Starting January 1st, 2024, Shimano will be raising prices.
We'll be raising the price of Nomu Lab wheels soon too.
I'm not sure we have any right to say this, but
the wheel price increases are pretty outrageous, so I thought I'd share the details.
Most of this price adjustment is within 10%, but
some items are increasing well beyond the 10% mark.
Actually, technically it's not a "price increase" but a "price revision," apparently.
Since this isn't raw data from a spreadsheet,
I couldn't immediately figure out how many items are on each page,
but when I printed it out, it came to about 4 columns per centimeter, so
it looks like there are 102 items per page.
There are 11 pages total, but
the 11th page has only 4 items, so
102×10 + 4 comes to 1,024 items.
There might be some margin for error,
but it's definitely around 1,000 items.
And of those, the number of items actually being price-reduced?
Just 5 items.
So even calling this a "price revision" rather than a "price increase"
doesn't really count as sophistry.
Let's start with Altus disc brake wheels,
the WH-R8170.
Shimano's current disc brake wheels from Dura-Ace down to 105
differ in price only between front and rear wheels—
the price doesn't change based on rim height or rim specifications.
The "revision rate" shown in the diagram above
isn't something I calculated—it's the official figure from Shimano.
Since I rounded to one decimal place,
with higher-priced items there's some variance of less than 100 yen,
but that's not worth worrying about.
For example, with the front wheel pre-tax price shown at the top,
117.0% of 82,600 yen comes to 96,642 yen,
but the actual price is 96,667 yen.
Man, talk about a brutal price increase rate.
The WH-R8710 front wheel was
¥66,000 pre-tax / ¥72,600 including tax through the end of 2022,
and when I calculate the revision rate to the 2024 new price
to two decimal places, it comes to
46.46%.
Next is the Dura-Ace WH-R9270.
Unlike Altus,
the rear wheel revision rate is larger.
The 2024 pre-tax list price
for both wheels combined will be 329,634 yen including tax, but
the Bora WTO (non-Ultra) with Shimano freehub body
comes in at 388,300 yen including tax regardless of rim height,
and the actual street price is probably compressed even more, so
personally, I think you might as well just go with the Bora WTO.
By the way, through the end of 2022,
the WH-R9270 list prices including tax were
front wheel ¥107,690, rear wheel ¥125,840.
When I calculate the revision rate to the 2024 price
to two decimal places, it comes to
front wheel only: 40.70%
rear wheel only: 41.53%
both wheels: 41.15%
Like with Altus,
the 2024 front and rear wheel price
works out to roughly the same as
the 2022 front and rear wheels plus another front wheel.
Next up is the 105-grade disc brake wheel.
The RS series is technically classified as a "non-grade grade,"
but this WH-RS710
is listed as 105-grade on Shimano's official website,
so it's fine to call it a "105 wheel."
For 12-speed components, Dura-Ace and Altus
were released simultaneously, but
the 105 wheel came out after
the Altus front wheel had already been raised from
¥66,000 pre-tax, so
the current price is ¥69,100 pre-tax.
Up to around this point, in terms of height-to-weight ratio,
there are better rims out therein the ¥30,000 range or something,
but thinking about the Shimano brand,
you can justify buying a complete wheel set—
that was the last possible line (this is just my opinion).
This time they've casually crossed right over that line.
With this price revision,
chain increases are 1.6% for Tiagra 10-speed
and about 7% for 6-8 speed and 9-speed chains,
but the 12-speed chains from Dura-Ace down to 105
aren't subject to the revision.
However, disc brake pads across the board
are experiencing some seriously harsh increases.
The finned resin pads "L05A"
that come pre-installed on current Dura-Ace through 105
brake calipers
are subject to price increases as shown in the diagram above.
For consumables, this is rough.
Finally.
For reasons unclear,
the WH-R9270 and WH-R8710
C36 and C50 tubeless wheels
are currently out of stock at the factory,
with restocking scheduled for late January to mid-February next year.
Addendum:
This price revision apparently concerns mainly overseas-manufactured products.
Ah, so that's why the 12-speed chain—
since the manufacturer is ××× (self-censored)—
wasn't subject to revision.
There are some products with mysterious price increases.
The HB-RS300: pre-tax/including-tax list price was
2023: ¥2,428 / ¥2,671
2024: ¥2,429 / ¥2,672
a 1-yen increase either way,
with Shimano's revision rate listed as 0.0%.
I'd think the cost of rewriting prices worldwide
would be higher than that.
Interestingly, its corresponding rear hub is
2023: ¥3,700 / ¥4,070
2024: ¥3,963 / ¥4,359
a 7.1% revision rate.
We'll be raising the price of Nomu Lab wheels soon too.
I'm not sure we have any right to say this, but
the wheel price increases are pretty outrageous, so I thought I'd share the details.
Most of this price adjustment is within 10%, but
some items are increasing well beyond the 10% mark.
Actually, technically it's not a "price increase" but a "price revision," apparently.
Since this isn't raw data from a spreadsheet,
I couldn't immediately figure out how many items are on each page,
but when I printed it out, it came to about 4 columns per centimeter, so
it looks like there are 102 items per page.
There are 11 pages total, but
the 11th page has only 4 items, so
102×10 + 4 comes to 1,024 items.
There might be some margin for error,
but it's definitely around 1,000 items.
And of those, the number of items actually being price-reduced?
Just 5 items.
So even calling this a "price revision" rather than a "price increase"
doesn't really count as sophistry.
Let's start with Altus disc brake wheels,
the WH-R8170.
Shimano's current disc brake wheels from Dura-Ace down to 105
differ in price only between front and rear wheels—
the price doesn't change based on rim height or rim specifications.
The "revision rate" shown in the diagram above
isn't something I calculated—it's the official figure from Shimano.
Since I rounded to one decimal place,
with higher-priced items there's some variance of less than 100 yen,
but that's not worth worrying about.
For example, with the front wheel pre-tax price shown at the top,
117.0% of 82,600 yen comes to 96,642 yen,
but the actual price is 96,667 yen.
Man, talk about a brutal price increase rate.
The WH-R8710 front wheel was
¥66,000 pre-tax / ¥72,600 including tax through the end of 2022,
and when I calculate the revision rate to the 2024 new price
to two decimal places, it comes to
46.46%.
Next is the Dura-Ace WH-R9270.
Unlike Altus,
the rear wheel revision rate is larger.
The 2024 pre-tax list price
for both wheels combined will be 329,634 yen including tax, but
the Bora WTO (non-Ultra) with Shimano freehub body
comes in at 388,300 yen including tax regardless of rim height,
and the actual street price is probably compressed even more, so
personally, I think you might as well just go with the Bora WTO.
By the way, through the end of 2022,
the WH-R9270 list prices including tax were
front wheel ¥107,690, rear wheel ¥125,840.
When I calculate the revision rate to the 2024 price
to two decimal places, it comes to
front wheel only: 40.70%
rear wheel only: 41.53%
both wheels: 41.15%
Like with Altus,
the 2024 front and rear wheel price
works out to roughly the same as
the 2022 front and rear wheels plus another front wheel.
Next up is the 105-grade disc brake wheel.
The RS series is technically classified as a "non-grade grade,"
but this WH-RS710
is listed as 105-grade on Shimano's official website,
so it's fine to call it a "105 wheel."
For 12-speed components, Dura-Ace and Altus
were released simultaneously, but
the 105 wheel came out after
the Altus front wheel had already been raised from
¥66,000 pre-tax, so
the current price is ¥69,100 pre-tax.
Up to around this point, in terms of height-to-weight ratio,
there are better rims out there
but thinking about the Shimano brand,
you can justify buying a complete wheel set—
that was the last possible line (this is just my opinion).
This time they've casually crossed right over that line.
With this price revision,
chain increases are 1.6% for Tiagra 10-speed
and about 7% for 6-8 speed and 9-speed chains,
but the 12-speed chains from Dura-Ace down to 105
aren't subject to the revision.
However, disc brake pads across the board
are experiencing some seriously harsh increases.
The finned resin pads "L05A"
that come pre-installed on current Dura-Ace through 105
brake calipers
are subject to price increases as shown in the diagram above.
For consumables, this is rough.
Finally.
For reasons unclear,
the WH-R9270 and WH-R8710
C36 and C50 tubeless wheels
are currently out of stock at the factory,
with restocking scheduled for late January to mid-February next year.
Addendum:
This price revision apparently concerns mainly overseas-manufactured products.
Ah, so that's why the 12-speed chain—
since the manufacturer is ××× (self-censored)—
wasn't subject to revision.
There are some products with mysterious price increases.
The HB-RS300: pre-tax/including-tax list price was
2023: ¥2,428 / ¥2,671
2024: ¥2,429 / ¥2,672
a 1-yen increase either way,
with Shimano's revision rate listed as 0.0%.
I'd think the cost of rewriting prices worldwide
would be higher than that.
Interestingly, its corresponding rear hub is
2023: ¥3,700 / ¥4,070
2024: ¥3,963 / ¥4,359
a 7.1% revision rate.