Originally Posted by
Charles Wahl
...I'm thankful that we still have Apple and Campagnolo and the other smaller companies around to leave a bit of choice. Shimano's path has been one of increasing (and unnecessary) complication, designs without replaceable parts, with a high obsolesence, and incompatibilities that cause dizziness and despond. I don't agree that this is where cycling should be; that's no fun for me, anyway.
Originally Posted by
TejanoTrackie
... ...Who invented the slant parallelogram derailleur, indexed shifting and clipless pedals; it wasn't Shimano. If companies like Suntour were still around today, I think we might have seen more significant advancements and inovations. Instead, we just see a continuing trend towards intellectual mediocrity, and an indifferent and uninformed consuming public that passively excepts it all.
I prefer to think of Shimano as the saviour of cycling. Many people are intimidated by derailleurs and Shimano's perfection of indexing opened the door to our great sport to many who would have sought other paths. In addition to indexing, Shimano has brought us many other notable improvements including freehubs, Hyperglide, STI and dual pivot brakes.
Both Campagnolo and SunTour suffered from the faults for which you malign Shimano. Campagnolo's first derailleur system was complex and difficult to operate. Anybody seen any brake system more complex that Delta? Syncro was complex and never performed well. How about SunTour's BEAST front derailleur!
SunTour's demise was, frankly, long overdue. The company had lost it's drive and was surviving primarily on the reputation of the slant parallelogram. Sure they had indexing and freehubs prior to Shimano but failed to develop and market them properly. Their MounTech derailleurs were failure prone and not serviceable. The initial AccuShift performed poorly and required different chains depending on the model range. Eventually, they stopped developing their own products, prefering to license from others, such as Browning, Pederson and WTB.
Campagnolo just abandoned the entry level and ATBs after dismal failures, and ever since has sat back, watched Shimano's introductions, saw what caught on and developed their own versions.
I'm not saying Shimano is perfect, far from it. But Campagnolo and SunTour suffered from the same imperfections. In the end, they both gave up, leaving the innovation to Shimano. While not all of Shimano's ideas may be earthshakers, some certainly are. Without Shimano the entry level would become the domain solely of the Taiwanese component manufacturers, most of which leave a lot to be desired, compared to Shimano. Shimano rightfully deserves the position of industry leader.