Campagnolo MTB - Anyone have much experience?

66 triumph daytona":18z03l3u said:

Campag is like my 1966 Triumph motorbike,inherently rewarding to own,but some mechanical nous/sympathy is required and reliability is pretty much in the lap of the Gods.Go for Campag,seriously,its sooo lovely.

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Couldn't have put it better !

My experience: tried Euclid, Centaur, before 92 version. Icarus/Record after 92 version.
As said, the first were heavy and durable. beautiful finish, worse feeling in comparison with shimano top groups.
Compact versions (icarus and Record) improved a lot, both in weight and performance. Record top thumbs are gorgeous.
Never seen in shimano a bearing mechanism so smooth as Campy did....silk....
Rear der: never seen a long life like this: shimano gets plays in the mechanism after a while and you put it in the bin...
This is a road 1991 Record used offroad and it has any minimal plays also if the little wheels have to be changed: impressive.

66 triumph daytona":16vu46w0 said:

Campag is like my 1966 Triumph motorbike,inherently rewarding to own,but some mechanical nous/sympathy is required and reliability is pretty much in the lap of the Gods.Go for Campag,seriously,its sooo lovely.

Click to expand...

I've never had anything break in Campag. The hubs get a squirt of grease through the port, which purges any muck at the same time. My road shifters are rebuildable (and I've done so at a total cost of £2.02) unlike Shimano STI. Shimano stuff is smoother and lighter in operation (except hubs) but ultimately doesn't seem to last as long.

I'm still regretting selling my Olympus mechs and shifters.

Just got back from a short test ride on the Breezer; with a Shimano cassette (+Jtek shiftmate), the Record OR mech's shift more solidly and smoother than the XTR they replaced. The front's actually much better, which is interesting since all other Campag front's I've used have been pretty crap.

Regarding longevity, well I'm still running the original Olympus pedals and front hub, used continually since '92 and still buttery smooth. As long as they're serviced when they need it, Campag bearings are second to none.


FWIW, I've a collection of about 30 vintage Campag rear mech's (mostly road). Some of them are so well used that the jockey wheels are almost completely toothless with wear, yet there's no sign of play in the pivots of any of 'em!

No issues with any of my Euclid stuff, wish I could say the same about my XC Pro stuff.

The mechanic in my lbs was a big fan of the stuff.He used to say that if you if you "ran in" Campag then after a while you would have the most durable and hassle free groupset available.In hindsight I think he was right.

Re:

I'm running a Record titanium front derailleur , campy centaur compact on my GT lightning lol it's pretty awesome and light, working on putting an old iso record crank on there