Originally Posted by
T-Mar
My recollection is the very late 1980s move to painted components started upscale and trickled down. Shimano Santé broke the ice with its mini-group in 1987. Nestled in between 600 and Dura-Ace, pearl white with grey was chosen for the finish. It was designed for the yuppie market and aesthetics was the high priority. The colour combination was considered the most favourable match for the intended market and the Miami Vice influenced, pastel, frame colours that were popular at the time. Cost was a secondary benefit. The painted finish was trickled down to 600 Ultegra and other lower groups for the 1988 model year, in various shades of silver, grey and black.
Regarding Santé, I was slightly confused as to what the point of it was when it originally came out. I didn't care for the look then, and am still not really a fan, but have started to appreciate it in a kitschy sort of way. Miami Vice indeed. I hadn't thought of that association but it makes perfect sense. I recall it was hard to sell. We had a group sitting in a shop where I worked for a long time. I suppose popularity must have varied by region. I think we had to eventually build up a bike with it to sell it.
After a bit of puzzling, I concluded that it was likely that the point of the Santé group was to be a test case for painting instead of polishing. Shimano really needed to introduce it at the high end to avoid the cheap stigma that would have existed if they had introduced it at the low end. Note that painted finish was migrated down the line very quickly. Also, for the MTB component groups, they stuck to silver clear anodized for the higher end Deore, while introducing paint for the mid to low end.