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Old 11-11-07, 08:10 AM
  #55  
Walter
SLJ 6/8/65-5/2/07
 
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Taking a longer view what you see is a market reversal for Campy. Back in the Pleistocene (aka 1970s) when I started Campy was the Word. You could ride quality Asian components back then but the "real deal" was from Italy. Shimano had to wait for SunTour's patent on the slant parallelogram derailleur (the modern design) to expire. After that with the intro of Dur-Ace and 600 (now Ultegra) and the ability to out-produce their competition SunTour's days were numbered. The same production capacity allowed them to push Campy to the background as well.

You also have to give Shimano credit for innovation. Their "break" might have been SunTour's patent expiration but they made indexing work and they developed the "brifter." Armstrong gave them success in Europe and the rest is history.

Will it stay this way? Who knows? The yen/dollar/euro situation favors Shimano and they're much larger than their competitors. However, economic situations always change.

FWIW I prefer Ergo to STI even though back in the day I always rode SunTour or Shimano b/c I couldn't afford Campy....


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