A great year for new products!

[zank]

As you can tell from my recent posts, I am pretty excited about all of the new parts. Campagnolo cranks and ergo, SRAM road kits, Shimano XTR, XT and LX, enough to make your head spin!

I love the discussion too. I crack up reading the banter from engineers and industrial designers after a 15 second glance at a spy picture of a new product. I'm an enginenerd too, but I save my judgement until after I ride it and see how it holds up. It's all academic prior to that.

My reactions so far?

The new Campagnolo crank looks cool. I can't wait to assemble a set and try them out.
The new SRAM road kits look amazing, and the stats are almost unreal. I can't wait to assemble a bike and try it out.
The new XTR looks...ahhh....well....not to my taste. But I am happy to see Rapidfire and top-normal derailleurs back in the line. The new disks and levers look really sweet. I can't wait to build it up and get it muddy!


It's a good time to be a tech geek.

[William]

And they'd all look good on a certain make of custom bike. Hmmm, who could that be...... ;)



William

[zank]

you're funny

[72gmc]

Zank, I have an early 90's Diamondback Axis hanging in the garage with XT-of-that-era on it (RapidFire, SLR brakes with the little window). Your comment inspired me to check out Shimano's slightly annoying Flash site. They're providing RapidFire-type shifting and road-lever-type shifting in the same mechanism? Seems like an overcomplication of a good thing.

[zank]

72gmc, they will be offering two different shift levers. The Dual Control, which I could never get used to, and the Rapid Fire Plus. The Dual Control is the one where the brake lever moves to make a shift. The extra padel you see on the Dual Control is to aid in making up-shifts as you are getting used to the system. You can take the padel off.

The new Rapid Fire Plus works in the traditional sense, except the trigger for up-shifts moves in both directions. In a sense, you can use it Rapid Fire Plus style with your thumb and pointer finger, or you can use it push-push style actuating both levers with your thumb. Kind of like the old-school Rapid Fire design, which was push-push and hated by thumb shift lovers everywhere.

[72gmc]

Ah. Thanks. My thumbs like the old school way.

[zank]

old-school like Rapid Fire Plus or super-old-school like Rapid Fire or super-duper-old-school like thumb shifters?

[Marburg]

I rebutt:


The new SRAM road kits look amazing, and the stats are almost unreal. I can't wait to assemble a bike and try it out.


But, why, why not make it more compatible. Why does it have to be the full kit or nothing?


The new XTR looks...ahhh....well....not to my taste. But I am happy to see Rapidfire and top-normal derailleurs back in the line. The new disks and levers look really sweet. I can't wait to build it up and get it muddy!


I just noticed the new XTR is going to have carbon-ti chainrings!?! Say what you will about it technically, it takes nads for a giant like Shimano to be the first to really bring something like that to market.

[zank]

The carbon ring is only the middle ring. It does look like a very nice design.

Regarding compatibility, here's my view. There are components that I wish were all compatible (chainrings, cassettes, and chains for example) and there are components that I wish would move to one system (post mounted disk calipers for example), but I am not sure why I would want to run a Shimano derailleur with a SRAM lever or a Campagnolo derailleur with a Shimano lever. Is there a performance advantage that I am overlooking?

[Marburg]

Regarding compatibility, here's my view. There are components that I wish were all compatible (chainrings, cassettes, and chains for example) and there are components that I wish would move to one system (post mounted disk calipers for example), but I am not sure why I would want to run a Shimano derailleur with a SRAM lever or a Campagnolo derailleur with a Shimano lever. Is there a performance advantage that I am overlooking?

I guess I've had my share of problems with mutt cross/touring setups. Road shifters with mountain derailleurs on touring bikes, moutain shifters with road derailleurs on race or single-ring rigs. Yeah, they're oddball situations, and frankly it keeps Shiftmate in business.

That said, SRAM has done just fine with their proprietary mountain shifter/derailleur setups.

[Geoff]

Thumb shifters ROCK!

I have been using the same pair of XT with the extra 8th gear for what seems like 15 years or there abouts. Only problem is that 8 speed cassetts are getting harder to find. I see that POaul has an adapter for DA barend shifters to work as thumb shifters. when the XT s go I will probably move on to this.

G

[bcm119]

...but I am not sure why I would want to run a Shimano derailleur with a SRAM lever or a Campagnolo derailleur with a Shimano lever. Is there a performance advantage that I am overlooking?

No performance advantage, but a convenience and cost advantage if you want to build up a bike with spare parts lying around. It would generally make things easier if everything was compatible. As it is I run Shimano shifters, campy crank and f derailleur, and sram chain and cassette and it works fine... but when my shifters crap out it would be nice to purchase the srams and not have to switch out my rear mech.

[72gmc]

old-school like Rapid Fire Plus or super-old-school like Rapid Fire or super-duper-old-school like thumb shifters?

Super old school, I guess ('91 bike? '92?). Push-push, big button small button. Can't stand that single lever on top of the bar that you push forward or pull back, loosening your grip on the bar with greater potential for hey I need a lower gear whoops there's a tree root hello tasty soil.