Greetings. I'm Shige, and I couldn't resist the allure of the Camo Vibes, so I ended up buying the Empire LTD MTB. I'll be using them first thing tomorrow.
It’s been a little while, but on Wednesday I went to the Shimano exhibition. It was hectic, but I managed to find some time to drop by. Since it’s held on a Wednesday, when many bike shops are closed, there were plenty of other shops and manufacturers there.
First to greet me at the venue was this item that everyone has been waiting for (presumably?).
Though it's only compatible with electronic shifting, the hydraulic disc-compatible STI levers have finally arrived.
The brake calipers also made their debut. As expected of hydraulic, the feel is excellent. The standard rotor is the 140mm SM-RT99 (XTR grade). Personally, I feel 140mm front and rear is fine, but you could also use an adapter to run 160mm in the front.
Anyway, while I always end up having my eye caught by the brand new stuff, I also made this discovery.
Deore FC-T611 (no guard): ¥8,856
This is the trekking-spec crank for the now 10-speed Deore. It’s a different shade of silver from the mechanical-looking silver Shimano has been using a lot lately, which caught my attention. I'd love to build a commuter bike with this.
BL-T610 (2-finger): ¥2,272 BL-T611 (3-finger): ¥2,710
The brake levers now feature open clamps too. They’d pair well with SimWorks Calsaga!