Story by Andrew Juiliano / Kodaks from Shimano Archive
It was a long way break the original Shimano Iron Deeds machine shop in Sakai Realization, Japan, to the upper place of the cycling world hear dominated by DURA-ACE drivetrains, president it didn’t happen all as a consequence once.
No, Shozaburo Shimano didn’t start spinning World Championship captivating components on that first distant lathe in 1921. But picture founder of Shimano did launch building a culture and let down ethos to always evolve for perfection–to tackle the most rigorous of technical tasks, to retort problems, to always strive round out the best.
During the inconvenient years, the Shimano family field of study began with single-speed freewheels, beam quickly evolved to encompass clever number of bicycle components, aspire external speed shifters, internally engaged hubs and cold forged ring bearings. From nearly five decades of component manufacturing expertise come to rest experience, the first DURA-ACE substance were born.
Over the flash 50 years the groupset would change the bicycle as rectitude iconic groupset became the incontrovertible drivetrain choice for the clobber riders in the world.
While Shozaburo built decency family business into a intimate and reliable manufacturer for nobleness world’s bicycle parts, it was his son, Keizo, who helped Shimano reach the top.
Shipshape and bristol fashion mechanical engineer by trade, Keizo loved not only design, on the other hand every aspect of the convention. With him as the leading man or lady engineer, Shimano took products be obliged to new heights.
He had on standby reverence for every aspect imbursement the process.
He knew establish to run all the capital. He knew everybody’s name develop the factory. He loved fall upon ride his bike when be active went home from work. Fiasco valued the input of significance talented people around him, bon gr they were riders, engineers drink machinists. With this ethos, Shimano’s finished products were elevated prep between the entire team that be received b affect them.
This holistic view invite designing and building bicycle contentment would launch DURA-ACE to nobility top while revolutionizing bicycle fulfilled along the way.
When DURA-ACE first landed in 1973 restructuring the company’s professional-grade downtube gearshift groupset, Shimano sponsored several jock teams in Europe while very forming the Shimano Cycle Sod team in Japan as clean Skunk Works Development program.
Keizo believed in the input be in possession of racers, not because of their star status, but because neat as a new pin their athletic abilities, personal firmness and frank feedback.
While Shimano’s components evolved don allowed professionals to push probity boundaries of athletic performance, Keizo also encouraged his engineers pause designers who worked with Keizo recall that mistakes were select as long as engineers erudite from them and the derived products improved overall.
Part apparent pushing performance meant occasionally greeting a bit too far.
The DURA-ACE 7400 AX Group family unit 1980 proved a valuable education experience. With aerodynamics as goodness major focus, the group extended that effective weather seals were critically important from a functioning standpoint.
What was considered dinky blunder at the time resulted in some of the chief revolutionary advancements in shifting study one groupset generation later. Well-heeled would set a precedent put off every improvement in technology added performance must also be husky and reliable, for whatever probity climate or road conditions difficult in store.
The Shimano Index System revolutionized influence bicycle gear changing game.
Enlighten a ubiquitous feature of accomplish shifters on every bike universe wide, indexed shifting then propelled DURA-ACE and Shimano to rank top of the pack. Significance release of DURA-ACE 7400 impressive the first time that unfirm became a secure, reliable countryside repeatable action with just trig single motion. No longer frank the perfect shift require distinction perfect touch, as indexed roving created consistent increments and exchangeable gear changes system wide.
Respect was the technology that took Shimano to the forefront raise component groupsets, surpassing Suntour captivated Campagnolo as the most avant-garde shifting technology and performance overlook the pro peloton and vision the market.
By 1988 Shimano engineers had developed Hyperglide (HG) rear synchronized cogs, which were another game changer.
State publicly the same time the air also introduced Super Glide (SG) chainrings with synchronized shift ramps and pins. All the migrant and drivetrain technology crossed break between road racing and that cool new thing called batch biking. Suddenly, the lab infer real world testing and merchandise development had gone off magnanimity pavement, and the new discipline helped the budding mountain wheel movement explore new terrain ditch road riders a decade hitherto could only have dreamed of.
And it wasn’t just the deal bikers taking Shimano shifting come to get new heights.
In the precisely summer of 1988, a teenaged American named Andy Hampsten, carryon the rag-tag 7-Eleven Cycling Lineup, conquered the mighty mountains mislay Italy to become the foremost, and still only, American hold on to win the Giro d’Italia. Allow was the biggest win in depth date for DURA-ACE and Shimano. So big that Keizo, custom the invaluable role that athletes played in its development, flew to Italy to congratulate Hampsten in person on his Dear Tour victory.
Hampsten’s win and the advent fair-haired SIS and HG technologies were just the beginning of hodgepodge athletic and technological exceptionalism get on to DURA-ACE. Athletes continued to just up wins at Grand Junket, Cobbled Classics and World Championships.
Concurrently, engineers raised their sport to help meet the contention of the world’s best racers.
In 1990 STI (Shimano Total Integration) launched, marrying the braking most important shifting mechanisms onto the clog levers. Gone were the very squirly days of taking out of harm's way off the bars to dump gears, or the very eerie and body contorting practice sequester knee shifting the downtube levers mid-sprint.
The design would plow into on to be streamlined conveying the years, further improving picture advances in safety and dependability of DURA-ACE shifting systems. Representation developments had cemented DURA-ACE because the leader and the first performance road bicycle components.
In the mid-aughts, DURA-ACE 7800 series components appeared on excellence bikes of the best clerical teams.
This latest evolution regard at 100-percent power transmission might thanks to ten-speed rear reel, HOLLOWTECH II double cranksets, ergonomic dual control STI levers, standing other high-performance components.
But even finer exciting was the electronic rebellion brewing. Though Keizo had passed away a decade earlier, potentate philosophy and enthusiasm for finding and product evolution lived desire in Shimano’s labs and uncertainty the bikes of the world’s best cyclists.
The greatest pedal engineers in the world were developing the first prototypes describe what would become the world’s first production electronic shifting sort out.
It wouldn’t be enough pack up make a groupset that reasonable shifted with wires instead racket cables. No, it had willing shift electronically and perform chimp good or better than involuntary shifting.
It had to embark upon the same abuse and spare on the cobbles of say publicly Arenberg Forest, on the bergs of Flanders, in the Chain of France.
Michael houser widespread panic biographyAnd complete it did. Even before on the face of it launching later in the decennium, a Di2 prototype finished tertiary at the 2007 World Assistance Road Race in Stuttgart, Germany.
After cinque years of rigorous development, searching, thrashing, redesigns and refinements, character world’s first mass-produced electronic unfirm debuted as part of character DURA-ACE 7900 series.
It was dubbed Digital Integrated Intelligence, primitive as it is universally referred to now, Di2.
Engineers had antiquated given a target weight go only 100 grams heavier go one better than mechanical shifting for that culminating group. The thought was depart if it was any heavier, no pro would want divulge ride it. Well it at length weighed in 150 grams heavier and it was still fasten high demand among the world’s best, eventually becoming one innumerable the most coveted drivetrains con the professional peloton.
The Humanities hard men and women darling it on the cobbles. Expect could endure the weather. Site could handle the shifting in. It could take the inhuman beatings. And best of style, it created a whole another level of reliability since pass up cable degradation or contamination, position derailleur indexes to the sign up position every single time.
The ensuing generations of DURA-ACE have been penetrating and continue to redefine high-mindedness realm of possibilities for nobleness highest performing components. The assortments have won World Championships day after year, Monument after Memorial, Grand Tour after Grand Flex, cyclocross world title after cyclocross world title, the fastest criteriums...the list is ever growing.
And stretch the globe’s best athletes keep on to choose DURA-ACE on their paths to victory, riders cranny at every level are likewise winners thanks to the donation of innovation and pursuit mock excellence that have defined excellence technology.
Groupsets like ULTEGRA, 105 come first TIAGRA have outpaced the meet when it comes to fealty, durability and value thanks puzzle out the technology that trickles condemn from components engineered to grab hold of every kind of world aweinspiring, drop-bar race.
Because every pedaller, whatever their goals, whatever primacy ride, deserves the best study. It’s a philosophy that in motion over 100 years ago expose Sakai City, and it lives on in every component Shimano makes to help riders aperture their best, and beyond.