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-   -   Shimano is the Microsoft of the bicycle industry (https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/766752-shimano-microsoft-bicycle-industry.html)

rhm 09-09-11 09:11 AM

Shimano is the Microsoft of the bicycle industry
 
Shimano is the Microsoft of the bicycle industry. I know this because Tom told me, and on the Internet no less! This got me thinking....

Suntour was the WordPerfect.

SunRace is the Corel.

Campy is just too campy for me.

Comment?

RavingManiac 09-09-11 09:21 AM

Next is the Waste Management.

khatfull 09-09-11 09:23 AM

I don't see Shimano doing anything anti-competitive. They just embraced and perfected indexing at exactly the right time and left Suntour and Campy in the dust just long enough to become the defacto standard, as is Microsoft.

To lump SunTour in with WordPerfect....awww man, that's mean. :)

rhm 09-09-11 09:28 AM


Originally Posted by khatfull (Post 13200790)
To lump SunTour in with WordPerfect....awww man, that's mean. :)

I don't think so. WordPerfect was a really excellent program, and it went downhill when they tried to make it more like Windows. Suntour went downhill when they tried to imitate Shimano.

4Rings6Stars 09-09-11 09:32 AM

Campy = Mac?

More expensive, snob appeal, flashy and dare I say... Better than the rest?

I could go on with this too... Campy, like Mac, started it all (sort of) then lost it's way for a while and has recently emerged again with high quality expensive and beautiful products.

Beach Comber 09-09-11 09:34 AM

I'm not so sure. I have yet to see my bike pop up the message "The Rider Wants to Shift to 10th Gear. OK, Cancel, or Abort".

rhm 09-09-11 09:37 AM


Originally Posted by 4Rings6Stars (Post 13200837)
Campy = Mac?

More expensive, snob appeal, flashy and dare I say... Better than the rest?

I could go on with this too... Campy, like Mac, started it all (sort of) then lost it's way for a while and has recently emerged again with high quality expensive and beautiful products.

I considered that, but decided to leave it to someone else. I am sure Campy would like to be the Apple of the Industry, but have they pulled it off?

RJM 09-09-11 09:39 AM

I have probably broke as many shimano shifters as pc computers and the number sadly isn't close to zero. I have little faith for shimano shifters to last long with regular usage, kind of like what microsoft based computers are to me.

fender1 09-09-11 09:44 AM

Brooks is the Tandy, TRS-80 of saddles.....

lostarchitect 09-09-11 09:52 AM


Originally Posted by fender1 (Post 13200890)
Brooks is the Tandy, TRS-80 of saddles.....

No, Tandy was not very good quality and is now obselete. Brooks should be something that hasn't changed much but is still useful. Maybe a Texas Instruments calculator, or a slide rule.

Puget Pounder 09-09-11 09:55 AM

MicroShift = Open Office

-holiday76 09-09-11 09:56 AM

Campy is like an old metal ruler. They're both used to measure your penis size.

tomd7 09-09-11 10:03 AM

Shimano only = Microsoft if it causes you to crash more often than the others...

shadoman 09-09-11 10:05 AM


Originally Posted by tomd7 (Post 13200985)
Shimano only = Microsoft if it causes you to crash more often than the others...

Which would be TriColor...

John E 09-09-11 10:10 AM

The nice thing about bicycles is that the old school stuff never goes truly obsolete. I strongly prefer robust components which were built to last and which were widely interchangeable.

Sixty Fiver 09-09-11 10:10 AM


Originally Posted by -holiday76 (Post 13200951)
Campy is like an old metal ruler. They're both used to measure your penis size.

Someone needs to make that their signature.

gbiker 09-09-11 10:14 AM


Originally Posted by Beach Comber (Post 13200847)
I'm not so sure. I have yet to see my bike pop up the message "The Rider Wants to Shift to 10th Gear. OK, Cancel, or Abort".

I sure hope Microsoft isn't providing the software for the new electronic shifters. :O

cpsqlrwn 09-09-11 10:15 AM

Campy = Adobe/Macromedia (high end web design, flash, etc.).... cutting edge graphics with high end product that is very expensive but will dazzle with its aesthetic qualities

lotek 09-09-11 10:26 AM

Brooks = Slide Rule. lostarchitect got it right
(and how many of us remember how to use one?)

balindamood 09-09-11 10:29 AM


I don't see Shimano doing anything anti-competitive.
You obviously are not well schooled on Shimano's history.

That said, they have made very goog things for a very long time, and are responsible for bringing to market a number of things whice we all take for granted: indexed shifting, brifters, and free-hubs amoungst others (although others may have done similar things, Shimano they made them work). They have had some stinkers (AX to a certain degree, Positron, the air-system), but most companies bringing new things to market are going to have this (Apple is bucking that trend recently, but have not always been perfect)

I love all of the old Campy and French bits on my bicycles, but I run Shimano, and occasionally Suntour, on the bikes I race/commute on. It is kinda like old motorcycles. Everyone wants a Harley in the garage, but those who ride them every day, without fixing them every day, usually get a Honda, etc.

Oh, and SRAM=Linix

embankmentlb 09-09-11 10:36 AM

Go back 30 years. Campy was the thug on the block. Intrenched in tradition & no vision to innovate & yet the only true high end components in most circles. Along comes Shimano, innovators who by 1990 changed everything & everyone else had to reinvent or die.

The Golden Boy 09-09-11 10:38 AM


Originally Posted by lotek (Post 13201108)
Brooks = Slide Rule. lostarchitect got it right
(and how many of us remember how to use one?)

I think my 7th grade math teacher tried teaching us about slide rulers.

This is right about the time that the "pocket calculator" became widely available.


As a side note about the "pocket calculator..." I remember picking one out for my Dad at Christmas- it was a simple add, subtract, multiply, divide calculator- and I remember it being $107.

tugrul 09-09-11 10:40 AM

Déjà vu

Shimano has nothing on Microsoft. It's not like you get on a bike equipped with something else and completely forget how to ride it.

Robofunc 09-09-11 10:55 AM

Shimano's stuff isn't as clunky as Microsoft's. Also, the old stuff still works.

ultraman6970 09-09-11 11:15 AM

Campy a mac?? nah... mac is too cheese for campy :P


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