dura-ace 25th anniversary booklet 021/end
(p,52)
Greetings,
1998 marks the 25th anniversary of the Dura-Ace component group, a very happy occasion here at Shimano.
In bicycle racing, athletic performance is very closely linked to equipment performance.
Racing cyclists can’t reach their full potential unless their bicycles also provide the highest levels of quality, reliability, and performance.
This is the ultimate purpose of Dura-Ace, “performance without compromise”.
The success of Dura-Ace is not the result of Shimano’s efforts alone.
The contributions made by professional cyclists, team mechanics, and road cycling enthusiasts, as well as our distributors and retailers, have played a vital role in the development of Dura-Ace over the last 25 years.
It is to all these people that we express our gratitude.
When we first put Dura-Ace on the market, we knew that experience in competition, especially on the European road racing circuit, was essential if Dura-Ace was to develop into a viable road racing component group.
We also knew that Dura-Ace could only succeed if it answered the real needs of professional racing cyclists.
Therefore we made it our policy to steadily refine the group as our technology advanced and our racing experience increased.
The turning point for Dura-Ace came in 1984 with the introduction of the 7400 series with SIS, which was increasingly accepted by professional racing teams in Europe.
The experience we gained after 12 years of racing and refining the 7400 series in Europe was applied to the development of the 7700 series with 9-speed, which was introduced in 1996.
The 7700 components firmly established Dura-Ace as the group of choice for professional cyuclists.
This 25th anniversary has special meaning for us because it marks the evolution of Dura-Ace into a world-class component group that has set new standards for quality and performance.
The development of Dura-Ace will never stop.
As long as there are athletes challenging human limits, Dura-Ace will also continue to challenge the limits of performance.
Yoshizo Shimano
President, Shimano Inc.