Originally Posted by livedarklions

That's interesting. I suspect what may have happened is the drop ship method allowed them to get around Shimano's US pricing structures which, let's face it, are a huge determinant of the price of a complete bicycle. My suspicion, based entirely on my own speculation for whatever that's worth, is that Shimano was able to counter this "loophole" in some way, closing the gap in price between the similar spec bikes. Does that make sense?