Recommend me a Vintage Campag group

Recently bought a Viner Stella Pro, which I guess is from the late 70's/early 80's. Came with Campag Nouvo Gran Sport rear mech, unknown Campag braze on front mech, Campag DT shifters, Galli Levers and Calipers and Gipiemme Cranks and Pedals.
Campag Record/Nisi tub wheels with a six speed block

The hoods on the Galli levers are shot, and it appears difficult to get replacements for (Campag copies don't fit).
I may change the levers out for Campag as hoods are readily available, and while I'm at it slowly replace the rest of the parts to match.
What should I be looking at for the time period ? Nuovo Record ? Super Record ?

Hi

Pictures would be nice The Stella (Star) had star cutouts on the lugs and bottom bracket Unusual to have a braze on front mech from that era Though.

For Campag in the late 70's there was the New GS range (From 197, then Nuovo Record and above that Super Record. I quite like a mix of things though as it's more true to the period as we bought what we could afford, what we liked the look of or were handed down LOL

Shaun

It comes down to time and money really as well as your preference regarding looks. Nuovo Record should be cheaper than Super Record but bargains can be found. For a quality frame I would discount Gran Sport (call me a snob if you like) as I see that as a "training bike" groupset.

Take time to research the differences between the groupsets as it's not unknown for people to claim something is Super Record when it isn't. Velobase is your friend there as is Hilary Stone's website. If nothing else his site will give you an idea of relative costs as well as helping to work out what's what.

Mark.

Shaun

Just thinking, The Bottom Bracket will be an Italian 70mm so you will need an Italian Bottom Bracket.

here's my Viner: 70's Stella Pista converted to Road somewhere along the way.



Shaun

agree, its a question of money, but for me nuevo record would be the minimum if its a quality frame

Wow, that frame in the advert has some steep angles. A bit unusual for a continental road frame, more like a period British time trial frame.

To echo what has been said above, in those days people bought what they could afford and there was no problem with mixing brands or even ranges within one maker. In my opinion, in some ways a good mix can be better than slavishly trying to achieve the 'groupset' ideal which was rare then anyway.

What should I be looking at for the time period ? Nuovo Record ? Super Record ?

Click to expand...

In a word- Yes.
You don't really need to overthink this. The '70s 'groupset' was largely a marketer's myth. In the first years after the introduction of Super, (1975 iirc) even continental pros would use bits of Nuovo and bits of Super- whatever came to hand when the mechanic was swapping out chainrings etc. The major innovation was really the alloy headset. Apart from that, Super is just Nuovo with bits of Titanium replacing steel and black anodising here and there. Some holes drilled in the brake levers, some bits of chainring chopped away and some flutes machined into the seatpost. Some components were native to both 'groups', at least in the early years. Some bits of over-adventurous Titaniumising had to be re-steeled.

Afaik, you could take any of the discrete pieces of metal that make up a 'Nuovo' component and transfer them to a 'Super' component without dimensional/tolerance issues, and vice versa.

Basically, for the pros, the first half of the '70s is Nuovo and the second half is Super, getting superer and superer as the decade wore on...

Thanks folks for all the replies. A mix of parts seems to be common then - I may just replace the Galli levers with Campag ones then to get around the hood problem, and maybe change the rear mech from Nuovo Gran Sport to Nuovo Record or Super Record.

Midlife":3jyjxpfn said:

Hi

Pictures would be nice The Stella (Star) had star cutouts on the lugs and bottom bracket Unusual to have a braze on front mech from that era Though.

For Campag in the late 70's there was the New GS range (From 197, then Nuovo Record and above that Super Record. I quite like a mix of things though as it's more true to the period as we bought what we could afford, what we liked the look of or were handed down LOL

Shaun

Click to expand...

Here's some pics (first mine, rest sellers as he's a better photographer than me). The Columbus sticker is the re-spray one, right ? I'd imagine the other sticker is the Italian shop where it was resprayed (a google search doesn't bring anything up). I guess the braze on front mech hanger could of been added at the time of re-spray ?

A nice Nuovo Record Gruppo would do for this build along with Cinelli bars & stem