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OPINION
Annoyed that Shimano 105 has ditched mechanical and rim brakes? Here's why Shimano (probably) doesn't care
Wed, Jun 29, 2022 17:39
86
Shimano 105 R7100 di2 Fairlight cranksetAs you'll hopefully have read in our launch story already, Shimano has celebrated its 105 groupset turning 40 by binning off mechanical shifting and rim brakes in one fell swoop. To some of you that won't be something to celebrate... but numbers will have been meticulously crunched before this decision was arrived at, and unfortunately you're probably in the far less lucrative minority.
We discuss this highly-anticipated launch in the podcast segment embedded above, and our conclusions are pretty much along the same lines as what's written below. I think Tony sums it up the best, and although I was a bit on the fence when we first got the news and discussed/squabbled over it a week or so ago, overall I think this is probably correct: if Shimano thought there was a big enough market for the continuation of a mechanical, rim brake 105 groupset, it would make it.
As we speculate in the chat, if there were any top-down decisions being made by Shimano here it could be that electronic groupsets are actually cheaper to make and easier to work with than mechanical; but that alone wouldn't have been nearly enough to take a massive gamble if the numbers didn't stack up. Shimano sells most of its groupsets to bike brands and distributors to be sold on complete bikes, and they are almost certainly reporting that the vast majority of customers want Di2, and disc brakes.
There's always going to be people who won't be happy, but there clearly just isn't enough of them for Shimano to go through the exhaustive process of developing another whole new groupset to serve a much smaller demographic.
Sorry rim brakes, you're not quite profitable or popular enough
Even if this does mark the beginning of the end of phasing out the humble rim brake and mechanical shifting on middling to high-end road bikes, it will likely be many years before parts are no longer available for your rim braked, mechanically-shifting bike if that's what you currently own. Shimano 105 R7000 will continue to be produced and sold for some time, as are other previous-gen Shimano groupsets, and Shimano would have to fully electrify and disc brake-ify Tiagra, Sora and Claris before you're left with no mechanical shifting or rim brakes at all. That's just not going to happen any time soon, and it's very likely we'll see at least an updated Tiagra groupset in the next year or two to plug what is now quite a jump between mechanical 10-speed shifting and the new 12-speed, electronic-only 105.
Perhaps I'm a little sad in a symbolic, stubborn kind of way. Shimano has done a thing that even a couple of years ago it said it would never do, and 105 is supposed to be the groupset that all of us can just about afford. If I'd have walked into the bike shop back in 2012 to buy my first carbon road bike on a 50 quid a month direct debit, only to be told I couldn't even afford one with the third-best components on it off my shop assistant wage, this might have made me think twice about the hobby I was getting myself into.
The truth is most aspiring road cyclists aren't 22-year-old shop assistants, and the feedback Shimano will have had from the shop floor is that most of us are prepared to pay a bit more for a considerably better performing product. We don't need Dura-Ace and now we don't even need Ultegra, because 105 R7100 likely provides pretty much all the bells and whistles for little more than a slight weight penalty. If anything you're saving money by buying at 105 level, so the bike shop salesperson will say, and you're still getting all the technology of the top two tiers. It's an easier sell, and if you can't stretch to it they will point you to a Tiagra-equipped bike, which they can tell you is at least as good as previous-gen 105 when it's next updated.
Maybe Shimano has got this one wrong and we'll all eat our words, but we seriously doubt it. This is what the masses want, and the world's biggest bicycle component manufacturer (and second-biggest for fishing reels) can probably weather this mini-storm to deliver its best-selling performance groupset of all time.
Jack has been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of the website including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named Editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master's degree in print journalism and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it's a long story).
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86 comments
My difficulty with arthritic hands isn't shifting but breaking on long or steep descents. My hands lose strength and after a couple of hairy experiences I now avoid descents that may cause difficulty.
I'm a potential customer for electronic breaking!
Have you got mechanical or hydraulic brakes? As a fellow sufferer, though not that bad (yet), although I am generally inclined to rim brakes I have to admit that the hydraulic discs on my commuter are far easier on the hands, to the extent that on my next foray to the Alps I'll probably rent a hydraulic disc road bike rather than take my own rim brake one, even though it's beautiful.
I don't think I would ever risk electronic braking, no matter how many assurances I was given; if Di2 fails, the worst that can happen is you have to walk home, if electronic brakes failed, you could be taken home in a box. Now if somebody could invent a race-weight coaster brake…
The most alarming was with rim breaks, but I now have hydraulic discs and was worryingly uncomfortable the first (and last) time I was on a steep descent.
I guess that I have to accept that age reduces potential for certain types of ride.
Try larger rotors? Try 185s?
I would try the new generation of Shimano hydralics before giving up. GRX and onward (including all the 12 speeds) have a different pivot point and make 1 & 2 finger braking on the hoods a reality, and braking in the drops much much lighter.
As much as I'm bah humbugging about the 105 price rise there are some good incremental improvements in there, albeit GRX is now probably the cheapest place to get them.
Thanks for your suggestion which I almost missed through embarrassment at the realisation that I spelt 'brake' incorrectly.
Di2 has an optical position sensor in the derailleur that can measure its position to within a fraction of a millimetre. It always shifts into the right place.
It's a level of accuracy that even the most well maintained cable mechanical system can't hope to match.
Horses for courses. People stated the advantages of electronic below. On the other hand if you don't race / aren't technical riding, have got less than 9 gears (or a compliant hub...) you don't need great precision. Especially if you've got friction shifters! It's nice but... As for setup once you've done it no big drama. It's really cheap tech, spares weigh little and you can find them everywhere. The only nuisance for "field" use would be not having a cable cutter - but you can just coil up the excess and gaffer tape!
There are certainly use cases for electronic though. To the "routing" I'd add also "longer bikes" e.g. tandems and some recumbent setups.
It feels to me like the door is being left open for some new entrant in the bike component market. A manufacturer of 10 speed mechanical shifting that is swappable from road to gravel to mtb. Single, double or triple ring. Longevity and serviceability over electronics and ever narrower chains. FSA, microshift or Hope? C'mon guys, pander to us old facts who want nice stuff but also get off the electronic designed obsolescence train.
Or we'll just buy tiagra or grx 400.
Unfortunately Alan, as the article says, the main market for manufacturers is the big volume bike manufacturers. Who do you really think is going to invest enough money in developing a new mechanical system for a low market share and even if they did, because of the low volume of sales, the price would be very high. Unfortunately the big 3 control what we buy, either now or in the next couple of years as a reluctant "upgrade" as the old stuff dries up.
Microshift already do, and it's pretty good stuff. And there are some no-name Chinese knockoffs about too.
As kil0ran says, Microshift already do most of this stuff and there are various other component manufacturers that do various bits and pieces.
But I think we come back round to "what people want" - whatever the objective differences are, Microshift is generally regarded as inferior and found on budget bikes, rather than being considered worthy of being on a nice bike.
Other component manufactuers go the other way - you can get some very nice mechanical components from botique manufacturers such as Ingrid, but then the cost is comparable to Dura-Ace (and it feels like you're paying for street cred rather than performance).
I wonder if Tiagra R6000 will go 11sp and effectively become the new 105 for mechanical and rim brake bikes? Makes sense given how close 4700 is to R7000 currently.
They could lump in the chainset from 105 in and rebrand it 105M (or MR for the mechanical rim brake version!).
"... electronic groupsets are actually cheaper to make..."
And more expensive to buy.
I'm not sure how we'll know what the masses want. We can only buy the things that are for sale.
R7000 may go on for a bit, at least until the next Tiagra, but this is a pretty strong signal that mechanical shifting and rim brakes are dead men walking at the middle market level.
Whilst I admit that I'm in the camp of electronic shifting being a solution in need of a problem, the thing that really puts me off is the need for an app to configure the shifting. Smartphone lifecycles are so much shorter than those of groupsets, I worry that a time is coming when you can't run the app on any phone you can buy, so configuration is impossible. I guess worse could happen if the battery will not hold charge and that type is obsolete.
One of my bikes has a 35 year old drive train. Will that even be possible in 2057?
"I'm not sure how we'll know what the masses want. We can only buy the things that are for sale. "
We might not know what the masses want but I am sure that Shimano do and they can see that there is a need for low(er) cost electronic and disc brake groupsets. Campag continue to make good mechanical groups (if you can get past the number of ranges they seem to bring out and then drop) but their market share is relatively low so unfortunately, the market seems to be new people coming in to the sport being drawn to the latest bling, the real market is not us old timers who want to cling on to old reliable stuff and change little bits of it as necessary.
Tiagra will become the new mechanical Dura Ace and the groupsets below will all step up a level so I don't think Shimano is going to totally abandon mechanical any time soon. You just won't be able to get high-end versions. I suspect Tiagra will turn into current 105 with a few tweaks.
Add in that Shimano are probably still battling capacity problems so it makes sense for them to concentrate on premium over volume. Campag went premium only some time ago, dropping their cheap and cheerful stuff (and also dropping their maintainable construction in things like shifters), so have a go at them before Shimano.
I don't trust SRAM design and they are not averse to eye watering pricing for no appreciable benefit (so what if your cassette is manufactured in one piece if the result is a £250 price label), so I don't see Shimano taking big risks here. I have a mate who has had two SRAM Red chainsets and neither have been reliable.
I have to say maintenance/replacement costs are what really make me think about switching from Shimano. New chain and cassette? That'll be most of the cost of a 105 mechanical groupset a few years ago please.
That's supply chain dropping the discounts due to shortages rather than Shimano pricing in the main. Chain Reaction used to sell at what I could buy for from Madison (the distributors), so 30-40% discounts. Chains before lockdown were retailing around £20 are now £30.
As for alternatives, looking to SRAM or Campag won't give you any relief. For lower end stuff, I found SunRace was excellent quality at a lower price point.
It's not the disc. It's not the electronic. It's the price. Trickle down my butt
If you really want to make yourself weep go and take a gander at what 1200-1500 buys you on a MTB these days. 12 speed manual gears, brand name suspension fork and a decent frame. Given MTB'ings more demanding nature it does make you feel road cycling is a rip off.
https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-transmitter
I did an upgrade to Deore with an 11-51T cassette - cranks, shifters, mech, chain - for well under £200 less than two years ago
You can still do the same with road bikes. Boardman with Claris/rim brakes for £575. Boardman with Tiagra/disc brakes for £850.
There are plenty of ways to spend less money on what is still quality, but more and more people want di2/axs etc, hence why the market is being driven that way.
There are plenty of ways to spend less money on what is still quality
I agree- it's almost 3 years since I bought new the most useful bike I have ever had for £650. It has a steel frame, but I now think that aluminium alloy is probably best for a 'gravel bike'. I have the much-praised TRP Spyre cable discs and Sora 9 speed- a great combination. Admittedly the wheels were feeble, but I got over 2 years out of the original rear and its guarantee replacement and the front is still going. Prices have escalated since then, but I still think you get a much better bike for less real-terms money than 40 years ago.
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