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Shimano, Inc. (Template:Otcbb, FWB: SHM) is a multinational Japanese manufacturer of cycling components, fishing tackle, and snowboarding equipment.

In 2005, the company had net sales of US$1.4 billion. Bicycle components provided 75 % of its sales income. Fishing tackle produced 23 % of the company' sales income, while other products—including snowboarding equipment and other forged parts—produced about 2 % of its sales income. Previous to 2005, Shimano produced golf equipment. It discontinued that business because it wasn't profitable.

Headquartered in Osaka, Japan, the company has 32 consolidated subsidiaries and 11 unconsolidated subsidiaries. It's primary manufacturing plants are in Kunshan, Malaysia, and Singapore, while its sales are in Europe (41 % of total sales) and North America (17 %).

Shimano is publicly traded an has 102.8 million shares of common stock outstanding.^[1]

Cycling

Shimano products include drivetrain, brake, wheel and pedal components for leisure, road and mountain bikes. These components are generally organised and sold as groupsets intended to be supplied as a near complete collection of a bicycle's mechanical parts.

Groupsets commonly include: crankset comprising cranks and chainrings; bottom bracket; chain; rear gear cogs or cassette; front and rear wheel hubs; gear shift levers; brakes; brake levers; cables; front and rear gear mechanisms or derailleurs. Shimano Total Integration (STI) is Shimano's integrated shifter and brake lever combination for racing bicycles.

The Italian firm Campagnolo is a competitor as the other major manufacturer of road groupsets. SRAM is a competitor as the other major manufacturer of mountain bike groupsets, though they are now introducing a road groupset as well. SRAM and Shimano also compete strongly in the leisure and commuter market, primarily in Europe.

When the 1970s United States bike boom exceeded the capacity of the American and European bicycle component manufacturers, Japanese manufacturers SunTour and Shimano rapidly stepped in to fill the void. While both companies provided products for all price-ranges of the market, SunTour also focused on refinement of existing systems and designs for higher end products, while Shimano initally paid more attention to rethinking the basic systems and bringing out innovations such as Positron shifting (a precursor to index shifting) and front freewheel systems at the low end of the market.

In the 1970s, with the vigorous competition between SunTour and Shimano pushing technological innovation and quality of fabrication rapidly forward, the more traditionalist European component manufacturers lost significant market presence. This left SunTour and Shimano close at the top of the international market, Campagnolo with a firm hold on the small high-end road racing market, and the rest of the European manufacturers headed for obscurity (outside of Europe) by the early 1980s. During this period, in contrast to the near-universal marketing technique of introducing innovations on the expensive side of the marketplace and relying on consumer demand to emulate early adopters along with economy of scale to bring them into the mass market, Shimano and SunTour (to a lesser extent) introduced new technologies at the lowest end of the bicycle market, using lower cost and often heavier and less durable materials and techniques, only moving them further upscale if they established themselves in the lower market segments.

In the 1980-1983 period, Shimano made a bold and nearly fatal move to completely rethink bicycle technology simultaneously at all product levels with what they called "AX" technology. The marketplace had a very negative response to this purely engineering-driven innovation, which went as far as requiring cyclists to purchase a differently sized bicycle frame just to use AX equipment. SunTour quickly vaulted to the top position in the market and Shimano seemed headed for obscurity.

However, by 1985 Shimano completely reinvented itself as an innovator responding to input from consumers, racers, and retailers. Part of this new strategy was to introduce innovation only at the highest quality level (DuraAce for road bikes and Deore XT for mountain bikes), then trickle the technology down to lower product levels as is became proven and accepted. One of the key innovations from this period was index shifting. SunTour tried to catch up to this technological leap, but by the end of the 1980s SunTour had lost the technological and commercial battle and Shimano had achieved the status as the largest manufacturer of bicycle components in the world.

Shimano's marketplace domination that developed in the 1990s quickly led to the perception by some critics that Shimano had become a marketplace bully with monopolistic intentions. This viewpoint was based on the fact that Shimano became oriented towards integrating all of their components with each other, with the result being that if any Shimano components were to be used, then the entire bike would need to be built from matching Shimano components. The alternate perspective is that by controlling the mix of componentry on the bicycle, a manufacturer such as Shimano can control how well their own product functions. Shimano's primary competitors (Campagnolo and SRAM) also make proprietary designs that limit the opportunity to mix and match componentry. In a technology-driven industry such as the bicycle industry, which has not demonstrated a proactive attitude toward standardization throughout it's 100+ year history, the market leader will always be criticized as monopolistic when introducing propietary innovations. Shimano seems to cycle between this "integrated system" approach and more open approaches as it tries to find a balance between the market's desire for innovation and the market's desire for openess and flexibility.

For the most recent example, in 2003 Shimano introduced "Dual Control" to mountain bikes, where the gear shift mechanism is integrated into the brake levers, and reintroduced the "Rapid Rise" rear derailleur which works in the opposite direction to traditional derailleurs. This development was controversial: critics viewed it as an attempt to monopolise the mountain bike components market: the use of Dual Control integrated shifting requires the use of Shimano brake levers (though other brand brakes are compatible); and the Rapid Rise derailleur is believed to work more effectively with the Dual Control system. But with their 2007 product line, Shimano has moved back to making separate braking and shifting components fully available in addition to the integrated "Dual Control" components.

Shimano introduced the SPD range of clipless pedals and matching shoes designed specifically for off road use. Conventional clipless pedals are designed for road cycling shoes which have smooth soles, which are not much use for off-road cyclists who frequently need to push their bikes up slippery slopes or pull their bikes out of a mudbath. The SPD range, in addition to other off-road refinements, where designed to be used with treaded soles that more closely resemble rugged hiking boots. SPD pedals and shoes soon established themselves as the market standard in this sector, although many other manufacturers have developed alternatives which are arguably less prone to being clogged by mud and/or easier to adjust. However, the SPD dominance in this sector has meant that alternative pedal manufacturers nearly always design their pedals to be usable with Shimano shoes, and likewise mountain bike shoe manufacturers make their shoes "Shimano SPD" compatible.

Lance Armstrong's 1999 victory in the Tour de France on a Shimano Dura-Ace equipped Trek was the first time Shimano components had been used to win the grand tour. In 2002, Dura-Ace equipped bikes were ridden to victory in the Tour de France (Lance Armstrong), Giro d'Italia (Paolo Savoldelli), and Vuelta a España (Aitor González), marking the first time Shimano componentry had been used to win all three grand tours. World championships in both the road and time trial disciplines were won on Shimano equipment.

Armstrong has also raced on Look pedals repainted and covered with the Shimano logo. ^{[citation needed]}

Many people believe that "VIA", which is stamped on all Shimano parts, is a form of corporate logo, since it does not appear on Campagnolo parts, for instance. In fact, VIA is an official approval stamp used to certify parts of Japanese vehicles - including bicycles. This mark signifies compliance with certain quality standards, and is similar to the "UL" (Underwriter Laboratories) mark.

Road bicycle groupsets

For 2006, road bicycle groupsets include:

Dura-Ace (10 speed)
Ultegra (10 speed)
105 (10 speed)
Tiagra (9 speed)
Sora (8 speed)
2200 (8 speed)

Mountain bike groupsets

Current mountain bike groupsets include:

Saint - This is the top of the range for downhill and freeride bikes
Hone
XTR - This is the top of the range for cross-country mountain bikes
Deore XT
Deore LX
Deore
Alivio
Acera
Altus
Tourney - this includes several different levels of quality, and can be found on department-store bicycles.

External links

References

^ Shimano Annual Report, 2005 (English)

[1] Shimano Annual Report, 2005 (English)

[1]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 Shimano's marketplace domination that developed in the [[1990s]] quickly led to the perception by some critics that Shimano had become a marketplace bully with monopolistic intentions. This viewpoint was based on the fact that Shimano became oriented towards integrating all of their components with each other, with the result being that if any Shimano components were to be used, then the entire bike would need to be built from matching Shimano components. The alternate perspective is that by controlling the mix of componentry on the bicycle, a manufacturer such as Shimano can control how well their own product functions. Shimano's primary competitors (Campagnolo and SRAM) also make proprietary designs that limit the opportunity to mix and match componentry. In a technology-driven industry such as the bicycle industry, which has not demonstrated a proactive attitude toward standardization throughout it's 100+ year history, the market leader will always be criticized as monopolistic when introducing propietary innovations. Shimano seems to cycle between this "integrated system" approach and more open approaches as it tries to find a balance between the market's desire for innovation and the market's desire for openess and flexibility.
-For the most recent example, in 2003 Shimano introduced "Dual Control" to mountain bikes, where the gear shift mechanism is integrated into the brake levers, and reintroduced the "Rapid Rise" rear derailleur which works in the opposite direction to traditional derailleurs. This development was controversial: critics viewed it as an attempt to monopolise the mountain bike components market because the use of Dual Control integrated shifting requires the use of Shimano brakes, and the Rapid Rise derailleur is believed to work more effectively with the Dual Control system. But with their 2007 product line, Shimano has moved back to making separate braking and shifting components fully available in addition to the integrated "Dual Control" components.
+For the most recent example, in 2003 Shimano introduced "Dual Control" to mountain bikes, where the gear shift mechanism is integrated into the brake levers, and reintroduced the "Rapid Rise" rear derailleur which works in the opposite direction to traditional derailleurs. This development was controversial: critics viewed it as an attempt to monopolise the mountain bike components market: the use of Dual Control integrated shifting requires the use of Shimano brake levers (though other brand brakes are compatible); and the Rapid Rise derailleur is believed to work more effectively with the Dual Control system. But with their 2007 product line, Shimano has moved back to making separate braking and shifting components fully available in addition to the integrated "Dual Control" components.
 Shimano introduced the SPD range of clipless pedals and matching shoes designed specifically for off road use. Conventional clipless pedals are designed for road cycling shoes which have smooth soles, which are not much use for off-road cyclists who frequently need to push their bikes up slippery slopes or pull their bikes out of a mudbath. The SPD range, in addition to other off-road refinements, where designed to be used with treaded soles that more closely resemble rugged hiking boots. SPD pedals and shoes soon established themselves as the market standard in this sector, although many other manufacturers have developed alternatives which are arguably less prone to being clogged by mud and/or easier to adjust. However, the SPD dominance in this sector has meant that alternative pedal manufacturers nearly always design their pedals to be usable with Shimano shoes, and likewise mountain bike shoe manufacturers make their shoes "Shimano SPD" compatible.