Does anyone else hate Shi**no as much as I do?

[mickle]

Only my hack bike has a Shi**no component, a dynamo hub front wheel I bought second hand. I hate that they dominate the industry and some of their business practices over the years have been very dodgy.

 

[sevenfourate]

Why dodgy business practices ? Do you think Coke, Nike, Cadbury’s etc haven’t all done things immoral / slightly suspect to keep them atop the pile. Do you actively shun all of those too….

 

[Brandane]

I ❤️ SHIMANO!
Shimano group sets on all 6 bikes, and have used nothing else for years.
Many 10's of thousands of miles, and never a problem* (awaits catastrophic failure of a Shimano component today).

*Or at least, not of Shimano's doing. The occasional bit of ham fisted maintenance by yours truly, possibly.

 

[Drago]

Shimano haven't done anything any one of their rivals wouldn't have done given the chance.

The difference is that in order to have that chance you need some cash behind you, and that means making a decent product that functions well, sold at a price that makes a profit while shifting units.

That Campag have never been able to dominate, or even massage the market in their own favour, is because they've never met that objective.

Rather than have a downer on Shimano for being successful, I prefer to frown upon Campag. Their management have had the same opportunities over the years but at each and every turn have fumbled the ball, and that's not Shimanos problem. Shimano CEO puts his trousers on one leg at a time just the same as Campag's boss does.

 

[PaulSB]

I can't see why anyone would hate a manufacturer? Maybe not buy their products but hate? No. We try not to buy Nestle products, which is easier than one might imagine until one hits the confectionery world!!

Can I ask why some of you chains don't appear to be lubed?

 

[cyberknight]

Much as i love the idea of campag I only had one bike that came with it as stock and i changed to shimano to make it easier to maintain as 75% of my fleet then has interchangeable parts in case of a breakdown . I suppose it didnt help that at the time the bike had a massive stem on it making it to long so as to make it awkward to ride .

 

[figbat]

You also appear to despise SRAM.

 

[chriswoody]

Whilst I don't actively hate the company, I certainly don't rate them in the way many do. I run mostly SRAM stuff on my bikes, with a smattering of Hope, Race Face etc. SRAM have pioneered a lot of really good off-road tech in the last years and Shimano have been left in their wake trying to play catch-up. SRAM can be a little annoying in the fact that, whilst their stuff is much more maintainable along, with some of the best techdocs in the world, spares parts are not very forthcoming from them. In this day and age of right to repair though, I'd much rather have SRAM for sustainability.

The only Shimano component I have is a CB110 single speed coaster brake hub on my folding bike. I do really rate that hub it's a lovely little thing, easy to maintain, cheap and reliable, however try finding any official info from Shimano on it, they seem to deny its existence which is a shame.

 

[bonzobanana]

Lets face it Campagnolo are pretty awful components for the money they charge, garbage really, its all about history and heritage and not much else. I've seen recent Campaq components reviewed and they didn't perform as well as cheaper Shimano components. Some of them look awful too. There is no surprise they are a minority player in the market and have shrunk considerably in recent years. My local bike shop is very large and probably has close to a 1000 bikes on display and not one of them has Campaq and rightly so. It's Shimano and to a much lesser extent SRAM as the only other option. I would never even consider a Campaq bike really unless it came my way cheap secondhand. It's like a Ferrari they are always breaking down and if you are really unlucky they set fire to themselves. Yes they have prestige and history and if you are filthy rich then possibly an option but a very poor product in reality. Shimano are a huge player and if you avoid the very cheapest entry level stuff which they typically don't make themselves then its all solid engineering mostly with a lot of decent innovation.

I can understand it gets a bit boring with Shimano dominating so much but that is market forces at play. I personally don't see much marketing and advertising from Shimano considering their market percentage, I feel like mostly the products sell themselves.

 

[rogerzilla]

Generally, even the cheapest Shimano stuff works well and can be inexpensive. My only real criticism is their constant push for expensive "improvements" that many cyclists don't want or need, and the dropping of tried-and-tested stuff. They used to be good at backwards compatibility, but not so much now. Anyone who bought 10-speed Di2 will know what I mean.

I don't use Di2 but the dropping of good square taper BBs (because they want us to use HT2) and, 30 years ago, the dropping of above-the-bar thumbshifters (because they wanted us to use RapidFire) are examples that annoyed me.

None of this will bother MAMILs who buy a new bike every year or two.

 

[screenman]

HATE is such a horrible word.

 

[vickster]

I’m a SRAM girl

Really don’t like Shimano brifters with the wobbly lever and big bulbous hoods

 

[Witzend]

Generally, even the cheapest Shimano stuff works well and can be inexpensive. My only real criticism is their constant push for expensive "improvements" that many cyclists don't want or need, and the dropping of tried-and-tested stuff. They used to be good at backwards compatibility, but not so much now. Anyone who bought 10-speed Di2 will know what I mean.

I don't use Di2 but the dropping of good square taper BBs (because they want us to use HT2) and, 30 years ago, the dropping of above-the-bar thumbshifters (because they wanted us to use RapidFire) are examples that annoyed me.

None of this will bother MAMILs who buy a new bike every year or two.

Agree 100%.

Whilst everything was compatible, it made sense to use them as they made things that worked, were good value and readily available. Once they dominated the market (and my spares box), they saw a chance to take advantage - because they could, and you can't really fault them for that.

People will know from my previous posts that I have a bee in my bonnet over things like Hollowtech II and change for changes sake, especially when that phases out a good product - but if you've got more than one bike, it's difficult to break free but still keep everything rolling when you've already got compatible components on each.

 

[scragend]

Really don’t like Shimano brifters with the wobbly lever and big bulbous hoods

Same. I don't use any Shimano brifters - my drop bar bikes either have 10-speed Campagnolo brifters with 8-speed Shimano derailleurs, or Cane Creek levers with bar end shifters on my tourer. My latest bike has SRAM.

But I don't hate the company, I just don't like some of their products.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I reserve the word 'hate' for brands such as Facebook, Google and Apple.

Shimano is many magnitudes of order below this motley crew.

Shimano produce many great products, they are easy to obtain, simply work, and my gorilla sized hands appreciate the 'bulbous' brifter hoods.