The AX group is cool indeed. When it came out, we all laughed about it, and Shimano sponsored riders ditched some of the parts very quickly. I think the brakes and derailleurs were particularly disliked. I'd say that it was really not that great of a group for the workhorse racing bike, and SR-reduced, Superbe, and EX were better choices at the time. However, in hindsight Shimano was really pulling out the stops with the AX. I was looking at the features, fit and finish of a set of AX hubs, when I was overhauling them just recently and I was really impressed. Some of the features, like the Direction-6 spoking seemed to provide marginal benefit, but the overall quality was first rate. I recall looking at the 7400 group (New Dura Ace) and thinking for the first time "better finish than SR." In hindsight, I think AX met this discription too, only I was too distracted by all the goofy blue plastic fairings.
Tom Dalton
Emmaus, PA
ABB3330002@aol.com wrote: Sharp eyes, Tom! The AX design followed the EX by a couple of years. With the EX design, Shimano was feeling its way forward trying to fit the radical design ideas of the AX group into a the EX campy-copy group. The fit bulged all over. By the time the AX group was released at the New York Bicycle Show in 1980, it was totally aero and all the design ideas merged( though the actual on the road experience had to be jigged somewhat-- frames were fitted with stiffening plates in the bottom bracket extending into the rear triangle and silly ideas had to be dropped i.e. "aero" pumps faired around seat tubes<Miyata > and tiny water bottles.) All inall the AX group holds together visually on an aero frame in a way that the EX assortment never did. Alan Bernstein, the best of fall in NYC (except Bush is in town so noone can move on the roads.) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com