Boooo Shimano
 

Finally, someone wins one against Shimano. See the link below. Nice to see the small guy win one so that we continue to have some choice in the marketplace. Shimano has bought up almost all the road bike market as well as the MTB market. How many new bikes do you see at your LBS that have anything but Shimano. Almost none. They are becoming very exclusionary in their marketing practices. The Microsoft of bicycle parts.

http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/5247.0.html

I will be chaning my MTB over to SRAM once they have a year under their belts to work out any bugs.

And for the road, Campy Rules!!!

Did'nt SRAM have a trigger type shifter system a few years ago that failed? I agree with you and hope this one works so riders will have more choice. It would also be nice to see them take Shimano on in the road market.

Am not sure about trigger shifters from SRAM, but I do know that Shimano is doing everything they can to push everyone else out of the marketplace, including limiting the ability of e-tailers to sell their products on-line, especially if there is a discount. Same as with Chris King products. Tried and true Japanese marketing 101. Sell with as little margin as needed to survive until you dominate the market and then take over and price and sell as you wish.

Don't wait. The sram trigger shifters are awesome. At teh Interbike outdoor demo, where bikes get ridden hard and put up dusty, All of the various bikes I rode that had these shifters perfromed flawlessly. Mind you, these were not bikes from the SRAM booth, but bikes from various other companies.

The bugs are OUT and the shifters are IN.

SRAM has always made great products with the exception of their older trigers. The new ones are nice but I will have to stay with my GripShift.

Come on man!!! Suntour rules the road baby!! :p

All I can say is Woohoo!!!

I have no doubt they work. But what about next year and the year after that? I want to get some run-time on their efforts before I purchase. Maybe next summer after they have withstood the test of a full season. Word should be out on them by then.

As much as I revile Shimano's marketing strategies I generally can't fault their quality.

While I appreciate the situation, and understand your concern, your gripe is not with Shimano; it's with big business. Simply put, the number one priority of business is to maximize profit for the shareholder – all else is in a distant tie for second place. If SRAM were in the position of Shimano, they would do the exact same thing.

Guys, Shimano is not the anti-Christ, they act as all big businesses in their position do. The gripe is legitimate, but you are aiming your gun @ the wrong party.

Unfortunately that is true. We just have to hope SRAM can get a good sized market (keep) in order to stick around. competition is good for us but bad for shimano.

bac - who do we aim our guys at, then?

I've been using the sram x series shifters for about 6 months now, and all I can say are good things about them, and I have beat the daylights out of them.

Hmmmmm, who dictates policy regarding business?

Simply put, when a business or industry is big enough to generate enough lobbying (aka bribing) - that business or industry does not have to play by the same rules as other organizations. Should we blame the people that are taking the money, and selectively applying the rules?

That would be my call. :) What is your call**********?

I really like my SRAM gripshift they work well and I have no complaints. Honestly they are doing what the market will let them do, and doing what any big business would do to make the most money possible. If you have stock in a company would you want to hear them state that they are doing business to help other guys make more money then them?

In the end it is up to the consumer, if you don't like their business practices or how they operate don't buy their stuff and they will change. They are the primary source for deraileurs and shifters at this time, but you still have LOTS of options for hubs.. cranksets.. brakes.. wheels.. etc..

All should be dictated by the marketplace, in a perfect world. But, with the current protectors of all things business, it will be some time before we see anything approaching that. Will continue until we are drained of money, I guess. In the meantime, I will do what I can to support the little guy.

i know a few people who race semi-pro downhill and they all run sram. they say it's more reliable, cheaper and far easier to fix if anything breaks since it doesn't take proprietary parts. the chain is the first thing that comes to mind.

Off topic prediction.

Later this year, perhaps jsut before Interbike, Sram announces their purchase of Avid.

Just a guess.

Were I Mr. Sram, that would be near the top of my wish list.

a

Thanks for the post, i have begun going out of my way to find alternatives to ****mano already.

Didn't interbike already happen?

yep just checked. Oct 16th :)

Durrrrhhh.

I meant next year.


I guess the year just ends for me when I go to interbike!

A

I will do likewise once I start breaking my new (last-gen non rapidrise) XT stuff.

I already ride SRAM and have for quite a long time. I've been very impressed by their quality. I use their brake levers (lighter than XTR and like 1/3 of the cost), shifters, rear derailler, cassette. If they'd make a full gruppo of high end stuff, I'd be riding a completely SRAM bike. For the most part their stuff is top notch. Good quality, and reasonably priced. Unfortunately SRAM isn't making any disc hubs either, because my Shimano XT rear hub crapped out on me after less than 6 months of use. The axle was bent, and all the pawls inside had been broken out. I weigh 130 pounds and ride cross country, so I have no idea how I broke the hub. I've only recently had problems with Shimano. I hate their new 9 speed stuff, but I'll have to admit that their stuff back in the day was top notch. But now I just think for the price you can get better stuff. And stuff from a company that's willing to make compromises with the consumers about what they want. We'll see how Shimano fares after they completely move to the integrated shifting/braking.

Is everything going rapid rise?

you have a fiscal year of interbike...

My year is normal ;)

Sram shifters/derailleurs and Avid brakes will be on all my bikes soon. Mavic hubs and wheels, race face will be my new crankset of choice, Easton seatposts and handlebars, but for the road bike I cannot pay the prices of Campy so I guess I am stuck.

You won't regret any of those choices, Sam. All of those brands are top notch.