53-11 alltheway

I've been looking around for evidence of the New SRAM Road group.....And I have found several articles that state that SRAM will have a complete Road Group in a couple of years.

Key purchases include Avid and Truvative (giving them crankset and BB technology). We already know they know how to make shifters and derailleurs on the mtn bike side of things.

In any event a third complete component manufacturer will definitely bring us better products at lower prices in the future.

Anybody have any more insider info on the new SRAM brifters. Hopefully they will be serviceable like Campy's.....

Are SRAM mtn shifters serviceable .....at least the high end XO series?

phantomcow2

I have a full SRAM drivetrain for my mtb. Its a fine piece of machinery, for 80 dollars i got the x.7 derailleur plus shifters! I believe the shifters are servicable, i have not taken it apart more than removing the cover to replace a cable. BUt i believe they are servicable from what i saw, its all held together by hex bolts. The thing i think is odd with XO series is that its only available in the very polarized opinioned gripshifters. I cant stand gripshifters.

53-11 alltheway

I'm glad to hear they are serviceable. Shimano likes the "throw -away" approach to their shifters ......that's makes us always want to upgrade.

They also like to obsolete things like 9s 12-27 cassettes to get people to upgrade to ultegra 10.

Shimano sucks.

LordOpie

SRAM's buying up the little guys? If this is good for roadies, then it's bad for mtb'ers.

LordOpie

uhh, where did you hear for a *fact* that 9sp 12-27 is gone?

Shimano isn't Wal-Mart people, if Campy became the big dog some day, I bet a lot of you would hate Campy.

53-11 alltheway

They are becoming a true mega corporation......

In fact one of there main motivations to enter the road market is due to the steady increase in road bike sales the last 4 years in a row.....You think Lance has something to do with this?

phantomcow2

yea i try to shy from shimano for those reasons. FOr a while they were the only option so thats sorta slipped by now. I don't like their marketing ways, how well for mtb stuff XT and XTR is miles away of a price difference but performance i doubt differs. Or like those dual control things to try to monopolize the industry, and its all designed so that instead of fixing you replace. Yuck

53-11 alltheway

Not for certain....but a New 12-27 9s cassette recently went for $83 on ebay. That's more than a ultrgra 10s 12-27!

If Shimano is now calling ultegra 10s 6600.....why would they continue the 6500 line which includes the 12-27 9s 6500 cassette. It's obsolete in Shimano's mind. Besides it's in their best financial interest to not support the 6500 line....how else are they going to sell 6600 bikes.

Discontinuing cassettes is the easist way to pressure people. You can't get 12-27 in 105. Though you can still make custom cassettes (though they won't have the weight saving spider).

baxtefer

If Shimano wanted everyone to upgrade to 10-speed, why is it that I can still go out and buy Ultegra-level 7 and 8-speed cassettes? I can't remember seeing 7 and 8-speed Campy recently though. (Although I admit I haven't been looking, since I don't use it)
12-27 also comes in Dura-Ace 9-speed. Plus, 12-27 cassettes are still listed on several stores' websites, including nashbar, excelsports and cambriabike. whoever paid $83 for one is a dumbass.

I'm interested in seeing a SRAM road group. If it's anything like their mountain stuff, I expect it will be functional and affordable. But I don't know if they'd be able to make a significant dent in the high-end marketshare. I can see them replacing Sora and Xenon on low end bikes though. They won't be the first component manufacturer to try to market their own STI/Ergo systems. are you familiar with Modolo Morphos?





Hey, 53. congrats on starting a semi-non-redundant thread.

Fox Farm

Smaller companies like TruVativ benefit from a merger with SRAM and vice versa. Tru Vativ has the reputation for excellent product development and the ability to get a product from concept to market place quickly. This should only improve. As for SRAMs road group, I don't know. I have wondered why Campy never got back into the mountain bike market after their first failed attempt. There are many mountain bike riders in Europe.

Steelrider

If you spend any time looking at eBay, you'll laugh at the number of times used items go for almost as much/more than the item new-in-box. This tells you nothing. It's the result of all the moronic and uninformed-instant-gratification-sheep out there. Even with all of the easy to find information (and misinformation) out there, these people rarely do even the easiest and simplest research and act on impulse only. They feel good about submitting "the winning bid" so they can say, "I WON!".


I'm no Shimano supporter (although I'll confess to having DA and Ultegra on bikes), but it's too easy to flame major corporations who did not get that big by being stupid. Sure, there are product lifecycles and planned obsolescence, but unless you read directly somewhere issued by a reliable source or Shimano, I frankly doubt that they're giving up making 12/27's. You can get a cassette/chain combo for about $57 through Performance. Yeah, they say that they're not available for another week or so, but where's the fire? Better consumer companies than Shimano incorrectly forecast demand all the time - witness something like the Nintendo DS. This Christmas, they could have sold millions more than they did for more than their retail asking price if they would have produced enough. Sure, a lot of that demand is still there, but I'll guarantee that there isn't as much as there was with pressure of having it in time for Christmas. No more sense of "urgency". Timing is everything...and there just isn't enough smoke here to suggest that there's a fire.

OneTinSloth

have you tried looking for 7 and 8 speed campy cassettes? they're out there, and pretty readily available...so available, in fact, that QBP recently sent us a record 8 speed cassette instead of a box of clif bars.

modolo morphos were a great idea, but they didn't have a full group to support them, and they're really not adequate enough to shift shimano or campy effectively. they were also completely ugly.

phantomcow2

[QUOTE=Steelrider]If you spend any time looking at eBay, you'll laugh at the number of times used items go for almost as much/more than the item new-in-box. This tells you nothing. It's the result of all the moronic and uninformed-instant-gratification-sheep out there. Even with all of the easy to find information (and misinformation) out there, these people rarely do even the easiest and simplest research and act on impulse only. They feel good about submitting "the winning bid" so they can say, "I WON!".


So true, i was bidding on a crankset and on jenson it was on sale for 110 so i figure what the hell i will put in 110 as my max bid. and these two guys go and outbid me to 130

53-11 alltheway

[QUOTE=phantomcow2]Oh. I agree....I think Ebay is a great place to buy hard to find things, but your average everyday ultegra components get way overbid.

Nice place to sell though.

baxtefer

well I did admit that I didn't look very hard. But the places I usually shop don't have them listed anywhere in their inventory.
But yeah, if 7 and 8-speed stuff is still available, I don't see 9-speed going the way of the dodo anytime soon.

OneTinSloth

well, shimano is a bit different than campy in terms of their support of older tech. in that, they still make 5 and 6 speed freewheels, and 7 speed cassettes, but they're really, really crappy quality. i think they'll probably bump sora up to 9 speed for 2006, and then 105 up to 10 the following year ('07).

53-11 alltheway

I was wondering when sora would go 9 speed?

But what about 11 speed? When and how will they pull that off. Campy might be able to get away with it by doing what shimano did with it's 10 speed......that is go with 1.60 thick cogs. Currently Campy 10s still uses thick 1.8ish cogs.

For all you that say they will stop at 10 speed......I'm laughing!

baxtefer

i say we'll see electronic shifting (again) before we see 11 speed cogs.

khuon

But we are seeing it again. There are several electronic shifting systems already being produced even if you don't consider the Campy re-entry into the technology. As for 11-speed cogs, I'm tending to think that gearbox drivetrains will start becoming more a real option soon and maybe even some sort of reliable CVT implementation.