Saturday News And Views

Shimano drops Deore 12 speed this last week. You know what that means?

NOTE: Back in the day I used to run a "News And Views" post whenever news arose. Well, some things dropped at the end of the week and I already had a full FN&V post done, so I am bringing back a G-Ted Productions tradition.....

12 Speed Drops To Deore Level:

 Twelve speed trickles down another step. This past week Shimano released news of its 12 speed Deore level group with all the features of the upper gruppos only a little heavier and not quite as smoothly finished as XTR, XT, or SLX.

Of course, this pushes 11 speed down as well, which is now going to be found at the Deore M5100 level. Wait! Don't I mean Alivio? Nope. Shimano is actually making three levels of Deore now. 12, 11, and 10 speed. Alivio is refreshed, but remains 9 speed. When Shimano does things like this, you'd better pay attention if you are running 10 speed and especially you 9 speed folks, because this stuff will be getting pushed out to the cheaper groups and premium level parts will all be 11 speed and 12 speed in the very near future. Oh....and there was no mention of anything 8 speed. Although I am sure it exists, it isn't getting a refresh, so, again, pay attention to that tidbit.


This also means that 12 speed makes Deore MicroSpline, further pushing the old style free hub design to the back of the room, quality-wise. Of course, the other result of this is that 2X is now only 11 speed and 10 speed. Essentially the lower end of Deore, and in the future? Probably this will remain in the lowest end groups only.

The Deore 11's group.

In terms of new bikes, this also means that Deore is pretty much going to be a very confusing sale in bike shops and especially online. With three levels of the group, you are going to get folks thinking one bike, say with the Deore 12's, is 'overpriced' when they 'can get the same bike' for less with Deore somewhere else. But will that be Deore 10's? Yeah...... Have fun with that retailers.

Finally, you gotta wonder when MicroSpline comes to GRX for gravel, or........wait for it........ROAD BIKES!!! Oh yeah! That will be a day of reckoning that I believe is coming VERY soon. Yes, that means all your old, fancy-pants wheel sets will instantly be obsolete. SRAM will have to decide where to go at that point because traditional free hub tech will be essentially a dodo bird waiting to go extinct. Shimano already has aftermarket wheel and hub folks doing MicroSpline for mtb, and they aren't going to want another proprietary hub deal from SRAM. Not that SRAM won't do it, but yeah.... Interesting times ahead.

Note: Images courtesy of Shimano.

Iconic wheel and component manufacturer, MAVIC, seems to be in trouble.

 Confusion At MAVIC:

An icon of the road scene, MAVIC, seems to be in some sort of financial trouble. According to this story on "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News", the wheel maker may not be owned by who we were led to believe. Furthermore, the French press is reporting the the company is in receivership.

I have noted that a mechanic's Facebook page has had several comments posted by many North American based mechanics saying that their e-mails and calls for service parts and technical help have not been returned by MAVIC. Clearly, something is amiss. I remember the last time I worked on a MAVIC wheel, in 2019, it was a real pain to get parts at that time. This is not good news for shop mechanics.

This is bad news for anyone with MAVIC wheels in the future as it would appear that much of their technology is not being supported now and if the brand is really in financial trouble, it could mean those with MAVIC hubs and wheels may have some instant antiques on their hands. Hopefully something comes out of this on the positive side, but as a veteran of 20 years in this industry, usually brands come out on the other side with a clear cut-off from their past, if they make it out at all.

The Sterile Iowan is one of a few events still planning on taking place this Summer.

 Gravel Event Promoters Back At It: 

With several states starting to lift restrictions on businesses and movement, I'm starting to see some event promoters push out there events again. Some are holding to their original dates, and of these, most are in July/August. But some, like the Sterile Iowan, never quit promoting and that particular event is scheduled for May 30th.

Many more events I am aware of are modifying their formats radically to accommodate social distancing suggestions. Things like solo course challenges, dates expanded to weeks or even months to complete courses, in some cases, and electronic challenges on trainers are happening now and throughout the Summer.

Of course, many events are postponed to Fall. The 'hot date' seems to be September 18th, with the week before, the 12th, being a close second. I'm still not real sure that this will work out for those events, but all the best to them the same. Once September passes, things seem to ease up, but postponed events are scheduled throughout October also. This is going to be a crazy Fall season, assuming things don't flare up again with this virus.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

That's it for today. Have a great weekend!