Rebranding Mountain Bike Products for Gravel, Not A Good Look

Shimano has been rolling out their wireless Di2 mountain bike drivetrain ecosystem over the last month. These new products were much needed to bring their offering up to par with their competition, and one of the biggest selling features is that the mountain bike components were able to be paired with Shimano’s road bike shift levers for gravel use.

This cross-compatibility is really useful as gravel bikes are asked to be ridden in lots of tough conditions, and sometimes, mountain bike components are better suited to the task. In fact, I had already started to see some custom gravel bike builds using products from the mountain bike lines.

To me, it was obvious that Shimano was going to release something in their gravel GRX family that used this new fully wireless technology. However, I was surprised that when Shimano released the new GRX products earlier this week, the products were just rebadged versions of their mountain bike products. On one hand, I understand that if riders were going to use the mountain bike derailleurs on gravel bikes anyway, then they might as well give them a version that is branded to fit within the gravel product line. However, to me, re-releasing the same product that is rebranded takes away from Shimano’s credibility and brand image.

The cycling consumer who is buying this type of product is normally knowledgeable enough about bike tech to realize that the GRX derailleur is not redesigned or refined specifically for gravel, and this is a bad look. This move sends the message that Shimano did not want to spend the time, effort, or money to tailor this product specifically for gravel.

While the requirements for gravel and mountain bikes are similar, they are also not the same. Therefore, there is no way that the same product can be ideal for both uses, so it seems like Shimano chose to give the gravel market a product that is not fully optimized for gravel and hoped that the consumer would just accept it as “good enough.”

I understand that the GRX derailleur will sell better for gravel use than a compatible derailleur from their mountain catalog would. This is especially true on the OE (Original Equipment) side where bike brands want to spec bikes in a more consistent way rather than mixing and matching between product lines. Nonetheless, I firmly believe that it is more important for Shimano to be seen as the brand that offers the best product, rather than a brand that puts out products that are just low-effort rebrands of other products in their line. If Shimano truly did not have the money or time to design a gravel derailleur for this season, I would have rather seen them wait until they had enough time to redesign a better and more tailored version of the products that are actually optimized for gravel.