Another day of wheel building (and so on).
I built the rear wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
using an XTR quick hub.
Not from our shop, but
it seems to be from when the wholesaler brought in the rim,
and there was already a monochrome sticker
of the newer color pasted on it from the start.
Well, I'll peel it off anyway
I'll mention it upfront: the nipples are rainbow-colored (VAS) configuration.
FH-M965, 32H, semi-competition 4-cross JIS lacing.
I'll do the truing later.
It says "JAPAN" on the hub barrel.
Shimano seems to do price revisions about twice a year.
Oops, not "price increases" but rather "price adjustments."
There are a very small number of items with small adjustment margins that have actually gone down,
and they seem to want to say "it's not just increases" based on that.
The only case of a major price cut I've seen in the past
was the R55C3 brake shoes for rim brakes.
This was because production switched
from domestic Japanese manufacturing to Malaysian manufacturing,
but even at that time the current latest model,
the R55C4 shoes, had already come out,
so there probably weren't many people
deliberately choosing to buy the previous version brake shoes,
and it's not very well known.
Furthermore, the even older R55C2 shoes wear quickly
and often pick up metal fragments,
but if you can maintain them carefully,
they're gentler on the rim, and I like them.
Oh, I'm getting off track.
Shimano seems to do price revisions about twice a year,
but the actual frequency of price revisions is about once a year.
However, it's true that they announce price revisions
about twice a year.
The reason for this is
that the timing of price revisions differs
between domestic and overseas-made products.
The price revision starting November 1st
will only affect overseas-made products.
The reason wheels are getting more expensive (I don't say "price adjustment" because
there are no items being discounted) is because
complete wheelsets are made overseas,
and complete wheelsets have never been manufactured
domestically since the very first 7700-series wheels.
What I find personally interesting here is
the price revision of chains.
No component manufacturer, I suspect,
makes chains entirely in-house.
Even Campagnolo is likely having them made by
"the only manufacturer that makes nothing but bicycle chains for Campagnolo."
The 12-speed and 11-speed chains, and even the 10-speed
CN-6701 and CN-6600 are made by
a major Japanese chain manufacturer—
it's an open secret (though it might just be
an open secret that I think that, so I'll leave it at that),
but in November's price revision, these higher-grade chains
are again excluded from the adjustment.
The previous 10-speed Tiagra CN-4601
and (the current 4700-series isn't CN-4700 but
CN-HG54, merged with Deore)
and the 9-speed chain CN-HG53,
and the 6-8 speed chain CN-HG40
are overseas-made products, so they're subject to the price revision.
Particularly CN-HG53 had a dramatic price increase at one point,
because even with internal cost-cutting efforts,
Shimano couldn't absorb the massive price hike imposed by the manufacturer.
I've also written about CN-HG53 in
（→these places）and
（→here）.
Oh, I'm getting sidetracked again.
Anyway, regarding the November price revision,
budget-grade hubs are also affected.
In Shimano's road component lineup,
the "Dura-Ace road hub" finished production in the previous-generation 9000 series,
which was naturally made in Japan
(the Dura-Ace track hub continues to be produced).
The grading outside of grades, the Road Series (RS), has hubs where
the tens digit becomes 7 for disc hubs.
There's an HB (FH)-RS400 hub for rim brakes,
and its disc hub version is HB (FH)-RS470.
The RS series tops out at the 700-series,
and 700-series hubs only come in disc versions,
but the model number is HB (FH)-RS770.
And all these hubs are also overseas-made products, so
they're subject to the November price revision.
And when I saw that list, I was surprised to discover
that the current XTR hubs
have become overseas-made products.
Shimano's MTB components have extreme price gaps between grades
compared to their road components,
and XTR is far more expensive than the XT below it.
Here, comparing the current BOOST hub retail prices
for XTR and XT, which are the same spec,
for the front hub:
XTR HB-9110-B ¥32,168 (¥33,275 from November)
XT HB-M8110-B ¥10,649 (¥11,014 from November)
About three times the price difference, but that's the front hub,
so there's no freebody price difference component.
Moving on to the rear hub:
XTR FH-M9111-B ¥53,178 (¥55,322 from November)
XT FH-M8110-B ¥18,454 (¥19,092 from November)
Unlike the front hub, it's
not exactly three times the price difference,
but the actual differences are front hub about ¥22,000
and rear hub about ¥35,000,
and in absolute terms rather than percentages,
the rear hub difference is larger
due to the freebody component price difference.
XTR and XT cranksets are domestic-made products, so
they're outside this price revision,
but comparing retail prices with the same specs,
the standard front double gear versions are:
XTR FC-M9100-2 ¥82,843
XT FC-M8100-2 ¥30,410
respectively.
What I'm getting at is,
the latest XTR hubs aren't even domestically made anymore, yet
they apparently still maintain the price gap
from when XT was domestic-made, probably just because
"it's XTR,"
which seems awfully cheeky, doesn't it?
That's what I was thinking looking at
the old XTR hubs with "JAPAN" (made in Japan) marked on them.
I built the rear wheel for Nomu Lab Wheel No. 5
using an XTR quick hub.
Not from our shop, but
it seems to be from when the wholesaler brought in the rim,
and there was already a monochrome sticker
of the newer color pasted on it from the start.
I'll mention it upfront: the nipples are rainbow-colored (VAS) configuration.
FH-M965, 32H, semi-competition 4-cross JIS lacing.
I'll do the truing later.
It says "JAPAN" on the hub barrel.
Shimano seems to do price revisions about twice a year.
Oops, not "price increases" but rather "price adjustments."
There are a very small number of items with small adjustment margins that have actually gone down,
and they seem to want to say "it's not just increases" based on that.
The only case of a major price cut I've seen in the past
was the R55C3 brake shoes for rim brakes.
This was because production switched
from domestic Japanese manufacturing to Malaysian manufacturing,
but even at that time the current latest model,
the R55C4 shoes, had already come out,
so there probably weren't many people
deliberately choosing to buy the previous version brake shoes,
and it's not very well known.
Furthermore, the even older R55C2 shoes wear quickly
and often pick up metal fragments,
but if you can maintain them carefully,
they're gentler on the rim, and I like them.
Oh, I'm getting off track.
Shimano seems to do price revisions about twice a year,
but the actual frequency of price revisions is about once a year.
However, it's true that they announce price revisions
about twice a year.
The reason for this is
that the timing of price revisions differs
between domestic and overseas-made products.
The price revision starting November 1st
will only affect overseas-made products.
The reason wheels are getting more expensive (I don't say "price adjustment" because
there are no items being discounted) is because
complete wheelsets are made overseas,
and complete wheelsets have never been manufactured
domestically since the very first 7700-series wheels.
What I find personally interesting here is
the price revision of chains.
No component manufacturer, I suspect,
makes chains entirely in-house.
Even Campagnolo is likely having them made by
"the only manufacturer that makes nothing but bicycle chains for Campagnolo."
The 12-speed and 11-speed chains, and even the 10-speed
CN-6701 and CN-6600 are made by
a major Japanese chain manufacturer—
it's an open secret (though it might just be
an open secret that I think that, so I'll leave it at that),
but in November's price revision, these higher-grade chains
are again excluded from the adjustment.
The previous 10-speed Tiagra CN-4601
and (the current 4700-series isn't CN-4700 but
CN-HG54, merged with Deore)
and the 9-speed chain CN-HG53,
and the 6-8 speed chain CN-HG40
are overseas-made products, so they're subject to the price revision.
Particularly CN-HG53 had a dramatic price increase at one point,
because even with internal cost-cutting efforts,
Shimano couldn't absorb the massive price hike imposed by the manufacturer.
I've also written about CN-HG53 in
（→these places）and
（→here）.
Oh, I'm getting sidetracked again.
Anyway, regarding the November price revision,
budget-grade hubs are also affected.
In Shimano's road component lineup,
the "Dura-Ace road hub" finished production in the previous-generation 9000 series,
which was naturally made in Japan
(the Dura-Ace track hub continues to be produced).
The grading outside of grades, the Road Series (RS), has hubs where
the tens digit becomes 7 for disc hubs.
There's an HB (FH)-RS400 hub for rim brakes,
and its disc hub version is HB (FH)-RS470.
The RS series tops out at the 700-series,
and 700-series hubs only come in disc versions,
but the model number is HB (FH)-RS770.
And all these hubs are also overseas-made products, so
they're subject to the November price revision.
And when I saw that list, I was surprised to discover
that the current XTR hubs
have become overseas-made products.
Shimano's MTB components have extreme price gaps between grades
compared to their road components,
and XTR is far more expensive than the XT below it.
Here, comparing the current BOOST hub retail prices
for XTR and XT, which are the same spec,
for the front hub:
XTR HB-9110-B ¥32,168 (¥33,275 from November)
XT HB-M8110-B ¥10,649 (¥11,014 from November)
About three times the price difference, but that's the front hub,
so there's no freebody price difference component.
Moving on to the rear hub:
XTR FH-M9111-B ¥53,178 (¥55,322 from November)
XT FH-M8110-B ¥18,454 (¥19,092 from November)
Unlike the front hub, it's
not exactly three times the price difference,
but the actual differences are front hub about ¥22,000
and rear hub about ¥35,000,
and in absolute terms rather than percentages,
the rear hub difference is larger
due to the freebody component price difference.
XTR and XT cranksets are domestic-made products, so
they're outside this price revision,
but comparing retail prices with the same specs,
the standard front double gear versions are:
XTR FC-M9100-2 ¥82,843
XT FC-M8100-2 ¥30,410
respectively.
What I'm getting at is,
the latest XTR hubs aren't even domestically made anymore, yet
they apparently still maintain the price gap
from when XT was domestic-made, probably just because
"it's XTR,"
which seems awfully cheeky, doesn't it?
That's what I was thinking looking at
the old XTR hubs with "JAPAN" (made in Japan) marked on them.