2 finger to the 2 S's

[one-eyed_jim]

I've been down the mavic, campag, SRAM (well, early gripshift ) and suntour routes in the past. Shimano just works and is made better

For all I agree with the general sentiment, I don't think Shimano have ever made anything that has the build quality of a pair of Suntour XC Pro pedals, or a Mavic rear mech.

They really nailed indexed shifting before anyone else, and have kept up an admirable degree of intercompatibility through the generations, but one of the reasons I'm nostalgic for the early nineties is that Suntour and Sachs and Mavic and Campag were there to bring variety to the market. A lot of that variety went away in the latter half of the decade.