I've always had a very cloudy picture of the EX group. Does anyone have photos of the complete gruppo (since it has been confirmed that it is well within the CR timeframe)? Was the EX RD the Crane that they finally got around to marking Dura Ace? What about brakes and hubs? I've seen a lot of Shimano pre-index stuff that is newer than original DA and which is not AX, but I've always been unclear as to which of it is EX and which is some other unnamed Shimano variant.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
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.)