More Dura Ace 9000 Photos

As I talked about in my previous post about the new 11 speed Dura Ace group, there has been some wholesale redesign of the group.  Some new photos (actually scans, it appears) have surfaced, giving some more depth and detail to the group.

First up, the rear derailleur:

From what we see here, it looks like they've redesigned the P-Knuckle a little bit and stylized the outer parallelogram pieces to look more “swoopy.”  The barrel adjuster also appears revised, and looks to be metal (could be glossy plastic, but aluminum would be nicer.)  The cage shape looks a little more angular with more material on the bottom of the cage.  Overall it doesn't look too bad, and I'm sure it will be typically smooth, Shimano trademark operation.

More photos after the jump:

The front derailleur looks to be completely redesigned.  It looks like the pivot locations have been changed a little bit, and the cage itself has been fully sculpted.  In fact, it looks like the cage is almost straight, and seems to even narrow down at the tail.

The chain (between the rear and front derailleur shots) seems to have eschewed the “asymmetrical” design of the 7900 chain, along with the punched out portions of the inner plates.  Frankly, I'm not sure this is the wisest idea, since the 7900 chain is one of the best shifting chains I've ever used (when matched with a Shimano cassette, anyway.)  But perhaps this was necessary with the reduction in width that accompanies a switch to 11 speed?

Finally, the crankset:

What. The. Hell?

I'll come right out and say it: that is a REALLY ugly crankset.  We had seen grainy race images of the 4 arm concept and rumors had circulated, but now it appears set.  The 4 arms look to be strategically placed to support the rings while they are under tension (crank arms between 9 and 3 on the “clock face.”)  The chainring sculpting is a carryover from the 7900 series, but this version looks more like an Ultegra 6700 crank in terms of finish.  The asymmetrical spider arms also do nothing for the looks either.  Now, I'm sure the shifting will be good, as Shimano is typically the benchmark for front shifting prowess.   But the thing is so ugly and requires proprietary Shimano chainrings (again!) which are big strikes against it, at least in my book.

Finally, we get another look at the chain.  Much more reminiscent of the 7800 series chain than the asymmetrical 7900 series chain.  I wonder why.

Update 4/22/12

Special thanks to commenter Sven Nijs below for pointing these out (looks like production ready to me:

The shifters look just about the same as the current model, albeit with two tone hoods:

The brakes look interesting.  I'm still not sure what the extra pivot point is, unless it's gone to a single pivot/cam operated brake like SRAM recently did.

The two tone on the crankset makes it even uglier than the all gloss metal version.  Thanks, but no thanks:

The rear derailleur, however looks pretty slick.  I like the styling and it looks like it may have lost a few grams from that small B-knuckle.

11 cogs.  How soon before Shimano acts on that 14 speed patent?

Photos from here, if you can translate it.

Update 4/26/12:

Mick Rogers is running the new 9000 at Tour de Romandie:

Thoughts?  Comments?  Are you going to be one of the first to go 11 speed?