Originally Posted by
Maelochs
Basically, people are saying,. "Shimano is bad because they made business decisions based on better business, and did not design their entire product line to cater to My changing whims."
Precisely the opposite. My 'whims' haven't changed at all. I am using tried and true drivetrains that continuously date back to 1987. Shimano is the one changing on a whim.
Originally Posted by
Maelochs
So now Shimano is unifying ... now all drive train parts should be interchangeable, from 8 to 12 speed, MTB, road, whatever. Now we are getting the good stuff ... and people are still complaining and predicting disaster.
Yes, from a 'clean sheet' point of view, Shimano is doing the right thing. However Shimano and the bike world is not at all a clean sheet. As I said from the opening sentence- a lot of us have built up quite a stash of the old stuffs, and now Shimano is rewarding us faithful stalwarts by cutting us off and disowning us.
Originally Posted by
Maelochs
So long as I can get the parts I need so I can ride my bike ... I Win.
Well herein lies the problem. Once these drivetrains become orphans, parts will dry up. Do you see Sunrace re-creating Uniglide cassettes, Campy 8 speed cassettes or Ultra-6 freewheels? Nope and Nope- these things are permanently off the market and people still hanging onto these parts now have to pay a premium to find them on Ebay. Even something so simple as replacement rubber hoods for the Shimano 7-9 speed brifters are permanently out of stock. You can find tons of aftermarket hoods for the 10+ speed brifters in every color known to man. But none of these aftermarket companies bother to make them for the 7-9 speed non-R series brifters. So don't assume the second line companies will pick up the slack.