Noice

Parbs said:

You can take your Campy and BigS and sram it

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2006/features/sram_road_launch

C'mon Phantom when can I place my order?

Parbs

hey, those kodakteam bikes look alot like what a couple of the canadian guys were racing at KewCrits pre-Games. didnt think to look at what grouppo they had on tho...

In article <[email hidden]>,

Parbs said:

C'mon Phantom when can I place my order?

Probably not for some time; the suggestion is they'll be OEM-only for
well into next year.

--
Shane Stanley

Shane Stanley said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Parbs said:

C'mon Phantom when can I place my order?

Probably not for some time; the suggestion is they'll be OEM-only for
well into next year.

While they have some "new toy" [censored] value, it remains to be seen if
they're an improvement, or just sram trying to be different (ie: is
this a great new idea, or "we need something to be different, what can
we do that's different?" - ie : is the tail wagging the dog?). There's
some fundamental problems with their kit (eg: if you shift when you're
at the end of your gears, you go back the other way - not really ideal)
and we'll see how well they last. I'd hang off jumping on the
bandwaggon until they've been around for a few years to see how well
they work in the long run.

Bleve said:

While they have some "new toy" [censored] value, it remains to be seen if
they're an improvement, or just sram trying to be different (ie: is
this a great new idea, or "we need something to be different, what can
we do that's different?" - ie : is the tail wagging the dog?). There's
some fundamental problems with their kit (eg: if you shift when you're
at the end of your gears, you go back the other way - not really ideal)
and we'll see how well they last. I'd hang off jumping on the
bandwaggon until they've been around for a few years to see how well
they work in the long run.

kinda short-sighted not making their bits compatible with campy/shimaNO too!

Even Apple now will run windoze, silly that you cant mix-n-match...

Bleve said:

I'd hang off jumping on the
bandwaggon until they've been around for a few years to see how well
they work in the long run.

Unless you are willing to be part of the 'R&D' and have the bucks to throw around🙄

Jay "happy with what I got @ the mom' Woo

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bleve said:

just sram trying to be different (ie: is this a great new idea, or
"we need something to be different, what can we do that's different?"

It's quite possible the need to be different stems from patents.
Whatever, some more competition surely can't hurt.

--
Shane Stanley

flyingdutch said:

kinda short-sighted not making their bits compatible with campy/shimaNO
too!

It worked in the off road segment. The improvements they made demanded
incompatibility, but you see a lot of SRAM on mid-high end bikes these
days.

In fact, ISTR seeing some quite low end stuff on mass-market bikes (ie the
cheap LBS stuff, not Kmart [censored])

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
"Verbogeny is one of the pleasurettes of a creatific thinkerizer."
- Peter da Silva

Shane Stanley said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bleve said:

just sram trying to be different (ie: is this a great new idea, or
"we need something to be different, what can we do that's different?"

It's quite possible the need to be different stems from patents.
Whatever, some more competition surely can't hurt.

In many marketplaces, there's two players and a bunch of mostly
irrelevant crumb players - eg Windoze and Mac, Shimano & Campag (road)
Shimano & SRAM (MTB) and so on. It'll be interesting to see. I
haven't ridden the SRAM stuff yet, but I'm sure they'll start to arrive
in the not too distant and we'll get to have a play. SRAM & campag
fought it out for the second place in MTB and campag lost, it will be
interesting to see if SRAM can displace campag in the road market too.
They won't get rid of shimano easily.

Random Data said:

flyingdutch said:

kinda short-sighted not making their bits compatible with campy/shimaNO
too!

It worked in the off road segment. The improvements they made demanded
incompatibility, but you see a lot of SRAM on mid-high end bikes these
days.

The "improvement" consists of changing the cable throw distance per
indexed shift. I'd use the word "difference" rather than "improvement"
to describe it.

In aus.bicycle on Sun, 09 Apr 2006 16:38:34 +1000

Random Data said:

It worked in the off road segment. The improvements they made demanded
incompatibility, but you see a lot of SRAM on mid-high end bikes these
days.

In fact, ISTR seeing some quite low end stuff on mass-market bikes (ie the
cheap LBS stuff, not Kmart [censored])

The 'bent has low end SRAM - X7. I didn't like gripshifts when I tried
them before, but these ones seem to work well and I'm happy enough
with them. I have no idea how you tell good from bad, but these shift
well whether it's one or several, and seem crisp and easy to use.

Zebee

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bleve said:

In many marketplaces, there's two players and a bunch of mostly
irrelevant crumb players

At any time that's often true, but the leading players often change over
time. With so much of the profitable high-end bike business being driven
by the US market, SRAM might be well positioned over time. It's also
worth considering that the road bike OEM market verges closer to a
monopoly.

--
Shane Stanley

There was a time when Suntour was counted as a major player..

PiledHigher said:

There was a time when Suntour was counted as a major player..

Of course, and if the SRAM system is a lot better and/or a lot cheaper
(which remains to be seen) then the Shimano/Campag environment may well
change. Shimano displaced Suntour because STI was revolutionary. The
SRAM system appears to be a contrived attempt to clone STI, but
different enough to not just be a low budget clone. We'll see. Maybe
it'll flit around for a year or two, maybe it'll get entrenched and
displace Shimano. It's not a new idea (their new shifters) - it's just
a hack on STI.

Hardcore traditionalist Europhiles will stick with Campag (you [censored]
know who you are 🙂 ), just because it's got [censored] factor - they don't
care a stuff if it's better or worse, just that it's Campag and
therefore gains more mutual handjobs at Cafe [censored]. The whole "Italian
mystique" [censored]*. SRAM's only chance, I think, is to get into
Shimano's market share by flooding the OEM market. Sponsoring race
teams won't make much difference, Shimano was on the bikes that won the
last 7 Tours, the last Giro (that must have hurt the europhiles - a US
bike running a Japanese groupset under an Italian rider!) and many
recent Vuelta's and that hasn't stopped people buying Campag, and as we
know, professional race teams can usually replace stuff before it gets
a chance to wear out.

* a bored drone in a factory is a bored drone in a factory, no matter
what the colour of their skin or the flavour of their language.

On 2006-04-10, Bleve (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

* a bored drone in a factory is a bored drone in a factory, no matter
what the colour of their skin or the flavour of their language.

Mmmm, spicy italian.

--
TimC
If you tried to understand this, you'd be very confused, in the standard
way we talk about confusion. -- Some astronomer at a talk.

Bleve writes , it will be

Quoted message said:

interesting to see if SRAM can displace campag in the road market too.
They won't get rid of shimano easily.

I like the SRAM road chains a lot (relatively inexpensive, clean up nicely
and quiet).

But I'm not sure I can see a reason to go to one of their road group sets or
major parts thereof - I am not seeing why there would be a reason to
introduce incompatability from existing stuff that works really well -
except perhaps the Campy pricing differential in Oz which I think might just
be a local issue.

best, Andrew