Re: [Hampshire] OOo 3.1 supports anti-aliasing

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:08:08 +0100
Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@???> wrote:

> I'd be interested to know which 'open source' bicycle components you
> use! :P Sram? Campag? Are they any better? I'm using Shimano on my
> road bike, but historically I prefer Campag, but I've never really
> felt any other company has a better 'attitude'. What's your feeling?

there are lots of 'open source' component makers who have difficulty in
keeping up with changes shimano makes every year (or used to, I haven't
been in the market for components for several years and what I have on
the bike will almost certainly last me out).

Shimano were notorious for introducing changes in parts which were not
backwards compatible with the previous year and which made it hard for
third party suppliers to keep up.

I moved from Shimano to SRAM or rather their predecessors in part
because they were the first to offer the twist grip style of gear
changer and as a cross country racer thought this method of gear
changing was significantly better than the various trigger changers
Shimano tried over the years.

Previously I'd been using thumb shifters (and still have a pair of XT
shifters if any one wants to go retro) and liked the ability to shift
from one end of the sprocket to the other in one movement. Trigger
shifters didn't allow this whereas twist grips do.

Another dislike of mine were those special pins you needed for shimano
chains, which were the sort of thing you'd easily drop and lose on the
trail when attempting to repair a broken chain. So I started using
an alternative continental chain which used a replaceable link and
SRAM adopted this design for their chains.

It was my personal opinion that Shimano gave more emphasis to
marketing, continually making changes to make life difficult for 'after
market' suppliers and less emphasis to customer likes. Much like
a certain producer of software.

And like MS, shimano have almost a complete monopoly on the cheap end
of the market so users tend to think they are the only makers. I did
notice though when visiting bike shop in France that this wasn't so
obviously the case on cheap bikes over there.

If I bought a road bike I'd certainly specify campag in preference to
shimano. My first road bikes had UK/European made components that
had more or less disappeared, apart from Campag, by the mid 1950s when I
ceased competitive road racing. Ageing memory doesn't now allow me to
recall the names of the makers. ('Benelux' just jumped into my mind)

I currently have an Italian frame, saddle and forks, French wheels,
British bars/stem/chainset and US gears, the bike being built ca2000.

I hadn't ridden it for at least two years for one reason or another but
decided to ride the Somerset Levels Heart Ride 3 weeks ago and got just
fit enough to complete the 27 mile route last Sunday. My next challenge
is the 30 km Dorset Dirt off-road ride in September.

My only problem with this is that Somerset seems to be almost bridleway
free, unlike Dorset, so most training in going to have to be on road
as I want to avoid using the car to get to start of rides.


--
John Lewis
using Debian Sid with windowmaker for a nicer desktop