S
Sheldon Brown
Guest
Last night I went to the annual Shimano tech seminar. Here are some nuggets from it.
They have a new procedure for connecting chains. If you use the special Shimano pin, you're supposed
to orient the chain so that the inner link to be connected is in front of the outer link that
connects to it. This is s'posed to reduce the chance of chain failure.
"Hollowtech II" cranks/bottom brackets are now the norm for 4 groups: Dura-Ace and XTR as before,
now also XT and Saint.
This is the system that mounts the actual bearings outboard of the BB shell. This wider spacing
between the two bearing cartridges reduces stress on the bearings.
Since the cartridges don't need to fit inside the shell, they can use larger bearings, and thus a
larger diameter axle. The large diameter axle is a thin wall tube, so in addition to greater
stiffness from the large diameter, it saves a considerable amount of weight. The hollow axle also
makes a good place to hide your stash.
The bearing modules are interchangeable among the 4 different Hollowtech II lines. They are not the
_same_ but they are interchangeable.
The major offroad news is a major revision to the XT group, and the new Saint sub-group.
XT now has most of the new features introduced last year into XTR, updated brifters, spline mounted
brake discs, Hollowtech II crank.
Saint is a heavy-duty premium grouplet, consisting of hubs, rear derailer, brifters and crank.
The derailer is extra beefy, and mounts to the axle, rather than to the frame. The Saint hub has an
oversized through axle, with a 10 mm "skewer" that bolts through from the left end. This skewer, the
same diameter as a standard rear axle, holds the very beefy rear derailer.
The Saint rear derailer is designed to withstand considerable buffeting. They've relocated the cable
anchor to the upper/inner side of the parallelogram, making the external parts smooth so as not to
get snagged on stuff.
The newer derailers from all 4 of these groups have a redesigned parallelogram, with a sort of
hermpahrodite outer plate, which goes inside the upper knuckle, but straddles the lower knuckle.
This is s'posed to make it stiffer.
Good news on the terminology front! They've abandoned the made-up term 'Rapid Rise' and now,
correctly, refer to the XTR, XT and Saint rear derailers as 'low normal."
Shimano plans a renewed push on the Nexus components in the U.S. market. These have reputedly been
selling very well in Europe, but haven't caught on here to any great extent. The new 8-speed hub, in
particular, is a very tasty piece, and I'm eagerly awaiting my first shipment of them. I have ridden
bikes with them out in Las Vegas (http://sheldonbrown.com/lasvegas/) but this was the first
opportunity I've had to actually handle a bare hub. I was pleased to note how free-running the main
bearings felt, compared with the 7-speed version. There was a fair amount of stiffness in turning
the sprocket on the axle, but I suspect this was seal drag on this new hub.
I do think they're missing a bet on the 8-speed shifter. They only have two shifters, one is a
twistie, t'other push-button type. Unfortunately, the both have built-in brake levers, making them
incompatible with drop bar applications.
They did show a clever tool for measuring to install the cable anchor bolt on Nexus shift cables.
The Dura-Ace 10-speed setup seems very nice, as one might expect. The crank is drop-dead gorgeous,
and astonishingly light.
The Dura-Ace brifters now have set the shifter axis at an angle, so that the shift levers move
slightly to the rear as they move inward. This is an ergonomic improvement, particularly for folks
with short fingers. The shape of the lever has been slightly revised for the same purpose.
The front of the hood is how taller, reflecting the tendency recently seen for riders to either tilt
their bars higher or mount the brifters higher, as they are spending more of their time riding on
the hoods. Supposedly this new design gives the desired hood provision, while providing unimpeded
access to the brake levers from the drops.
Saint and Dura-Ace Freehubs are totally revised. They have large alumimum axles, use cartridge
bearings for the Freehub ratchet, and have the pawls (3 of them acting together) inboard of the
cassette body, permitting the pawl ring to be larger in diameter.
They still use traditional cup-and-cone bearings, but with 14 3/16" balls rather than the
usual 9 1/4"s.
The Dura-Ace 10-speed Freehub has an aluminum body, and the male splines on the Freehub are taller.
As a result, older cassettes won't fit the new body, but the new 10 speed cassettes will fit older
8-/9-speed hubs.
The reason for this is to prevent damage to the soft aluminum Freehub body by running spiderless
steel sprockets on it. Such sprockets would be liable to "notch" the splines of the Freehub body.
This has been observed on off-brand "boutique" hubs with aluminum cassette bodies in the past.
Sheldon "Newshound" Brown +--------------------------------------------------+
| Pohl's law: Nothing is so good that somebody, | somewhere, will not hate it. |
+--------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com
They have a new procedure for connecting chains. If you use the special Shimano pin, you're supposed
to orient the chain so that the inner link to be connected is in front of the outer link that
connects to it. This is s'posed to reduce the chance of chain failure.
"Hollowtech II" cranks/bottom brackets are now the norm for 4 groups: Dura-Ace and XTR as before,
now also XT and Saint.
This is the system that mounts the actual bearings outboard of the BB shell. This wider spacing
between the two bearing cartridges reduces stress on the bearings.
Since the cartridges don't need to fit inside the shell, they can use larger bearings, and thus a
larger diameter axle. The large diameter axle is a thin wall tube, so in addition to greater
stiffness from the large diameter, it saves a considerable amount of weight. The hollow axle also
makes a good place to hide your stash.
The bearing modules are interchangeable among the 4 different Hollowtech II lines. They are not the
_same_ but they are interchangeable.
The major offroad news is a major revision to the XT group, and the new Saint sub-group.
XT now has most of the new features introduced last year into XTR, updated brifters, spline mounted
brake discs, Hollowtech II crank.
Saint is a heavy-duty premium grouplet, consisting of hubs, rear derailer, brifters and crank.
The derailer is extra beefy, and mounts to the axle, rather than to the frame. The Saint hub has an
oversized through axle, with a 10 mm "skewer" that bolts through from the left end. This skewer, the
same diameter as a standard rear axle, holds the very beefy rear derailer.
The Saint rear derailer is designed to withstand considerable buffeting. They've relocated the cable
anchor to the upper/inner side of the parallelogram, making the external parts smooth so as not to
get snagged on stuff.
The newer derailers from all 4 of these groups have a redesigned parallelogram, with a sort of
hermpahrodite outer plate, which goes inside the upper knuckle, but straddles the lower knuckle.
This is s'posed to make it stiffer.
Good news on the terminology front! They've abandoned the made-up term 'Rapid Rise' and now,
correctly, refer to the XTR, XT and Saint rear derailers as 'low normal."
Shimano plans a renewed push on the Nexus components in the U.S. market. These have reputedly been
selling very well in Europe, but haven't caught on here to any great extent. The new 8-speed hub, in
particular, is a very tasty piece, and I'm eagerly awaiting my first shipment of them. I have ridden
bikes with them out in Las Vegas (http://sheldonbrown.com/lasvegas/) but this was the first
opportunity I've had to actually handle a bare hub. I was pleased to note how free-running the main
bearings felt, compared with the 7-speed version. There was a fair amount of stiffness in turning
the sprocket on the axle, but I suspect this was seal drag on this new hub.
I do think they're missing a bet on the 8-speed shifter. They only have two shifters, one is a
twistie, t'other push-button type. Unfortunately, the both have built-in brake levers, making them
incompatible with drop bar applications.
They did show a clever tool for measuring to install the cable anchor bolt on Nexus shift cables.
The Dura-Ace 10-speed setup seems very nice, as one might expect. The crank is drop-dead gorgeous,
and astonishingly light.
The Dura-Ace brifters now have set the shifter axis at an angle, so that the shift levers move
slightly to the rear as they move inward. This is an ergonomic improvement, particularly for folks
with short fingers. The shape of the lever has been slightly revised for the same purpose.
The front of the hood is how taller, reflecting the tendency recently seen for riders to either tilt
their bars higher or mount the brifters higher, as they are spending more of their time riding on
the hoods. Supposedly this new design gives the desired hood provision, while providing unimpeded
access to the brake levers from the drops.
Saint and Dura-Ace Freehubs are totally revised. They have large alumimum axles, use cartridge
bearings for the Freehub ratchet, and have the pawls (3 of them acting together) inboard of the
cassette body, permitting the pawl ring to be larger in diameter.
They still use traditional cup-and-cone bearings, but with 14 3/16" balls rather than the
usual 9 1/4"s.
The Dura-Ace 10-speed Freehub has an aluminum body, and the male splines on the Freehub are taller.
As a result, older cassettes won't fit the new body, but the new 10 speed cassettes will fit older
8-/9-speed hubs.
The reason for this is to prevent damage to the soft aluminum Freehub body by running spiderless
steel sprockets on it. Such sprockets would be liable to "notch" the splines of the Freehub body.
This has been observed on off-brand "boutique" hubs with aluminum cassette bodies in the past.
Sheldon "Newshound" Brown +--------------------------------------------------+
| Pohl's law: Nothing is so good that somebody, | somewhere, will not hate it. |
+--------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com