Quantcast

Is Shimano Saint dead?

Wuffles

Monkey
Feb 24, 2016
157
98
gravel was more important :D
To their bottom line it probably was. Gravel is the new hotness for roadies now that they've realized pedaling on asphalt is kinda boring.

The market for (gravel) road bikes and groupsets is probably like 50x bigger than it is for DH bikes, at least based on what a Specialized rep told me about their sales (that was 2016, but the numbers were roughly for every Demo they sold, they sold 5 Enduros, 10 Epics, and 50 Tarmacs/Venge/Roubaix's).
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,005
Seattle
To their bottom line it probably was. Gravel is the new hotness for roadies now that they've realized pedaling on asphalt is kinda boring.

The market for (gravel) road bikes and groupsets is probably like 50x bigger than it is for DH bikes, at least based on what a Specialized rep told me about their sales (that was 2016, but the numbers were roughly for every Demo they sold, they sold 5 Enduros, 10 Epics, and 50 Tarmacs/Venge/Roubaix's).
Yeah it's of no real interest to me personally, but I'm sure the gravel stuff is way more profitable than a new Saint group for Shimano. The other thing is, even though it's 10 speed and not the latest and greatest, the only thing I'd really want them to update on a new Saint is making the goddamn brakes work properly, and they've never shown any interest on fixing the well documented reliability issues on any of the other lines, so I have zero reason to think they would with Saint M830 or whatever you want to call it.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,441
Saint shifters are the reason I bought I bought the Archer electronic shifter, somebody on here linked it after I mentioned my shit thumb. I now have have a Saint mech only on my bike running 11 speed with a Sunrace cassette and Yaban chain.
 

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,504
In hell. Welcome!
Saint shifters are the reason I bought I bought the Archer electronic shifter, somebody on here linked it after I mentioned my shit thumb. I now have have a Saint mech only on my bike running 11 speed with a Sunrace cassette and Yaban chain.
Was me. How do you like the setup? I still dig mine.
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,005
Seattle
Saint shifters are the reason I bought I bought the Archer electronic shifter, somebody on here linked it after I mentioned my shit thumb. I now have have a Saint mech only on my bike running 11 speed with a Sunrace cassette and Yaban chain.
Are you using some kind of extended derailleur cage for that? I remember the Saint pretty much maxing out at 36t cassettes.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,441
Was me. How do you like the setup? I still dig mine.
I haven't had a chance to try it, a lack of mechanical skills saw my freehub drive die just before it arrived.
I waited for the new model to come out as I want to do some overnight trips and it has a lot longer battery life compared to the first one, shifts a bit quicker too.

Are you using some kind of extended derailleur cage for that? I remember the Saint pretty much maxing out at 36t cassettes.
Nah I bought a road cassette, it's the same as my 10spd 11-36 but adds a 12t to the mix that is more benefit to me than a 100t first gear, plus the clutch is less likely to shit out with the short cage.
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,005
Seattle
I haven't had a chance to try it, a lack of mechanical skills saw my freehub drive die just before it arrived.
I waited for the new model to come out as I want to do some overnight trips and it has a lot longer battery life compared to the first one, shifts a bit quicker too.


Nah I bought a road cassette, it's the same as my 10spd 11-36 but adds a 12t to the mix that is more benefit to me than a 100t first gear, plus the clutch is less likely to shit out with the short cage.
Gotcha. What bike's this on?

I've still got an 11-34 10 speed setup on my hardtail. Ride it up hills a bunch and I haven't died yet.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,010
1,143
El Lay
I wanna say I fucking love Shimano shifting quality overall and hope they don't go under or leave the category. I recently threw.a fresh XT GS derailleur on and that shit is so dialed right now.

Being late to market with everything, the best (?) disc brake master cylinder design marred for years by QC issues, the recent XT cassette debacle (hack a granny gear on rather than a legit trail gear spread), maybe Saint going away... I could name about 10 more component technical things that are all bad signs before I even get to how they always lose when it comes to marketing sexiness vs the competition.

:(
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,628
5,441
Do it all poorly ha
Gotcha. What bike's this on?

I've still got an 11-34 10 speed setup on my hardtail. Ride it up hills a bunch and I haven't died yet.
It's on a do it all poorly hardtail.

Yeah I'm grossly overweight and it's not too bad, if I was a normal size human I couldn't really see me needing any lower ratios for where I live.