What Happened to Campagnolo?

[bagpuss]

I have a lovely 9 speed racing t rear mech and a pair of first generation record [hardly used] ergo power levers and no suitable frame for them due to down sizing my number of bikes.
They need to be used for their intended purpose. They are well made and look right .
They are off to the jumble tomorrow .

Suntour a story of what could of been. Always well engineered and finished.
Better in some respects than the other players.

 

[Nothin-fancy]

I'm a fan too, Campag came good with 8sp in the 90's. Same functionality over a wide range of gruppos and priced to suit however deep your pockets were. They did copy the Shimano 7400 derailleur design but then again so did Mavic. I believe that Shimano used the design from Suntour but had to wait for the patent to expire before launching. The old pre-index mechs required over shifting, but were reliable and completely rebuildable. That was a big selling point back then. Also the Nuovo Record rear mech is a beautiful thing with the heart emblems as part of the design. Plus if good enough for the likes of Hinault to race with ..

True about Shimano ripping off Suntour once the patent ran out on the slant parallelogram and the way the upper knuckle attaches to the dropout. I forget the term for the upper knuckle shape??? It sure did seem like they had the derailleur all set and ready to go as soon as the patent expired.

The whole Campy being rebuildable was a big selling point for Campy. It's sad they moved away from that. I find it hard to justify the higher price now that they are throw away parts and stopped making the small parts for the 10s stuff. So even the used stuff is way overpriced because they are sadly obsolete like the 8s stuff. The only thing that they have as far as I'm concerned is the shifters fit my hands way better than Shimano.

 

[Ecurie Peril]

Quite a fan of 10spd Veloce. Works ok and looks good in silver on a bike. I don't think it is as efficient as 105 but that's not the point

 

[georges1]

I love pre-2011 Campy. I can say that most all my bikes run an assortment of post 1995 Campagnolo and have a bin full of 1970's and 1980's campy I used to ride before I really got into the whole slant parallelogram thing. That being said Campagnolo didn't really shift all that well till they ripped off Shimano 7400. They're brakes didn't start working well till the Monoplaner brakes and really took off with the dual pivot's.
I can go on and on.

They did have some great things like the double bolt seatpost. Or the spiffy spiral machining to keep dirt out of the pedals and bottom brackets. But for the most part the old stuff doesn't work all that well. Looks good but functionally it was meh.

I used to live by the west coast USA distribution hub and would pester the workers while I was buying parts about why campy doesn't make a vintage vibe limited edition groupo. I told them there's definitely a market for it. They would always tell me that campy was looking forward and not backwards. So that tells you where they're at... Looking towards blobs of carbon and really comfy shifters.

The campy brakes whether chorus and record deltas or monoplaners were very mediocre for stopping a bike at high speeds especially , things got better with their first generation of dual pivot brakes but it was very far from the BR 7410 Dual Pivot rim brakes's performance which supplied phenomenal braking power and progressivity. Even regarding the rear derailleur, the Dura Ace rear derailleur gave far better shifting and precision than its campy counter part. Dura Ace also proposed some nice double post bolts seatposts back then.

C Record is my favorite Campy despite we are far from Shimano regarding shifting smoothness and braking performance.

 

[georges1]

Quite a fan of 10spd Veloce. Works ok and looks good in silver on a bike. I don't think it is as efficient as 105 but that's not the point

for aesthetics it is fine, but if you want looks and performance, Dura Ace 7800 bests it out

 

[Nothin-fancy]

Quite a fan of 10spd Veloce. Works ok and looks good in silver on a bike. I don't think it is as efficient as 105 but that's not the point

I have to agree on this one. They are super cheap on bikeinn. And they work really well for the price.

Between 10s Veloce and Shimano's 8s Claris. You can't really go wrong if you're looking for brifter shifting. I put Claris shifter's on my GF'S Panasonic 3000DX and was really surprised at how good they shifted with an Ultegra 10s derailleur. Shimano's low-end stuff has really come a long way from the plastic knuckles and clunky shift's from the 80's & 90's. If only 7400 had normal throw and would work with Claris shifter's, my CX bike would be in heaven.

 

[bagpuss]

A lot of the modern components look like something you would make from a meccano set as far as I am concerned. The aesthetics seem to of gone by the wayside . I wonder how much the size of modern cassettes is effecting design.
Who really needs anything above ten speed.