I raced on Japanese stuff (I was in the minority of Japanese users), and I got the backlash from the elitists that raced on nothing but Italian bikes and components. It was all about the snob appeal which is why Suntour AND Shimano didn't win and were rarely found being used in the TDF until the 90's but by then Suntour was gone. ...
Shimano did have stage victories starting as early as 1973 in TDF's which upsetted many a European, but the TDF win didn't come until 1999 due to the shear number of teams using Shimano vs a very limited number of teams using the stuff back the 70's. Raleigh had race teams in the TDF using Suntour stuff by the way, and if memory serves me I think Schwinn had a some Suntour stuff in TDF races.
But all this component group brand winning a race is nonsense, it isn't the component who wins, it's the rider who makes the win.
Italian bike prejudice. So it goes.
There was an interesting evolution of equipment suppliers to the pro ranks over time.
In the 60's for the eara I was initially aware, pro bikes often had a National bias as to equipment derived by the Teams "nationality" based often on sponsorship. An interesting example would be Simpson on a Masi painted as a Peugeot, using a French ensemble (save for the hubs, which were seen as Campagnolo from time to time) The rider was often able to supply the frame, but not the decoration. Merckx was unique almost at that time, (Coppi or Anquetil might have also been able to ride bikes with their name on them as part of their agreements earlier near the end of their careers) Merckx was able to ride bikes of his own name, before there was a Merckx factory, pretty good planning.
Every once in a while an equipment revolution would loosen up the mfgs. who supplied, Look pedals had a stranglehold on the peloton for a time, little deference to the parts suppliers.
Later with more money in the sport, the suppliers had to buy a place often on a team.
It is an interesting dynamic, not all based on utility, nor money or nationality.