Is Sram a threat to Shimano's dominance?
Shimano has grown to a cycling market colossus since entering the market in the 1970s. In the 90s it was virtually the only option for a complete Mountain Bike group set, and did battle with Campagnolo for the road bike segment. Fallow Japanese brand Suntour was forced out of the market by then, and Shimano has continued to grow.
But then a new American company started to break into the market, and instead of taking the time to develop need products to compete with Shimano, they borrowed and bought companies that already had great products. They bought Truvativ for cranks and BBs, Avid for breaks, even Rock Shok a major player for suspension. At this point Sram had major leverage with OEMs to use their parts. If they bought the entire range of Sram parts OEMs could get outstanding pricing on more than brakes and shifting.
Sram then started moving into the road market, and they bought Zipp- the high end rim/wheel marker for the aero wheel market. However Sram branded parts have never made much of a dent, and they have never moved into the MTB segment and Shimano still sells a large number of MTB and road wheels.
So despite Sram so aggressively chasing Shimano's market share why is Shimano still so dominant?
-Firstly their equipment works extremely well. Their shifting front and rear is the bench mark for quality, they may not be the lightest but they are damn close.
-Shimano may not be the lightest option, but they are competitive
-But most importantly they still have volume. Many people still choose Shimano over Sram because they id what they have used before and that is what they are used to. They trust Shimano to give excellent performance durability and replacement parts cost (a huge money spinner from OEM sales).
-Shimano has stayed towards the front of technology, but Sram have been jumping on "bandwagons" to try and get sales with the latest trends. But Sram haven't been able to offer the market something the customer wants so badly that Shimano hasn’t to win a huge amount of share. BB30 has played well for Sram stealing some of the high end, but then you can fit a Shimano crank with an adaptor if wanted, and its not like XTR or Dura Ace are heavy noodles!
So Sram hasn't been able to deal a technology trump card to win the hearts of customers and product managers. So what could help propel them higher in market share?
The fact that Sram is smaller and tries to be more "innovative" might help them get some of the next major tech advancements to market sooner.
Hydraulic brakes for cyclo cross and road might be one of the next goals for Sram. The UCI has just allowed discs for cyclo cross racing, and frame manufacturers are all adding mounting tabs to frames and Forks for 2012. Currently you have two choices for running discs with road brakes:
-Cable actuated disc brakes
-Cable to hydraulic adaptors.
Neither of these options are much good. Cable brakes just don't feel as good or brake as well. The converter boxes are heavy and ugly.
If Sram were able to develop a hydraulic master cylinder into the next Red briftors, then trickle down into other groupsets, they may win a lot of hearts in CX, and even high level recreational road cycling (still not allowed in UCI road races).
However Shimano will follow and at some point Sram will have to compete again.
Sram has already missed the electric shifting "buzz" (pun intended) that Mavic tried many years ago, and now Shimano is perfecting after a few years in the market and now too Campagnolo is about to start selling. Sram doesn't seem interested in electric and markets heavily against it.
So what tech could they offer? Well there have been many rumours, and FULL HYDRAULIC could be the answer. If Sram were to offer the positive maintenance free shifting of the Acros hydraulic shifting, along with hydraulic braking, but at a lower price than the $2000 Acros system (for only front and rear shifting) then they would have some major tech that gives customers some Shimano isn't.
As I've commented previously I believe hydraulic shifting is the future. Electric has a tech factor, but it isn't really loved by everyone. If Sram were to offer hydraulic MTB and road shifting it could really start to challenge Shimano in the high end market. They may be able to offer complete groups to customers for the price of Acros' shifting only, and then work hard on OEM sales to get market penetration.
I'm a Shimano man for my MTB, but if Sram offered a full hydraulic MTB system I'd change, no questions asked. And if they offered a good hydraulic shifting system for my road bike I'd be there too. I don't feel the need for discs on my road bike, but Its not hard to see that who ever get hydraulic discs in a road briftor will win large share in the CX market.
So there are opportunities for Sram to hurt Shimano. We will just have ot wait and see if they can pull the right punches and fast enough.
Tags: drivetrain, shifting
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