A mech is a pretty simple bit of equipment. Do all manufacturers own patents for their specific designs? Surely they cant all hold patents for, or license the basic mech design? So why don't we get cheap Chinese xtr equivalents? 

Feel free to use falcon fis – microshift or suntour mechs………………….

Rather you than me

…because at the moment the generics aren't providing the quality of shifting (or innovation) required by enthusiasts such as us. If you're bimbling along the road with the family, fair enough, no pressure. Riding up some grotty rocky hill at some speed, where a mis-shift could leave you sprawled all over the ground – personally I'll stick with the established names 🙂

Why bother whe you can get cheap Japanese mechs? Never heard of Deore? Or Tourney 😉

Because they already are the XT/XTR/X-0.

Why do we accept the current over inflated prices for said established mechs? £180 for X-0 rear mech, would like to see the justification on that.

Raw materials have increased but not that much, haven't seen the price of aluminium Jags and Audis increasing by 60% and it's the same raw materials.

As far as I know the Chinese do make loads of mechs, mainly cheap ones for the mass market. I should imagine the XTR market is probably too small for them to bother with.
For Shimano XTR exists to showcase their research and development wing and generate interest in Shimano as a company. Despite the high prices I'd be surprised if XTR sales contributed significantly to Shimano's profits.

Why bother whe you can get cheap Japanese mechs? Never heard of Deore?

deore is £50 now though 🙁

hungry monkey – Member

Why bother whe you can get cheap Japanese mechs? Never heard of Deore?

deore is £50 now though

Course it is!

it's expensive, but if you look at the level of surface engineering that goes into the higher end kit, you'd be amazed. It takes a huge infrastructure and lots of capital to produce those. I wouldnt bother myself, seen as xtr and xt sell in relatively low volumes.

Well I for one will be giving this a go next time.. Never even thought about looking at Suntour stuff… 🙂
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=33517

Shop window "Look at what we can make" excercise isn't it…

Same in the Automotive trade the Volkswagen group can produce a 1000BHP supercar, charge you a million quid for it and everyone is very impressed, but they barely cover the Cost of manufacture with that sale price, their bread and butter is flogging Golfs, Polos and A4s to normal people…

In much the same way the XTR/XX groups are really a technical exercise with a consumer price tag that all but the top 5% (in terms of bicycle bugets) can justify buying, as with anything the “trickle down” rule applies…

Whilst the xtr and xx stuff is nice, is there really anything technically difficult about their manufacture? And are the R&D costs high for these evolutionary rather than revolutionary products?

They are more “technical exercises” than anything else, the first chance Shimano/SRAM get to roll out new tooling, materials and manufacturing methods, to early adopter, high price point customers.

Like you say evolution rather than revolution, but then what’s so bad about that, for every 5 years of evolution your mid range drive train becomes a touch lighter, more durable and gains the odd minor feature, in theory…

Off topic but I'd like to know how Merlin are selling Deore rear mechs that cheap?!?

RRP is £50 so I reckon the trade price can't be much below £25.

I thought that Shimano had patents covering all the decent aspects of their design(s), that unless you can come up with something new (and quite possibly not actually as good) you'll end up infringing on them?