SJS delivery

[martinf]

Trivia: Through all this, the best (highest numerical coding) Shimano square taper BB has been the near-mythical UN-71. I've never met anyone who has seen one in the flesh

I have one of these in a long axle (127 mm) version, on a Brompton converted to use double chainrings.

In use, I haven't noticed any difference as compared to the UN-55, which I have on our 3 Thorn Raven Tour bikes. These UN-71 and UN-55 units have all been trouble-free up till now, but none have yet done huge distances.

As the UN55 units were offered at clearance prices a few months ago on a French website I bought 2 spares in the 110 mm/68 mm size used on the Raven Tour frames.

My 4th Thorn frame, a Raven Sport Tour, uses old TA cranks, so I have a TA Axix bottom bracket on that bike (and 3 other family bikes). TA Axix uses replaceable cartridge bearings. A few years ago I bought 10 of these bearings at a reasonable price from a bearing supplier, so should be able to keep these TA units going for a long time. AFAIK TA Axix bottom brackets are still available in a range of sizes, but they are much more expensive than the Shimano UN-xx units.

[PH]

Trivia: Through all this, the best (highest numerical coding) Shimano square taper BB has been the near-mythical UN-71. I've never met anyone who has seen one in the flesh

More trivia: UN7X were commonplace around twenty years ago, they were my BB of choice, the rarity then was the XTR series UN9X.  The UN classifies it as a sealed cartridge and the first digit used to assign it to a group. 

The question arises, When Shimano runs out of numbers below -71, do they give us the -71 for a popular price? My bet is they'll renumber the -71 as the UN-101 to give themselves breathing room.

They seem to have reversed the numbering process and divorced them from the groupsets, the ST BB's listed in Shimano's compatibility charts are the UN1XX (Currently 101 as 100 has already been discontinued) and the higher quality UN3XX.  My understanding is that these recent ST BB's are assembled from third party components, whereas previous versions were entirely manufactured in house. Considering the only Shimano ST cranksets are at the lower end, and their disinterest in backwards compatibility, I'd be surprised to see UN55's back in stock.  I have no insider information, just what I read and hear. 

[rafiki]

I just thought I would check back with SJS for new brake blocks for my Brompton in case things have changed. 2 pairs Swiss Stop = £22, total with shipping to Spain £60! Thanks but I'll have to look elsewhere. I do hope they can get back to normal postage soon; they have never been the cheapest but this is daft. I like to buy from them because I trust them and they are always so helpful but these shipping costs are just too much.

[Andre Jute]

More trivia: UN7X were ... etc

Thanks, Martin, Paul. Looks like being satisfied with the UN55 caused me to miss out on spending more money.

[Robin Thorn]

Hi, Robin here from SJSC...here's the low down. Yes carriers are applying surcharges to some countries, yes there are some cheaper services to some countries available that we do not offer at this time...why? ... because in many cases these take a long time and it is our experience that customers are not keen to wait, when we did still offer these services we found the work of replying to "where is my item" emails too great, we are incredibly busy, we simply don't have the human resources spare, this is the same reason that we have continued to not allow shop visitors or click and collect. I've not read all the b/b bits of this thread but...yes Shimano have dropped the UN-55 b/b, the new model is the BB UN-300 BUT it's not available in 73/107 or 110. We have commissioned the manufacture of some high quality units to fill this gap, keep your eye on the sjsc website.

 

[rafiki]

Hi Robin. Thank you. The order I made a couple of weeks ago was sent by DHL next day service which was not necessary. I would have been happy to have had their 3-5 day service. The smaller items always used to arrive by Royal Mail/Correos which took a week but was fine. The brake blocks I need are now on their way from Germany, shipping cost 8,95€ - coincidentally by DHL. As mentioned in an earlier post I really do want to purchase from SJS as I have since I purchased a Dawes bike from you in 1994 but it's becoming impossible.

[steve216c]

I just thought I would check back with SJS for new brake blocks for my Brompton in case things have changed. 2 pairs Swiss Stop = £22, total with shipping to Spain £60! Thanks but I'll have to look elsewhere. I do hope they can get back to normal postage soon; they have never been the cheapest but this is daft. I like to buy from them because I trust them and they are always so helpful but these shipping costs are just too much.

I'm not affiliated with this bike shop in any way, but have ordered twice from them for Rohloff (and Shimano) parts without issue. They appear to ship pretty much worldwide. https://www.starbike.com/en/

If postage fees elsewhere are getting ridiculous, then they might be a alternative source with more competetive postage from Germany.

[rafiki]

Useful. Thank you.

[John Saxby]

+1 for starbike