Originally Posted by
HD3andMe
Sorry, not interested.
However, we can keep discussing how modern mountain and road shift and brake levers are compatible with the drivetrain and brake components, if you're still interested in learning more about that.
The same goes for SRAM vs. Shimano market share and how one guy's opinion based on his alleged co-op experience is at odds with the true numbers.
Just let me know.
People are constantly questioning my co-op experience. How many bikes have you worked on in the last 10 years? I do one 7 hour shift per week and have for nearly every week since about 2010. My shift is the Saturday shift which is the busiest and for the entire 7 hours, all 6 stands in the work shop are full. We limit the amount of time that people can work on their bikes to 90 minutes. That’s about 30 bikes per day or, roughly, 1500 bikes per year. I have worked on 15,000 bikes in 10 years. You won’t find paid shop mechanic who has worked on that many bikes in a similar period. They aren’t working on 6 bikes at once.
Now granted, most of the bikes we see are older bikes but not
all of them are. We see a fair number of newer bikes as well. The vast majority of new bikes are Shimano equipped. Maybe that will change as SRAM grows but that’s the future. I’m talking about past equipment.
I also don’t live in a vacuum. I know the market and check out new bikes on a very regular basis. SRAM is making inroads into Shimano’s market share (50% of the total market) on the high end but Shimano still has most of the market. SRAM has about 35% of the market. I don’t say this with glee. I have bikes with both Shimano and SRAM. I have bikes that are completely Shimano free (it wasn’t that easy to do when I did it). I’d like to see SRAM gain more of the market just to have some innovation. Shimano is kind of stodgy and don’t generally make components cross compatible.