The End is Nigh

"Deer head" Shimano Deore

I've heard it through the grapevine that Shimano is going through with their 11 speed mountain cassette.


Let me express my thoughts in a way that there won't be any misunderstanding, what a terrible idea.

The Shimano guy who told me this was really stoked that there was going to be a dedicated 11 speed hub and may only be compatible with a 142 mm through axle rear end.

Personally, I think 142mm through axle rear ends for mountain bikes make a lot of sense, especially for dual squishy bikes. My thoughts are it may lead to stronger wheel designs that have a lot less dish on them for more even spoke tension, a larger diameter axle for durability, and possibly even a safer rear wheel because it lessens the chances of the axle slipping in the dropouts.

Sounds all like goals worth pursuing until he mentioned the eleven speed mountain cassette part. Yeah, that's all we need, thinner chains, thinner cassettes, and chainrings. That means tighter tolerances, fragile cable diameter chains, and more to go wrong.

Oddly enough he said that there was a push from a lot of mountain guys asking Shimano to take a couple steps back and produce a pro level eight speed drivetrain.

I told the guy, look Shimano had all ready produced a pro level eight speed drivetrain system and even though the dyes have all been destroyed chances were that Shimano still possessed the original plans so it wouldn't be that difficult to reproduce.

A couple of my riding buddies are die hard eight speed users but for me eight speed always seemed like it was a transitional drivetrain format until nine speed came out.

That's my opinion any way.

I like like the nine speed system. It's a nice balance between having a wide range cassette and having a variety of interim steps between the two extremes of the range.

Shimano got to the top of the heap by making good decisions.

But Shimano had a long history of making bad decisions too.

Any one remember the Airline shifter and derailleur ?

Mountain STI ?

Rapid Rise ?

The abandonment of top bar mounted thumb shifters ?

The failure to move into threadless headsets ?

I have a feeling that mountain eleven speed will be seen as equally as bad idea but I've been wrong before.