The derailleur cage is long enough that riders of yesteryear might have mistaken it for a mountain bike rear mech, such has been the drastic change to gearing over the years. The RD-R can accommodate up to a tooth cog in the cassette, a number unimaginable only a few short years ago. The new derailleur, they say, is 58 per cent faster than the RD-R that came before it, itself setting a benchmark for quick shifting.
In a sport driven by the most marginal of gains, you can bet it will be popular with pro racers. Racing Read in English. Read in Italian. Read in Spanish. Sign up to the Rouleur Chronicle. Tech Read in English. The Desire Selection - buyers guides.
Rouleur Desire on Instagram. Receive Desire Edit emails. Rouleur Podcast. Volata Digital. Volata Radio. Acquista Rouleur in italiano. Book tickets. Your cart is empty. Crane, All Dura Ace clinchers are made in a clean-room by workers shuffling around in dust booties, meticulous lab uniforms in a climate controlled filtered air environment. The aluminum rim extrusion that forms its core is only 0. This inner rim is overlaid with about the same amount of carbon ending up with a final rim weight of grams.
Consumers can only get CCL wheelsets from bike shops beginning in February, since the long development cycle for the CCL pushed them past the original equipment sales season, they may appear on production bikes later in the spring. Download the Industry Directory. Read the Sales Training Guide.
All rights reserved. Skip to main content. You are here Home » Industry News. Inside Shimano's Malaysian Wheel Factory. The finished product is 1.
They stamp the titanium cogs here, too, but they take more pressure to cut, so the internal dies and parts have to be swapped out when switching materials. The largest machine produces up to 2, tons of pressure. Once complete, they two pieces are bonded together. They turn out a few thousand crank arms per day, usually batching different models throughout the day. Rim brake arms start life as solid aluminum coil before being forged into shape.
Why so much forging? Because it maintains the inherent crystal structure of the metal, which results in a stronger, more resilient piece.
Shimano uses high frequency induction heating to speed up the process, and it yields a nearly complete part in a single step, which is how they get such a smooth one-piece caliper. The process allows them to get more complex shapes than they could with forging, and is more appropriate for certain materials like magnesium. The internal cavity is then machined out to create the piston bores, etc. Which brings us to…. After forging, parts are brought to the machine room to be finished, bringing them within required tolerances.
In particular, the cranks receive plenty of attention to ensure the inner and outer faces will be perfectly fitted to one another.
And chainrings need to mate with those with zero play, and the hole where it slides into the spindle must also be perfectly aligned. Left to right shows the progress from final forging to machined part ready for next steps. The cylindrical item on the bottom is part of a fishing reel. Different lines machine different parts, but the same workers oversee the process for cogs, cranks and derailleur parts, as well as fishing equipment. It all gets finishing work done here. If a machine is acting weird, they can message its operator to inspect it.
How much would you pay for a chrome finished Dura-Ace crankset? Parts are heat treated before machining to add rigidity, hardness and flexibility. Steel, titanium and aluminum — they all get it. Once the parts are treated and machined, a fully automated system of computer controlled robots applies the glue and bonds together the crank arms, hollow chainrings, calipers and other parts. Shimano Indexing System , indexed downtube shifters. It was still 6-speed but 7- and 8-speed soon followed. It marked the eventual move away from traditional downtube shifters, and the ability to change gears without moving hands from handlebars.
Dura-Ace came in and introduced 9-speed and redesigned STI levers. Hollowtech cranks with Octalink bottom brackets marked a move away from the old square tapered axles of previous cranks. This was the groupset that in was ridden to Tour de France success by a certain disgraced American cyclist, the first time Shimano had won the prestigious race. And in , Shimano celebrated the 25th anniversary of Dura-Ace with a special groupset presented in a briefcase.
The move to speed came in with Dura-Ace , the first speed groupset, and by now Shimano was really making big inroads into the pro ranks. The Hollowtech cranks were attached to the frame with a new external threaded bottom bracket, which allowed larger bearings for increased rigidity and lower weight. Shimano was now leading the groupset wars and leaving rivals in its wake.
Alberto Contador would ride this groupset to Tour de France victory in In , Dura-Ace was launched, a radical redesign and new aesthetic direction over the previous version, gunmetal grey replacing polished metal.
Met with initial scepticism, it nethertheless went on to mark a new chapter in the history of the groupset. Now, every pro team on Shimano uses Di2 and it's popular with consumers too. Another five years and along came the jump to Dura-Ace mechanical and Di2 and the addition of an 11th sprocket. There was also a radical new four-arm chainset and dual pivot brakes, and second generation Di2 got smaller and lighter.
It was now 40 years since Shimano first introduced Dura-Ace to the pro peloton. All of which neatly brings us to the real topic of this feature, the latest Dura-Ace R mechanical and R Di2 and for the first time, hydraulic disc brakes available with either mechanical or electronic shifting and Shimano's first power meter. Shimano bills the latest Dura-Ace as "the most advanced system of road cycling components in Shimano's year history," which is certainly bold talk.
Let's take a closer look. It's still an speed groupset but introduced a number of new features and refinements. Synchronised shifting is now available with Di2, which lets the system control both derailleurs. Despite the popularity of electronic shifting, Shimano hasn't ignored mechanical, and the groupset gets some noticeable updates. The rear derailleur has a radical new appearance prompted by the Shadow low-profile design first introduced on its mountain bike line, and it now accommodates a 30t sprocket, previously limited to 28t.
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