reasons not to choose Campag ?

wicked

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Jeepie wrote:

Thinner 11 speed chains are weaker and have a shorter life span?

No. I've been using them since they came out and had no problems.

The width of the chain is 10% less than 10 speed but made from material 20% stronger.

thegreatdivide

wicked wrote:

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Jeepie wrote:

Thinner 11 speed chains are weaker and have a shorter life span?

No. I've been using them since they came out and had no problems.

The width of the chain is 10% less than 10 speed but made from material 20% stronger.

Exactly. I've found no reports of the chain wearing out faster than a wider one, or of it being weaker. The Record chain is excellent.

Arghyrou

I have athena on a custom steel build and it looks absolutely gorgeous, cant notice the difference in performance from my ultegra, but yes aesthetically wonderful, would definitely recommend.

Arghyrou

I have athena on a custom steel build and it looks absolutely gorgeous, cant notice the difference in performance from my ultegra, but yes aesthetically wonderful, would definitely recommend.

nmcgann

hot66 wrote:

I'm in process of speccing up my custom road bike, based around a Rourke frameset

2 things I'm struggling to decide on ... colour & groupset

colour .. that's for a different thread


so , groupset ....... I've always run shimano on my Mountain bikes for the past 23 years, but I don't like the aesthetics of the Ultegra crankset , so that leave's me with Sram or Campag. Problem is, my frame is a nice steel style, pantied in a tradition style & thus I'm worried carbon cranksets might look out of place ?

I know there are loads of campag fans, but what are the reasons for NOT choosing campag ?

What would you choose ?

Why not get an old stock Ultegra 6600 crankset? That would work with the rest of a 6700 groupset.

juggler

Well you want an alloy chainset and already know that you should go Campag... so go for that... Good grief, guess all these comments are tongue in cheek... assuming you have a chain wear guade... when the chain stretches ..just buy a new one...

Shimano on an old school frame, doesn't work.

Campag easily available online if your LBS hasn't got the parts.

You know what you should do.

JRooke

lol this flippin debate again, really makes no difference what you go for, campag is awesome, there is zero reason you would be disappointed, its all about personal choice, and even thats based on bs.

neilo23

JD_76 wrote:

Bozman wrote:

Italy and reliability just don't go together but they sure know how to make something look good..... bikes, motorbikes, cars, clothes, women and the food isn't bad either.

+1

Get the Sram.

Bowlocks. I have a 15 year old steel Merckx with the same Chorus group that it came with. Apart from a replaced lever after a crash everything still works perfectly and hardly ever needs any maintenance. Very reliable.

Velonutter

Rolf F wrote:

So don't choose a Carbon crankset?!!

Athena is all alloy aside from the levers (which sadly can't be had either in painted black or carbon).

Or, for 10 speed simpleness you can get a mostly alloy Centaur setup.

Maybe I'm not reading this right, But I have Athena in Carbon Black Cranks and Carbon Black Levers!

They have just launched a black version as well.

Velonutter

JRooke wrote:

lol this flippin debate again, really makes no difference what you go for, campag is awesome, there is zero reason you would be disappointed, its all about personal choice, and even thats based on bs.

Yep what he said ^ 8)

twotyred

Sorry got to disagree with this ^^^^

If you have small hands then there is a good reason you will be disappointed with Campag as the thumb shifters are hard to reach when you are on the drops.

Chip \'oyler

twotyred wrote:

Sorry got to disagree with this ^^^^

If you have small hands then there is a good reason you will be disappointed with Campag as the thumb shifters are hard to reach when you are on the drops.

That's why Jeremy Beadle used Shimano

bianchiblue

Shimano, Campag, SRAM... it's actually all great stuff! Pick the shift lever system you like best and you can't go wrong.

My preference is Campag or Shimano, prefer the seperate up/down levers over SRAM's Double-Tap system, but functionally all 3 are great.

mowflow

twotyred wrote:

Sorry got to disagree with this ^^^^

If you have small hands then there is a good reason you will be disappointed with Campag as the thumb shifters are hard to reach when you are on the drops.

I'm ashamed to announce this publicly but I have ridiculously small hands for a man of 6ft. I buy size medium gloves to avoid public embarrassment as size small will fit, I can even share gloves with my petite 5'7" wife :oops:

Oh, I nearly forgot. I use Campag and the thumb shifters are no problem either on the hoods or drops. Tried sora and they were impossible to reach when in the drops.

ADIHEAD

11sp chain tool very expensive if you buy the campag one. 11sp set up a bit trickier than 10sp according to my LBS. However, I've only ridden Campag once - Record 10sp on my brother's Dolan. And the thing is it's so damm sexy and positive to use I'd just go for it if you can afford it

neilo23

http://www.bikyle.com/images/Parts/Camp ... _group.jpg

http://www.suncyclingcenter.com/wp-cont ... uraace.jpg

Look at them. Each probably works as well as the other, but the top one is the bike equivalent of having a super model on your arm.

Velonutter

@ ADIHEAD You don't need the 11speed chain tool, I have three bikes with 11 speed on now having previously had 10 speed and I just use a standard chain tool and a KMC 11 speed link.

I find 11 speed just as easy to set up as 10 speed and really can't say that I have ever had a problem.

andi1363

twotyred wrote:

Sorry got to disagree with this ^^^^

If you have small hands then there is a good reason you will be disappointed with Campag as the thumb shifters are hard to reach when you are on the drops.

Bollocks! I have small hands and have no problems at all.

Ben6899

Every time I hear or read the "small hands/drops/thumbshifter" argument against Campagnolo, I cannot help but think the protagonist has never even ridden Campagnolo and is merely inaccurately extrapolating from either first- or second-hand experience of Shimano Sora. I mean those diminutive grimpeurs in the Pro-Peloton aren't exactly going to have hands like Ray Clemence, are they?

The thumbshifters are located differently, feel solid and are easy to reach from the drops [says a rider with smallish hands who rides both Campagnolo and Shimano].

The only reason to not choose Campagnolo is that you might be tempted to splash a few quid on a set of Boras!

dawebbo

Campag sounds clumsy with it's pinging sounds when shifting compared to shimano which is super smooth. But it does look nicer.

If you race, it's usually easier to blag a shimano/sram rear wheel if you puncture.

That's about all I can think of.

Monty Dog

A lot of riders, pros included when Shimano upgraded DuraAce to the point that it was imperceptible that you'd made a shift - the actually went back to a more 'positive' mechanism - the same for when Ultrashift came out too. Getting the lever position on the bars right is critical - most LBS mechanics don't understand this and hence the proablems people have reaching the thumb lever because they're too high on the bars.

wicked

Absolute rubbish about small hands being a problem with Campagnolo, my hands are tiny and no probs whatsoever. The only downside I have found with 11 speed is the need to adjust the rear mech regularly to maintain sweet shifting.

dennisn

wicked wrote:

Absolute rubbish about small hands being a problem with Campagnolo, my hands are tiny and no probs whatsoever.

Couldn't agree more. Seems that more than a few people chime in who for some reason or another claim that a certain shifter is more or less difficult to operate than another. How difficult can shifting be these days? The shifter is right by your fingers and all you need to do is give it a slight push and you're in the next gear. The lever moves what, maybe a half inch? How is this a problem? What kind of person can't get the hang of it?
It's kid stuff. Try downtube shifters once if you think that you have a problem with todays shifting systems. I say again, todays shifters are kid stuff.

rolf_f

dennisn wrote:

Couldn't agree more. Seems that more than a few people chime in who for some reason or another claim that a certain shifter is more or less difficult to operate than another. How difficult can shifting be these days? The shifter is right by your fingers and all you need to do is give it a slight push and you're in the next gear. The lever moves what, maybe a half inch? How is this a problem? What kind of person can't get the hang of it?
It's kid stuff. Try downtube shifters once if you think that you have a problem with todays shifting systems. I say again, todays shifters are kid stuff.

Lol! Now you are doing it for downtube shifters which are also a doddle to use

munchertoo

Campy lasts longer.

dennisn

Rolf F wrote:

dennisn wrote:

Couldn't agree more. Seems that more than a few people chime in who for some reason or another claim that a certain shifter is more or less difficult to operate than another. How difficult can shifting be these days? The shifter is right by your fingers and all you need to do is give it a slight push and you're in the next gear. The lever moves what, maybe a half inch? How is this a problem? What kind of person can't get the hang of it?
It's kid stuff. Try downtube shifters once if you think that you have a problem with todays shifting systems. I say again, todays shifters are kid stuff.

Lol! Now you are doing it for downtube shifters which are also a doddle to use

You're right, they are also easy to use BUT just a bit more tricky than todays stuff.

hot66

not a fair comparison ,.... but I had a play with the shifters on a Centaur equipped bike & a SRAM red equipped bike.

To be honest , I prefered the double tap shifts of the SRAM :oops:

From my research, SRAM also seem to offer more variations of ratio's for their rear cassettes ( I thinking climbing gears here for a compact) ... just a shame SRAM feel the need to put their tacky graphics all over the cranks etc :roll:

Campag, love the idea of the 11 speed and with a 12-29 would cover the hill climbing, Athena upwards look great ... I'll need to find a higher specc'd bike to see if I can feel happy with the shifter arrangements

thiscocks

dawebbo wrote:

Campag sounds clumsy with it's pinging sounds when shifting compared to shimano which is super smooth. But it does look nicer.

If you race, it's usually easier to blag a shimano/sram rear wheel if you puncture.

That's about all I can think of.

Personally I much prefer the more positive action of campag. Like a proper manual car gearbox verses a paddle shift, you can feel it slot into gear and for me is much more satisfying. I swapped back to campag 9 speed from 10 speed purely for this reason. Sadly the newer campag stuff seems to shift more like shimano.

rake

you should try sram. its very mechanical. no guessing if you shifted.

furrag

I've run both, but gone with Campag. As above, thumb shifters are miles above Sora. So easy to change in the drops. I also have smaller hands and feel Campag suits me more.

Second hand Shimano stuff is MUCH easier to find, especially when looking for wheelsets, or more specifically second hand power meters. One with a Campag freehub coming up on ebay was as rare as rocking horse shat.