Thanks to Shimano’s rigidly-enforced press embargo, there’s a fair chance that you’ve already seen these only-officially-released-today pictures. They’ve been all over everywhere, after all. Still, we signed the bit of paper agreeing not to say owt until today and we’re as good as our word. Apparently, getting early information on future Shimano releases is dependent on following embargo conditions which would mean a fairly quiet press day next time around. We’ll see if Shimano keep their side of the deal…

But enough of this tedious industry sniping, of which no-one is interested. What you want to know about is Shiny Bike Stuff, so here is some:

That there is Shimano’s all-new 2004 XT group, that is. The presence of the heavy-duty Saint group in next year’s line-up has let Shimano make XT more overtly XC oriented, and it’s essentially a lower-cost XTR that shares most of the key features of the flagship group.

First up are the cranks, which use the Hollowtech II technology seen on current XTR and also appearing on Saint and the Dura-Ace road group for 2004. The bottom bracket positions oversized bearings outboard of the BB shell, permitting a large-diameter hollow axle to be used, improving stiffness and strength without much of a weight penalty. The axle is permanently attached to the drive-side crank arm, with the non-drive-side arm being secured to the splined axle end with a pair of opposing pinch bolts.

Unlike Saint, with single, double-and-bashguard or triple ring options, XT is three rings only, with the option of a lovely plastic guard that we doubt will be seen very often in the UK…

The most obvious bit of XTRness from the rider’s point of view is the new Dual Control levers. These are the only shifter/brake lever options in the new group (although we’re told that the existing RapidFire+ trigger pods will still be available for some time to come), a move that’s unlikely to go down too well with either end users or bike manufacturers. Old hands will remember the fuss over Shimano’s first integrated brake lever/shifter units in 1990, but at least you could use any old cantilever with the brake lever. The hydraulic versions of the new DC levers are only compatible with Shimano calipers.

Last time around Shimano introduced separate shifters and levers a couple of years later, but those first STI units were really two separate mechanisms on a common bar mount. The new levers have shifting and braking inextricably intertwined – pushing the brake lever up and down shifts gears – so separate units aren’t really feasible.

We’re actually growing quite attached to Dual Control levers, although we prefer them running with a conventional rear mech rather than the Low Normal (aka Rapid Rise) ones that Shimano offer. With a Low Normal rear mech, pushing the lever down gives you harder gears, flicking it up gives you easier gears. It’s fairly easy to get used to (especially if you run the detachable thumb release lever, in which case your thumb has exactly the same effect you’re used to with RF+) but dumping three or four gears if faced with a steep bank out of a stream crossing or similar isn’t as easy as we’d like.

Again, though, the only rear mech in new XT is a Low Normal one in a choice of cage lengths. It’s not very different from the current model in other respects apart from a bit of restyling and a new logo. There’s not a great deal of change in the front mechs either.

Fans of the current four-pot XT disc brake should stock up now, for next year’s XT brake is entirely redesigned. It’s all but indistinguishable from the current XTR brake except for the colour, featuring a one-piece caliper (which incidentally is a direct fit to post-mount forks with a separate bracket for ISO mounts) and a two-piece Center Lock rotor that fits on to the end of the hub via a weight-saving splined fixing. Yes, the splines are the same as XTR although the front Saint fitting is a larger diameter.

The rotor is 160mm diameter as per the existing XT brake. It ought to be possible (as it is with XTR) to use the current six-bolt rotors on your hub of choice and combine it with the new caliper. We’re expecting disc brake assemblies to become increasingly mix-and-match, as is the case with aftermarket motorcycle brakes – levers from one source, calipers from another, rotors from a third. It wouldn’t be all that tricky for rival disc brake manufacturers to come up with calipers that would work with Shimano’s levers. Whether they do so probably depends largely on the bike manufacturers – if they decide they’d like to spec Dual Control but would rather use non-Shimano hubs and brakes there could well be sufficient demand for the others to do some caliper creating. The very similar XTR brakes have recieved mixed reviews, and the lack of a 185mm rotor option looks like a bit of a glaring omission.

There are still V-brakes in the new XT group (and cable Dual Control levers to go with them – there’s a potential brake upgrade nightmare…), but Shimano say that the weight saving over the new discs is minimal and we don’t expect to see all that many Vs around.

Finally, the hubs are considerably slimmed down from the current XT behemoths, with normal-sized flanges and the splined fitting letting Shimano take a fair amount of metal out of the hub shell. Bearings are good old cup and cone and the sealing will, we’re sure, be well up to scratch.

So what do we think? It’s pretty clear that Shimano have followed a fairly clean-sheet approach here. All this stuff is designed to work together. And used together we expect it’ll be rather fine once you’ve got your head around Dual Control. But the lack of flexibility in combining new XT with anything else is going to be a headache (a headache that SRAM’s new trigger shifters are well-placed to capitalise on). It’s going to be interesting to see whether the bike manufacturers adopt XT wholesale (which is really the only way to take it) or whether the early 90s will repeat themselves and we start seeing lots of mix-and-match speccing on next year’s bikes…