Originally Posted by
adlai
Any reason to go outside of Shimano except cost?
My answer would be 'absolutely' on the basis that I find the Shimano cranksets hideous. None of them are exactly pretty nowadays, sadly, but I think my SRAM Force crankset is much better looking than an Ultegra one. The prettiest one I own is a Campagnolo Chorus crankset dating from somewhere around 1998. Aesthetics are important to me; I'm happy with stuff that looks merely functional but when it descends into horrible it's got to go. Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder so I assume that whoever designed the current range of Shimano gear thought it looked good.