si.shimano.com now useless
 

The technical manuals that used to be there are gone. Did they move somewhere else publicly-accessible?

I just checked the site, it seems redesigned but with a few extra clicks I could still get to the pdfs of the dealer manuals.

Oh, whew. It sure is hard to find stuff, though.

I am at a loss why companies do this kind of thing. A major electronic test equipment manufacturer recently took the links to their CAD drawings off of their product pages. I called their support line and they suggested a Google search! Seriously? It used to be a click away, now their support technicians have to waste their time. Drives me nuts.

it's been like that (the SI) for a long time now (must be 3 years or so), everything is still there, coming from the old tech dosc, things initially were a little harder to find, but once you get used to it, it's pretty easy for most items, + there is a lot more there (EV, DM, UM & SI) than there used to be on the tech docs, from memory, the tech docs only had the EV & UM, not the SI or DM.

For why the change, guessing the old tech docs was just that, old, and didn't provide all the info that the current system does.

I've found they only keep current stuff now. There are places with the vintage stuff out there. Celebrazio: Bicycling - Shimano Road Bike Parts Compatibility