Ok, might just be me, but is Shimano off the CRC website again (after it re-appearance on the 4th)? I was lucky enough to order in a bunch of stuff to fix the in-laws much abused 9sp bike in December last year, so was keen to compare the price to now. Given he's a stingy bugger with no concept of labour, skill, effort or cost, it's always handy to make the point VERY early that next time will be more expensive & how cheap it was this time.
Personally, I've been trying to move away from Shimano for a while now, the quality seems to have been on steady decline anway, or maybe it just didn't improve with the rest of the market. Seized hubs, quick to fail BB's, shifters just falling apart, and this was all on XT / Zee gear. This is just the straw that breaks the camel's back for me, I'll be finding alternatives from now on, same as I did with SRAM. Speaking of which, I've never really looked into it but is there a derailleur option that's not SRAM or Shimano? Other than the obvious choice of a Pinion gearbox of course, but I'd like to keep my frame...