Celebrating 100 years of Shimano

We delve through the Japanese giant’s picture archive to bring you the best of the shiny bits we’ve lusted after over the years

SHOZABURO SHIMANO

Born in 1898 and beginning his working life as a teenage lathe operator, Shozaburo Shimano founded his own company in 1921, in Sakai. Having started out repairing machinery, he was soon manufacturing freewheels for Sakai’s thriving cycling industry. By all accounts a born leader, with unmatched enthusiasm and a magnetic personality, Shozaburo put a lot of effort into developing the cycle industry as a whole, for he was said to be convinced that no one company would thrive unless cycling itself did. He passed away in 1965.

DURA-ACE, 1973

While Shimano had been manufacturing cycle components for half a century, 1973’s Dura-ace was its first foray into the world of pro cycling with a serious groupset. The name was an amalgam of duralumin — a hard aluminium alloy — and ‘ace’. Shimano set out to create a groupset of unparalleled beauty and functionality, and underlined its intentions by immediately introducing Dura-ace into the pro peloton, becoming a headline sponsor of the Flandria-carpenter-shimano team that same year. With a group comprising friction-shift six-speed gearing, side-pull brakes with drilled levers and a gorgeous fluted chainset, Shimano was finally ready to rival Simplex and Campagnolo at the top level.

THE CRANE DERAILLEUR, 1971

The Crane derailleur, introduced in 1971, used twin-sprung pivots where market leader Campag’s were single-sprung, and Shimano’s servo-pantagraph design that tracked the sprockets closely. It was well received and when Dura-ace was released two years later, it used the Crane rear mech and Crane branding.

DURA-ACE’S FIRST WIN, 1973

Belgian rider Walter Godefroot, riding for the Flandria team in 1973, was the first rider to bring home the bacon on Shimano Dura-ace, when he sprinted into Malaga at the head of the bunch in that February’s Ruta Del Sol. And so began a fierce rivalry between the Japanese manufacturer and ruler of the roost at the time, Campagnolo. So the story goes, the day before that year’s World Championship in Barcelona, Godefroot was riding with his Belgian team-mate and race favourite Freddy Maertens, when Tullio Campagnolo himself drew alongside in a car, asking who would win the race. When Godefroot pointed at Maertens, the Campagnolo boss replied: “No, not him – he rides Shimano. Shimano must not be allowed to win at any cost!”

DURA-ACE 7300 AX, 1980

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but many beholders seem to agree that this iteration of Dura-ace is the nicest looking of the 15 or so versions. It came just two years after 1978’s 7200 EX series, which built on the racing experience garnered over the previous four years – the ‘AX’ difference being aerodynamics. Efforts in this department are easy to see – the aero bidon is probably the most obvious – but lovely touches like the stem with hidden bolt and the cowled derailleur mech, not to mention the striking centre-pull brakes, are where the real magic is at.

DURA-ACE 7400, 1984

One of the best looking and most important iterations of Dura-ace. Released in 1984, it wasn’t replaced for 12 years. But during that time came enough innovation to last a generation. The six-speed SIS (Shimano Index System) gears were a significant improvement over friction shift and by 1990 it was up to seven. Eight speeds would follow, along with dual-pivot brakes and most significantly of all, STI levers. The modern groupset era had begun.

BIOPACE, 1983

W ith Biopace, boasted Shimano at the time, “hills are easier to climb, and stamina is also increased”. These ‘non-round’ chainrings were designed to more closely match a natural walking gait and be easier on the knees. Introduced as a mid-level item, it was produced in double and triple versions for touring and mtb. A rounder Biopace HP version for racers was launched in 1989. They failed to catch on and were phased out in the early 1990s.

SHIMANO STI, 1991

The brand built on its ‘SIS’ (Shimano Index System) shifting which had been introduced with 1984’s Dura-ace 7400 by developing STI – Shimano Total Integration. This placed indexed gear shifters within the brake lever housing and revolutionised gear changing in one fell swoop – more so than even SIS, which introduced the ability to click through the gears using the down-tube shifters, rather than hit and hope with friction shifting.

DURA-ACE 7800, 2004

This was the first version of Shimano’s top-end series to feature its Hollowtech II bottom bracket and chainset – a design which has endured, albeit with regular tweaking. By placing the bearings outboard of the BB shell and integrating an oversized axle into the chainset itself, Shimano notched stiffness up to the next level. The swooping chainset spider design, which completely hid the end of the axle, was a major design departure which wasn’t for everyone, at least initially. The 7800 series also introduced the 10-speed cassette – long expected, as Campagnolo had already done this four years previously.

DISC BRAKES

Shimano was quick to develop hydraulic brakes for use by the pro teams it sponsors, and its current iteration 9120/70 disc brake system is widely used in the pro peloton. Many riders continue to prefer rim brakes though, and Shimano’s standardformat 9100 Dura-ace series comes with these.