Originally Posted by
Jeff Wills
Yes to all the above. Also, remember in the late '70's-early '80's, Shimano was trying to improve its market share by making its parts "different". The patented "straddle arm" was part of that strategy. I saw a couple in my bike shop days, but they were a rarity.
In that time, Dia-Compe, Sugino, and SunTour were much more common than Shimano and all of them trailed corresponding European manufactures: Weinmann, Huret, etc. The "different" parts philosophy culminated with the "aero" AX parts groups...
Yes, Shimano was trying to increase market share with new features but these features were not just for the sake of being different. Sometimes they missed the mark for market appeal, but the changes were always grounded in improvements to reliability, performance, safety and convenience.
Convenience is often overlooked, especially when it relates to LBS assembly but this was a major consideration for shops. Bicycles which were quicker to assemble were more popular with shop owners, as they retained a higher share of the profit margin and allowed mechanics to spend more time on repairs, where the margins were higher. Any bicycle incorporating a feature that facilitated assembly was more likely to be ordered by a shop, provided it offered similar equivalent performance to the competition and did not result in a significant price increase. This encouraged the bicycle manufacturer to spec these components, which increased the component manufacturer`s market share.