Fixie Bikes – Retro Cycling Vintage

A Brief History of Shimano – Part2

Posted September 7, 2009 by admin in Mtb, Road, Shimano | No comments yet

Shimano’s real advance came in beating its competitors in becoming the dominant force in the early mountainbike marketplace with the creation of dedicated off road thumb shifters and beefed up brakes that could withstand the extra demands that off roaders required. By the late 1980s Shimano were the standard on off the peg mtbs.

This led to further expansion of the product range with off road shoes being added in 1988 and rapidfire underbar shifters in 1989. In 1990 Shimano revolutionized off road pedals with their SPD range of quick release pedals.

In 1995 Shimano developed its hub gearing credentials with its Nexus range of four and seven speed internal hubs for cruiser and city style bicycles as well as a lockable hub gear that could prevent a bicycle being stolen and ridden away. This was released in Japan in 1997. In utility cycling Shimano excelled as Chinese demand for higher quality bikes increased. Previously the majority of bike in china had only one gear, but as the economic fortunes of China increased so did the number of gears on their bicycles with Shimano thought to have equipped around half of the 320 million bikes sold there.

It was not all plain sailing for Shimano during this era, the largest recall of bicycle parts ever was for their cranks which had been reported as breaking do to a design fault. 2.5 million were recalled which cost Shimano $15million, an expensive downside to their popularity on virtually every mountainbike sold during that period.

Success against their main rivals Campagnolo on the road began in 1988 with Andy Hamsten’s victory in the Giro d’Italia but was cemented in 1999 when they were ridden to their first ever Tour De France win when Lance Armstrong began his winning streak, further removing the dominance of European cycling brands from this traditional area of cycle sport. One that is continuing to this day.

Shimano Innovations:

Biopace chainrings – non circular chainrings

Nexus – Internal geared hubs with coaster brake

Dyna Drive – A pedal system with no pedal axle. Did not catch on.

Freehub body – Combined rear hub and freewheel body. Allowed Sprockets to be easily changed. Did not succeed originally but was re-introduced when more sprockets were being fitted to gearing systems.

Hyperglide – ramped sprockets to allow for easier upshifting

Hollowtech Cranks - pressure die cast cranks as tubes open at the pedal end and forged closed before being threaded for pedals.

ServoWave brakes – Cams fitted to brake levers to allow more cable to be pulled at the start of the braking process and less when pads are against the rims allowing for greater modulation

STI – Gearshifts and braking all done from the same lever. Riders no longer had to take their hands from the bars to change gears.

SLR – Sprung brake levers coupled with weaker springs on the brakes themselves giving the impression of easier operation.

Some classic Shimano Groupsets include

Dura Ace

Ultegra

600

600EX

AX

105

Sante

DeoreXT

Deore XTR

Deore LX

Deore DX

Deore

Hone

Saint

A Brief History of Shimano – Part 1

Posted September 4, 2009 by admin in Mtb, Road, Shimano | No comments yet

Today’s bicycle giant Shimano started life back in 1921 when Shozaburo Shimano founded Shimano Iron Works in Sakai City, an area known for its production of swords and gun barrels. Its first product was a single speed bicycle freewheel which was soon made in enough numbers to allow its export to China.

Shimano began production of other bicycle componentry in 1956 with production of a derailleurs shortly followed by an internal three speed hub whichbecame the default choice for the American market. With this success Shimano invested in cold forging to allow more products to be made with greater efficiencies.

After Shozaburo relinquished control of the business to his three sons Shimano made more brakes and other components although they never ventured into the complete bike market. Futher expansion led to Shimano building what was then  the largest bicycle parts plant ever in 1970 in Yamaguchi Prefecture and it was here, according to Design Week, that Shimano’s vision of modern bicycle parts began to be formed when they started recruiting engineers to create a unified look among component systems as well as elevating their performance.

Foreign expansion beckoned with a European office in Dusseldorf Germany, a manufacturing plant Singapore and a sales office in California in 1974 meaning  the company was well placed to benefit from the expanding bike market in the United States during the 1970s. During this period Shimano invested heavily in research and development that would benefit it for many years as well as branching out into precision fishing equipment.

Groupsets that many might remember today started to be released with AX racing grouppo launched in 1980 followed by its first off road dedicated groupset Deore XT, a name which still stands today. With the advent of indexed gears shimano’s fortunes increased further with sames exceeding 50 Billion Yen by the mid 80s.

Campagnolo – The Greatest of All Time?

Posted August 26, 2009 by admin in Campagnolo, Italian, Road | No comments yet

Campag Delta Brake

When we're talking about cycling components that riders have looked desiringly at over the years through the shop windows with lusful eyes there are plenty of candidates for the number one spot. The first Shimano index gearing, the first look clipless pedals, the first purpose built mtb groupset or any groupset from Campagnolo that had been perfectly engineered to provide the best possible synergy between rider and bike possible at the time.

Campagnolo started out in 1933 when Tullio Campagnolo came up with various ideas while competing as a racing cyclist.  These included quick release mechanisms for bicycle wheels, deraillieur gearing and a rod gear system for positioning a deraillieur. Although this can be contentious as many companies have later claimed to come up with the same design. Infact as a teenager in 198os east end of London an old and somewhat eccentric local character was adamant in conversation that he had infact invented deraillieur gearing. And he didn't have an Italian accent!

The company slowly expanded from making hand built hubs and deraillieurs from the back of Tullio's father's hardware store in Vicenza to making parallelogram front and rear deraillieurs.

During the 1950s Campagnolo started manufacturing high end parts for sports cars such as Ferrari and Maserati and built parts for space sattelites during the 1960s. To this day it is still possible to purchase high end Campagnolo wheels for Ferrari sports cars.

Major success came Campagnolo's way when Eddy Merckx used the refined version of the earlier produced Record deraillieur, the Nuovo Record to win the first four Tour de France victories.

Following on from this success Campagnolo introduced the Super Record groupsets for road and track use in 1973, one of the most sought after groupsets in history.

Shaken by Tullio's passing in 1983 Campagnolo continued to make advances in bike design with one of the most beautiful brakesets ever produced - the coveted Delta calipers.

In 1986 Campagnolo launched the C-Record groupset - A redesigned Record  to meet the challenges posed from Japan's Shimano components  and then 3 years later tried a short lived foray into the emerging MTb world with the Euclid off road groupset which failed to catch on.

The 1990s saw Japan's dominance increase over Campagnolo with Shimano stealing a march on integrated brake and gear shifting and Campagnolo trying to catch up.

The day's where Campagnolo were the default high end player in cycling were over but as retro cycling vintage collectors we are blessed that the Campagnolo parts from before this era were made to such high standards of workmanship and design that many examples still exist today in almost perfect condition.

If you are putting together a bike and want classic components that still work perfectly you know what brand to hunt for...

There is only one Campagnolo

Welcome To Retro Vintage Cycling

Posted August 25, 2009 by admin in Campagnolo, Fixie, Frames, Italian, Mtb, Road, Shimano, Suntour | No comments yet

Welcome to the world of Retro Vintage Cycling. Over the coming months and hopefully even years I'll be delving deep into the history of classic cycling equipment and manufacturers resurrecting memories from an earlier time when bikes and their components were made from metal rather than that plastic stuff they call carbon fibre and reliability was a given.

We'll be looking at classic early groupsets from Shimano such as the 600EX and Sante as well as their Suntour equivalents from the time. And no website on cycling would be complete without the leading marque of all - Campagnolo and their offerings such as Nuovo Record and the aesthitcally, if not quite functionally perfect Delta brakes.

Hopefully we will get around to looking at early off road offerings too with a trip down memory lane on the frames that made mountainbiking such as Kona Cinder Cones, Specialized Stumpjumbers and for our UK readers the classic Muddy Fox Courier.

We'll also take a look back at our first bikes such as PK Ripper BMXs, Raleigh Choppers and a whole host of Schwinns.

If you want to join in the fun please subscibe to our RSS feed or if you would like to share your memories then please get in touch.

All the Best

John