Project Details
Target: The bike industry. The bike lover. The Culture of Mechanical.
Objective: Create a groundswell against electronic shifting by focusing on the purity and simplicity of mechanical shifting.
Deadline: Project Ends In 7 Days from today (1/27/2011)
3 Winners will be awarded a $5,000 carbon roadbike with SRAM Red components.
SRAM website: http://sram.com
The Assignment:
SRAM wants your ideas on how to position against electronic shifting in the consciousness of the cycling enthusiast.
The Situation:
A couple years ago, Shimano finally cracked an electronic-shifting offering for Dura-Ace - their top road group. Calling it “Di2,” this battery-powered, push-button shifting solution utilized mostly standard Dura-Ace componentry, but added all necessary auxillary power and servo functionality to produce an electronically activated, front and rear shifting component group that first became adopted by top pros, and has now become Shimano’s top-tier road component offering. Naysayers have been squelched, due to Di2’s proven performance and reliability on ProTour Shimano teams and adoption by professional racers/hardcore enthusiasts/bike builders. Di2 has taken the myth and hope of electronic shifting from the yesteryear’s failed attempts and made it real, putting it smack into the spotlight as a dreambike component group. On top of that, it simplifies initial install and self-regulates to help avoid return trips to a mechanic. Though these features come at a high price and add some extra weight (battery), their “set-up and forget” and “ease of use” benefits are also new to drive train products.
So why doesn’t SRAM have an electronic group? Is SRAM going to jump in? Bike geeks and the bike industry at large all want to know. And it’s time SRAM responded.
SRAM has not jumped into the electronic-shifting game because SRAM believes the bicycle is a pure, leg and lung-powered expression of utter simplicity and grace. And using a battery to power an essential part of the experience just isn’t right. Or necessary. Especially because the real performance benefits of electronic shifting really don’t exist. A rider still has to think about shifting and press on something. The only difference with electronic is you press a button instead of a shift-lever. It takes the same energy and thought. Furthermore, electronic shifting is so specialized and boutique that if you break it, you can’t always get service or replacement. Instead of adding benefit, all it really adds is a layer between you and the bicycle. An insulated, muffling, experience-robbing layer of “Rolls-Royce automatic cushiness” – when the essence of cycling has always been about the “Culture of Mechanical” – AKA the raw, tactile connection of the human animal to a beautiful, efficient, analog machine. So in short, SRAM believes its energy can be better spent in refining and moving forward simplicity and purity. Which is mechanical shifting. And SRAM believes the public’s energy – and money – is better spent in mechanical as well. Leaving room in the budget for true performance upgrades such as frame choices, wheels, tires, etc.
The Opportunity:
Create a groundswell against electronic shifting by focusing on the purity and simplicity of mechanical shifting. In the process, SRAM can take the higher ground and position Di2 for what it is: Glitzy, geeky, wimpy and free of REAL benefits. Show the world that SRAM is being smart and they should be too. Write ads. Think up web films. Think up stunts and events. Promotions, whatever. Consider using SRAM’s athletes. Consider leveraging SRAM’s history of simplicity. Craft SRAM’s response.
The Target:
The bike industry. The bike lover. The Culture of Mechanical.
The Tone:
Smart. Confident. Simple. Thought-provoking. Positive. Not sour grapes.
The Mandatories:
You’re talking to an ultra niche: bike geeks. So you have to be a bike geek yourself. Be pro. Proofread. Don’t waste V&S’ or SRAM’s time with ideas that are fiscally irresponsible. Write up your ideas with a succinct, spot-on title. Be brief. Don’t oversell. Be clever. Original. Invent stuff that would be press-release worthy. Your ideas should be globally translatable.
Some Reference:
The Culture of Mechanical Shifting
The Culture of Electro Servo Shifting
Tech Predictions for 2011
Get Started
SRAM & electronic shifting
You poor misguided sods! I have just turned sixty & I use & love SRAM's robust, simple & elegant technology but that does not lock me in Fred Flintstone's box. remember King Canute who tried to command the sea? Sorry guys you are just going to look foolish if you don't embrace the future . Enjoy the best of all worlds. Don't limit your customers experience. Campo scoffed at Shimano San & has been playing the respondent ever since.
The same arguments were used with the advent of the "hot dog" surf board. Old School riders lamented the passing of their vision of the surf god majestically arriving at the shore on his piece of lumber. They bitched & whined about hyperactive,barely post pubescenth wave attackers on the new technology. Dont "riatilinize" your selves at SRAM. Make the experience diverse & don't let it fossilise as a specimen in a display case marked " purity of experience".
Regards
Phil
SRAM World be dammed!
Campagnolo for actuation, style and ethic...
Electronic Pricing
The only thing I'm going to say is Price! With the internet people already shop for price. Some don't even care about value. So you fall, lean your bike over wrong, scuff your shifter, bend your der. Now its time to get a new one. A rear Dura Ace der is something like 850 to 900 each. That's just ONE piece of the group.
In this day and age when everyone sits around complaining about the economy you want a groupo that cost that much?
And SHIMANO places NO value on there parts. Look at the mail order catalogs. They sell to one company at one price and then sell to the other at a different price. Oh and then tell a dealer to sell at MSRP on their website.
This guy is glad to have made the switch after 20 some years! Period.
THANK YOU SRAM for making a great product that I can rebuild too.
Are you kidding?
SRAM the company that makes front derailleurs so flexy they can't shift properly?!? Chainrings so flexy even their sponsored riders use the lesser/heavier models?!?! sponsored riders throwing chains on critical climbs and losing the TdF?!?! (OK so the drug cheats still race against gentlemans rules but the plastic bag residue can settle that argument for Bertie and Shrek), following shimano on outboard bearing BB technology, profiled cassette teeth, STI lever design,dual pivot brakes, chains that break with regular monotony...cassettes so noisy you have to check to see if the derailleur is falling off the bike)...do I need to go on???
SRAM...when you learn to make mechanical gearing well...then you can pontificate...until then you are still marketing entity that makes some avg bike gear (and FWIW all the good technology you acquire, you keep branded under original premises which is your one 'smart' move!)
I use SRAM, and only SRAM from now on.
You are blaming SRAM for a host of things that are not their fault. Your first contention is that their front derailleurs and chainrings are so flexy that they can't shift properly. It is well known that most pro teams use a Force level derailleur when they have easy access to red but the fact is that the Red group functions just fine in every way. Titanium (which the red FD is made from)is used in Red because the purpose of red is to be absurdly light, which it is. Titanium simply doesn't shift as crisply as steel which is something that might matter to you if your changing gears in the heat of serious battle. To the amateur racer the titanium cage works just fine. It works fine for the pros too but it just doesn't have the feel they want. As far a chainrings...I can't think of any case when pro teams have used lower level chainrings but small changes like this are often made to bring a bike UP to minimum weight. It is actually difficult to make a bike heavy enough when you have to use the best equipment available. This is why pros have alloy bars and stems, clunky powermeters, TT chainrings on a road bike, etc.
As far as chains falling off there is no way at all that this is the groupsets fault. If it was you would see it happen all the time to JUST SRAM groups. Pro teams change the cables on their bikes very frequently and new cables stretch so eventually the FD is going to come out of adjustment. It's also quite possible that the team mechanic set the lower limiter too slack when he adjusted the bike. Possible user errors like this are the reason that almost ALL pro riders are using chain watchers these days. In reality they probably just forgot to put one on Andy's yellow jersey bike.
And SRAM did not copy shimano on everything they did, the technological details you listed as being associated with shimano were invented before SRAM made road groupsets and they became industry standard. That considered it would have been foolish and irresponsible for SRAM not to incorporate them into their design.
For the record I use SRAM chains and cassettes and have put them through hell in road and cross races and have never broken one. Not everyone is Fabian Cancellara mashing on the Koppenburg and even if we were sometimes manufacturer defects happen. They've happened with Shimano and Campy too.
You can ride whatever you want, but I love the crisp shifting, sure braking, perfect ergonomics, unquestionable value, and easy adjustability of SRAM and have never had an issue with it. I think that your concerns are unfounded and, respectably, it makes me doubt that you have any mechanical ability with bikes.
Really?
I doubt SRAM will exist in 5 years. All those that have tried it have now moved back to Durace or Campag.
Everyone? Really?
Really, everyone who has tried SRAM has moved back to to Dur or Campy? I built a Pinarello Dogma last summer and set it up with RED and LOVE IT. I'm not going anywhere, so you can remove at least one rider from your blanket statement. Come on, get real.
plain wrong
I can ride whatever I want and choose SRAM. With the exception of 2007 I have been on sram since 2006 and plan to stay on it.
Shimano is very ugly and
Shimano is very ugly and Campagnolo is very unreliable. I doubt if they still exist in 5 years because SRAM is much better and lighter.
Campy - un-reliable? You must
Campy - un-reliable? You must be confused!
I always by my components
I always by my components bases on aesthetics. Doesn't evveryone?
Shocker!
For a company built on marketing savvy, this is pretty shocking in its desperation.
Mechanical systems still have their place and budgets, but Shimano's electronic has proven to be pretty damn good. Have yet to hear someone who has actaully ridden it for a while who doesn't appreciate it. Even old school Campy is joining the party!
SRAM attempting to actively discredit totally viable technology AND soliciting outside assistanace to help them do it is pathetic and shameful. I was actually looking forward to riding their eventual electronic, but might be waiting a while!
I think this is actually too
I think this is actually too lame to be true.
Are you friggin kidding me?
What a load of crap? Just because they can't make electronic shifting work, they spew this. Well for that matter, why don't we all ride steel bike with downtube friction shifters with 5-speed rear deraileurs? Or for that matter, a two speed rear wheel that we have to stop, pull out the wheel and flip it around to the other sprocket. And don't forget wood soled shoes with leather uppers and a cleat nailed to the bottom of it to put into toe cliped pedals.
Or maybe keep trying to make things better and advance technology. One or the other.
Desperate
They sounds as desperate as Alanis Morrisette on that one song back in the 90s
Di2 vs. Red
I'm curious if SRAM is taking a stand for good on this issue. While SRAM has been taking market share so fast Shimano's head is spinning, the reverse could quickly be the case if Di2 hit the same price point as RED. I don't know what rider that has ridden both that would choose Red over Di2 if price were no object
Extrapolate?
My question is, what does this mean for electric assist bicycles? Will they take the high ground and stay out of that market, as well? If it is just a marketing tactic that someone dreamed up, these statements could come back to bite them depending on how they position themselves when motorized mountain bikes start showing up en masse on the trails.
What a lame piece of
What a lame piece of marketing crap that sounds so self absorbed. It also sounds desperate. SRAM is the same company who comes out and tells you they innovated mountain biking with their 2*10 drive train (wow that is so innovative, many of us were riding 2*9 in the early 2000's) and now they want to create this junk against Di2 and what ever Campy calls their stuff. Here is an idea how about spending time improving RED, a very good group, but one you have done nothing too since it came out.
SRAM makes great stuff and has really come on strong. They deserve lots of credit. But this is just over the top crap, that strokes their own ego. If someone likes Di2 and want to use it great. If some one think SRAM Red is the way to go, that great too. Or you like Super Record, fine with me. I have spent some time on Di2, it is pretty darn impressive. Do I own it, no. But as a cycling fan I like new technology, some of it will get adopted, and some of it will die. It is rather lame to see a company trying to get something to die, but because they do not offer it.
What is next SRAM? A push that we all need to ride fixie's for the love of the sport? Maybe a move back to 6 speed? Everyone wears wool? How about friction shifters? The Lauren Fingnon movement to ban aero bars?
lost cause
Sounds like a company that is stuck in the last century and fighting on principle when the world is moving on. Analog, vinyl LP is a more "pure" sound than digital CD but only the fanatics buy albums these days. Sure, Di2 is still top-of-the-line and crazy expensive but eventually that technology will trickle down and SRAM will be left out in the cold.
Hardly
SRAM drive trains are more popular than ever and Di2 hasn't taken off. Electric shifting will go the way of the pet rock, the Snuggie and the term fashionista. Anybody showing up to a cat 4 (early adopters) race with Di2 is a total nerd (the bad kind).
Not completely disagreeing...
....but as a Di2 "early adopter", I don't think of myself as a nerd, although the glasses I'm wearing right now may say otherwise. Tech geek? Yeah, I'll claim that title. I agree that SRAM (I have Rival on my other bike, lugged steel frame, crazy beautiful and has the performance to back it up) is more popular than ever, partly thanks to the marketing geniuses in Chicago, but it does flat-out function. Di2 is nutty expensive, but you know what, it flat-out functions as well.
Will it go the way of the Dodo (that was a bird)? Probably not, even Campy doesn't think so. Is it perfect? I don't believe it is either, but it's pretty damn close. The trickle-down effect will cement it's place in the market, but you have to give it time. In all reality, you know what electric would be the best for? The average everyday rider. That's right, the low-ender, whether a newby roadie or Mom riding the townie down to the store or on a bike path simply to get in a little exercise. No muss, no fuss, they can concentrate on simply riding their bikes.
Oh yeah, I'm not a cat 4, I'm a well-seasoned cat 2/35+ that has been around a while and quite frankly paid my dues. And I won the Di2 for.....wait for it.....riding my bike......a lot.
You make interesting points.
You make interesting points. I was being snarky (too much coffee) in my last post, and I should say that I'm a tech geek too and I am intrigued by the Campy system. However, I've had VERY good luck with SRAM (bad luck with Shimano) and I've always said to pry Red away from me would be a "cold dead hands" type of thing. Wheat Ridge Cycles has a Di2 Madone in my size and I've thought about taking it for a spin - just for kicks. I better leave the credit card at home, just in case right.
i'm not vehemently against
i'm not vehemently against electronic shifting, its just waaaay beyond the horizon of diminishing returns for me. so many things i'd spend a bottomless pool of money on before electro-shifting. but i dont judge or think less of people who prefer it.
this press strategy is really puzzling though. i'm not sure what tone they were going for, but it seems really awkward and defensive and ultimately unnecessary.
how about..
...GPS-enabled shifting controls via radio frequency from the team cars...or seat and handlebar warmers...
what purpose does electronic shifting serve other than appeal from the doctor/lawyer/indian chief crowd that buys imported cars with c-mas light-strips around the headlights?
the only somewhat-value of di2 noticed so far by me has been a positive review by a velonews-guy doing cross in the muck. otherwise, i will continue to grab a campy thumbfull at will and hope that the legs can respond!
this is quite the non-issue to me and think sram should know better.
I Have an Idea!
Here's the way SRAM can position itself: Compete rather than try to market yourself over good product. I bet when Hayes beat Avid to disc brakes, Avid talked about the raw, tactile sensation of blistered, cramping fingers on long descents, while meager lever arms pushed pads on a rim to the trumpet of fading braking power in anything but perfect conditions. Why? Because that is how the bicycle was meant to be experienced.
Oh and 15mm axles don't make sense, again because we don't have a product to compete...until next year.......then we'll change our tune.
SO S-RAM!
Triathlons and time TT
I think electronic shifting makes sense for triathlons and time trials.