From the latter half of the 1980s to the first half of the 1990s, mountain bikes (MTBs) helped to provide the enjoyment of riding sports bikes to many more people. Meanwhile, aiming to have many more people also enjoy riding road bikes, Shimano released Shimano RSX in 1995 as a components series for entry-level users. Shimano RSX was a cost-effective model that incorporated Shimano's latest technologies yet achieved a reasonable price point so that users could fully enjoy sports bikes more easily and safely. For the dual control lever, Shimano adopted an optical gear display for visualizing the gear position, which was already widely adopted by MTBs, for the first time for road bikes. For front shifting, Shimano added a triple gear crankset to the lineup in addition to the conventional double gear crankset for the first time on an entry-level model so that entry-level users could comfortably climb as well as ride on level ground. The position established by SHIMANO RSX was carried on by SHIMANO SORA, which later appeared in 2000.