What Happened to Campagnolo?

[georges1]

It's the pricing I think which will eventually do for Campagnolo. SRAM is a great value group and as a full wireless set up, it's easy to install and it just 'works '. I've got it on two bikes I use the most and it's total revelation. I wouldn't build a new bike without it.

Super Record pricing is really getting kinda ridiculous now:

Super Record 13 w/ power meter: €5,399 / US$5,899 / £4,950

Super Record 13 w/o power meter: €4,300 / US$4,750 / £3,900

Etap 12 disc: 1850 euro

Etap 13x 1 AXS: 2749 euro.

It's a no brainer.

Well Campagnolo has become a very arrogant company who makes very finicky products costing a fortune. If I had to buy a modern bike it would be with Dura Ace 9000 but with FSA carbon cranks and certainly not the bonded one that fails all the time. As for SRAM, I am not a fan of it but to each their own, same with disc brakes

 

[georges1]

This is the last group I bought from Campagnolo, still rolling like jewellery 20 years on.

Yes bur since 2005 Campy is going down the drain

 

[Rapparee87]

Thankfully, I am not part of the 0.5% - 5.0% who might benefit from 12 or 13 on the rear.

Friction on the DT 5/6/7 is fine for most of my rides. 10 speed Campa (mixed levels) is sweet for my bikes with integrated levers - 3 with the pre-2005 components. I also had to experience electronic shifting - and chose Di2, four years ago - which came with 11 speed cassette.

My plate is full of options in the road cycling category. But I love to see new tech as it, ultimately, drives the industry - for better or worse.

Drives the industry to ruin more like... When bikes become the price of a small car the shark has been well and truly jumped. A plague on all their houses...

 

[LondonClassic]

Yes bur since 2005 Campy is going down the drain

Thats a long time to be going down the drain. Perhaps they are not going down the drain?

 

[bikeworkshop]

Thats a long time to be going down the drain. Perhaps they are not going down the drain?

The target audience for high end stuff has changed so radically that many of us struggle to recognise them.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Truth is:
It's not aimed at us any more.

 

[LondonClassic]

The target audience for high end stuff has changed so radically that many of us struggle to recognise them.

Sure, I'm one of them. @gfk_velo gave some great insight into how they're still a very viable company, albeit a niche one. I was Campagnolo target market and now I'm not. Age and cycling tastes move me out of the Campag orbit and into the clutches of Brooks, SKS, Schwalbe...all of which I swore would never happen to me

 

[jim haseltine]

Back in the 1970s I rode Zeus but spares were few and far between and the kit became more and more difficult to get hold of so by the mid-80s I'd moved to Campag. The last complete group set I bought was 9-speed Record Ti in either 1999 or 2000. I have had to move to UT crank sets on a couple of bikes and the factory setup isn't great. Use of the Hirth joint is a great idea but the wave-washer positioning of the LH bearing is seriously Mickey Mouse - it's almost like they were finalizing the design on a Friday afternoon before a long vacation and just said "F@ck it - just use a spring washer. It'll be fine".

 

[rikster]

@gfk_velo gave some great insight into how they're still a very viable company

It seems to me that some folk on here are not interested in "great insight"...

 

[Coalfield]

Drives the industry to ruin more like... When bikes become the price of a small car the shark has been well and truly jumped. A plague on all their houses...

Have you bought a new car lately? I think I heard that (in USA) the average cost of a new car/truck is $49,000 and poised for a big tariff increase.