icemilkcoffee 

The black finish color is just a powder coating. It's not like Campy where half the components are carbon and therefore inherently black. They could powder coat it a metallic black with sparkles. Or metallic grey, or going against the grain - all white.

The old 25th anniv had a watch thrown in there. I'm sure Shimano could convince Wahoo or whoever, to make a color-matched computer head unit and include it in the box set.

MattoftheRocks

I, a C&V fan, would be into a 7400 reissue… if it had 74mm bosses so as to be a pretty but usable triple or a great wide/low double with a pant guard for gravelly folks. @$250 I think Velo Orange could move quite a few units.

I hate carbon and view it as being something gen Z and the following generations will lump in with Lead, Radium, and Asbestos, but a 50th Annv groupset released in this age really would’ve made sense to be clear coated ti-carbon reinforced resin for that Fast & Furious look to go on Aethos-like bikes. I think there’s probably a few hundred professionals with a cycling hobby who’s happily swing $900 for that subtly different crank.

smd4

In this case, the 50th anniversary window has opened and closed. Issuing replica or reissue components--now there's a possible avenue to please a lot of people! As mentioned, there is precedent: Lionel constantly re-issues versions of its classic trains from the 1950s, sometimes using original tooling. Schwinn released a stunning replica of their Black Phantom in 1995; Cinelli their Laser Nostra.

Shimano could easily produce replica/re-issues of its most iconic groups, while still offering electro-draulic stuff for those who want it.

It would be a win-win-win!

Koyote

Reissuing old bike components is a niche within a niche. It'd be more of a marketing thing than an actual moneymaker.

calamarichris

PeteHski

How did this anniversary group idea morph into a C&V remake? Were any of the previous anniversary groupsets vintage remakes? I got the impression they were the current generation of their time.

calamarichris

It wasn;t an idea; just an inquiry.

njkayaker

You have no basis for your guess. You don’t provide any explanation of why your guess would have any reasonable chance of happening.

Against all this nothing, Shimano being an “800 lb gorilla” is a vastly stronger argument.That doesn’t help you at all. This is why your guess is bad.

That “they still might be making a mistake” doesn’t work as an argument since making a special “anniversary edition” might be a mistake too.

You don’t even say WTF you mean by “missed opportunity”.

This is silly. The point you keep missing is that we don’t have to know any details to expect Shimano is likely not making a mistake.

You don’t do any “figuring” at all why they are making a mistake. You’ve only made an unsupported claim.


That what Shimano does is the “odds on favorite” seems rather obvious. But you are arguing the opposite is and providing no reason. That doesn’t make sense.

calamarichris

Kind of a relief to see you being nasty to everyone. When you were so awful to me, I thought it was personal, but it turns out you're just generally hostile in every direction. Fewf.

njkayaker

??? I was firm to you in the spam thread (now deleted) about your ridiculous comments about the mods being incompetent (and unethical) for not deleting that thread fast enough for you. Is that what you are talking about?

masi61

Perhaps someone with Shimano connections could contact their marketing department and inquire about this (late) Dura Ace 50th anniversary group that everyone would have enjoyed seeing? Maybe they had a few for dealers or trade shows but the photos somehow never leaked out?

To me, I can really appreciate all the high end subtlety of the more modern Dura Ace parts the way they will mix polished silver, matte black, gloss black, etc.. almost too sublime. And is it just me or did they make mid-series changes in chainring finishes, rear derailleur finishes, wheel hub finishes with hardly any press release at all? I’ve seen ones that have these sophisticated blends of smoked platinum and silver anodizing transitioning into black. But maybe these parts just look different in changing light conditions.

But if they would have done a 9100 series 50th anniversary Dura Ace group in a custom fitted display case, it would be super cool if they could have included in that case some high polish Dura Ace Centerlock disc hubs with matching 12mm through axles, a seatpost with 50th anniversary graphics and premium seat clamp for carbon saddle rails, bling detailing of the disc calipers, etc…

I like the last mechanical disc 9100 series (9120) which has now been discontinued and for my niche I’d put my vote in that the last Dura Ace cable actuated shifters be commemorated for this phantom 50th anniversary collector set. But I realize that it would be much more impressive of them to have the Di2 version in the bling display case maybe paired with the most fully detailed Garmin head unit integration yet…

PeteHski

Call it what you like. My question was why are some people in this thread talking about it being a C&V set when none of the previous anniversary sets were. Or were they? I’m assuming they were just blinged up, overpriced versions of the current group set of the day.

njkayaker

There wouldn’t be much point in this if it didn’t increase sales (even indirectly). Seems like shops would appreciate a better deal than expensively-produced display bling, which doesn’t seem like something customers would really care much about.

smd4

Like I said: You can't bling-up black. Since you can't do that, we reverted to the next-best-thing: Bringing back a group or two that you can bling up.

Clear?

Trakhak

Got your bling right here.



Not blingy, but murdered-out has its own charm.

smd4

Always wondered about the difficulty in lacing those wheels. Crazy.

smd4

Hydra-lectric, maybe?

PeteHski

Well clearly Shimano were not interested in putting out a retro-anniversary group set. Have they ever done that before?

njkayaker

People may be talking about it being a C&V set because they are having a hard time seeing a special edition of Di2 making much sense. What would that be? Gold plated? Even more black than it already is (which would be more money for something that doesn’t look much different)?

People here pining for an anniversary set probably wouldn’t buy it anyway. They’d probably complain about how ugly it was.

njkayaker

How far back? 9 speed?

They could bling a mechanical 12 speed group (if it’s still being produced). But I’m not sure if there would be many people actually interested in paying more for that to “worse” technology (not electronic shifting).

smd4

They weren't interested in putting out ANY anniversary group. And the time has already passed anyway. Hence the turn of the discussion into what could have been. We're in the realm of "what ifs" at this point.

smd4

I think that's right on the money.

njkayaker

Not many people see electronic components as something they could use for “a long time”. An anniversary electronic set might look a bit silly fairly quickly.

People don’t appear to go with Shimano due to “tradition” (which is what an anniversary set relates to).

mstateglfr 

This thread gets the Blue Ribbon for most spot on BF General Thread of the Week.
It has...
- wild speculation.
- criticism of that wild speculation, immediately followed by...speculation.
- complaints of black groupsets not being pretty.
- longing for older components.
- misreading posts and criticism based on having misread the posts.
- strong disconnect between how much something would cost for a company to do, and the value it would bring.

smd4

Both great points.