Is it just me...

[ovlov440]

....or do many of the current crop of Shimano road chainsets look like the cheapy ones you get on a BSO? I saw a bike with full (modern) black Ultegra on it and in my eyes it looks very very cheap - nothing like the 6500/6600 stuff I have which looks classy.

Or is it just me?

 

[pigman]

no, youre right, they do look crap. Its that big blank area in the middle that does it. The silver version looks worse than black. Having said that, I thought the Mavic starfish chainset looked cheap and crap for the same reason and that is officially retro.

 

[Woz]

Agree. Shimano obviously got inspiration from baking a pie.

 

[jonnyboy666]

i have thought this for a long time, the modern dura ace chainset to me looks like the mtb basic SIS version

 

[ovlov440]

crap aren't they? Technically speaking I am sure they are better, stiffer lighter etc but to me this looks so much nicer

 

[Woz]

To top it all, road seems to be going 4 arms too - which as we know is just wrong.

 

[jonnyboy666]

specifically the newest dura ace is really ugly in 4 arm, the massive gap opposite the crank arm is just awful.

 

[ovlov440]

...exactly - you drop £2-4k on a new bike and it looks like something you won in a cracker

 

[lewisfoto]

Agreed the 7900 is ugly but quite frankly a step up from 7800

 

[jonnyboy666]

i don't know, i prefer the 7800 as it's silver/polished, and amongst the dullness of modern carbon black boring dull uninteresting stuff it actually stands out by comparison