Are Flippy-Shifts going the way of Bio-Pace? 4 or 5 years ago, they tried hard to break into the oe market, now no one that i know of specs them on new bikes. Surely that's the end in sight?

Hopefully not as they are ace ! 😀

ahem*octalink

chains…

octalink is brilliant… pity they did'nt license it out cheaply enough to other manufacturers.

dual control is admittedly ****

but octalink BB's are great – however, the weak link was still the crank/bb interface – the tapers can wear and start to click/creak. HT2 doesnt appear to have the bearing life but doesn't seem to have the creaking issue

Until the bearings wear!

but octalink BB's are great – however, the weak link was still the crank/bb interface

Indeed – a poor piece of design without a proper tapered press fit on the splines. ISIS did that bit so much better. The only advantage of Octalink over ISIS is down to Shimano making their BBs with bigger balls (they had more space with cup/cone rather than cartridge) and generally better sealing – something that could have been done with ISIS.

Just fitted my new XTR dual controls yesterday and they seem better than my older XT ones.I love em !!!

one thing they have never done a good job of is headsets.

Tried some a few years ago and just couldn't get on with them. Do the new ones still have loads of play in them? Always struck me as an accident waiting to happen really.

No play in them mate.Just a sod to bleed as the resovoir is on the bottom of the dual control set up.

without a proper tapered press fit on the splines. ISIS did that bit so much better.

was that irony or sarcasm? neither isis nor octalink taper

and for the record I quite like octalink – its advantage over isis was that being all made by shimano, it fitted together properly, with isis if you were unlucky, the bb was a different size to the crank and the fit would be wobbly forever because of tolerance in the manufacture.

neither isis nor octalink taper

Octalink doesn't, ISIS does but it's fractional, about 2mm IIRC. It's supposed to make the crank a snug fit although on one of my BB's it just meant that the LH crank wouldn't tighten fully onto the axle, there was a gap of about 1mm.

I love the Dual Control levers. The early ones felt a little flimsy sometimes but the newer ones are really nice, a good solid "gate" on the shifting action, no accidental shifting, no play and the usual really nice Shimano lever shape.

crazy-legs; I stand corrected ISIS it's a one degree taper.

ISIS does have a taper.

+1 for Dual shifters set up correctly they are easy shifting.Although i have now moved all my gear shifting to Sram it is sooooooooo much better than any Shitemano

I rode a bike fitted with dual controls last week. At first I couldn't shape,but after a couple of minutes found it really intuitive,similar to changeing gear on a motor bike,or a sequential 'box .