Silver Makes A Comeback

Shimano GRX Limited (Image courtesy of Shimano)

 I'm an old school cyclist in some ways. I came up when components were silver. I have had friction shift bikes when I was young. Not that I am in any way a 'retro-grouch', (Older cyclists will know where that term originated from), but there are certain things which I think have gone away that deserve a come back tour, and maybe might make sense today more than ever. (Friction shift front derailleurs for one.)

Anyway, I loved silver anodized components when they were done right. Maybe the pinnacle of beautaciousness when it comes to silver anodized parts is the original Shimano XTR. That stuff was just so good looking when new. It literally glowed. There was a Sugino crank set that was similarly anodized, as I recall, but that entire XTR group back in 1992 was just tops in my opinion.

Levers will also be silver. (Image courtesy of Shimano)

Then everything went black. Even road bike groups ended up becoming all black anodized. Silver was out! While black was cool, and it went with everything.....

Boring!

And to make matters worse, black looked just about like plastic, and the lowest level components could mimic that look with ease. So any attempt to set yourself apart from the crowd with high-end components in terms of aesthetics was pretty muted. 

Now, that is not to say that Shimano hasn't tried. They have. One year XT was silver in the late 90's, but Shimano made it look painted. They kind of carried that look through into this century, and some of that was cool. But it just was not that pearly goodness that XTR had been, nor was it shiny silver anodized in most cases. (There were exceptions)

XTR itself came out in grey hues several times, which I also liked, but again- no cigar when it comes to shiny silver. Maybe being 'pretty' and mountain biking don't go together? Whatever! I missed silver anodized drive train parts!

GRX Limited will only be available as a complete set up, 1X or 2X, or flat bar.

Shimano announced the GRX Limited on Tuesday, and I got a sneak-peek at it via the press release. It's not the same anodization Shimano used on the original XTR, but it is brushed. Sort of a stainless steel look, I guess. I have (hopefully) seen it this morning as you read this as I am supposed to be at the All Things Gravel Expo for a bit before I come home. Stay tuned for my trip report which starts tomorrow.

My hope is that enough interest is seen at the OEM level that silver ano makes a comeback for real. I would love me some shiny bits on my bikes again! And to be honest, I think a dusty GRX Limited will look a heck of a lot nicer than a dusty black ano GRX, but maybe that's just me!