 Hey, we'll admit there have been a few.
Sure, we enjoyed riding with our friction-shifting Nuovo
Record rear derailleur. Who wouldn't? It was simple, it
was stiff, and it got you in the gear you wanted with a
minimum of fuss. (Anyone remember the old days, when
Campy shifting involved a
"shift-too-far-then-shift-back-and-trim"
approach? Kind of like double-clutching an old,
non-synchro automobile stick-shift!)But that started to get old when those other eastern manufacturers (including Sun Tour, which made some really fine components) showed how much better their design was than Campy's aged hanging paralellogram (much like the Gran Sport derailleur in the pic at left). Their slanted parallelograms shifted better, and didn't need the shift-then-shift-back method. But so what? Campy finally got their act together, and did those other manufacturers one better. ShimaNO came out with index shifting, and so did Campy. And Campy's stuff came from the factory lovingly polished, not painted or slathered with epoxy coatings. ShimaNO came out with STI (or S-H-I-T, as we lovingly call it), and Campy countered with Ergopower, all in all a much better solution. So, what do we have? A tradition of excellence, a tad too much devotion to an old design a few years back, then a leap forward in technology and quality. Reason enough for us to repeat: "Friends Don't Let Friends Ride ShimaNO! |