Anyone converted to Campag and why?

thegreatdivide

nicknick wrote:

I don’t doubt chorus feels better but surely the smaller thumb button is more difficult to reach???

No. It's exactly the same, just a different shape.

shortfall

Thanks for the advice re tools everyone

Matthewfalle

I've got Record 10 on Dirk because I got it for nothing and it's really nice - nicer hood shape, prettier, nicer firmer action than any Shimano.

Latest and latest iteration of Ultegra feels plastic and cheap comparatively.

StillGoing

thegreatdivide wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Personally, I can't stand Campag, the hood shape and feel in particular. Thumb levers, seriously? Not so good for small hands from the drops. Additional tools to work on your bike too when Shimano and SRAM use more or less the same tools.

Good to see you've gone for your usual stock answers. Original responses really aren't your strong point.

The small hands argument is tired old nonsense. Get the right bars and position the levers correctly - job done - and as pointed out further up you don't need specialised tools anymore.

Ooh get her! Sorry chum, but small hands and Campag for me do not work. As for dropping them down the bars to make them more accessible, it then spoils the position from the hoods. As I said in my post, which you appear to have ignored, it is a subjective view, ie mine. :roll:

nicknick

philthy3 wrote:

Ooh get her! Sorry chum, but small hands and Campag for me do not work. As for dropping them down the bars to make them more accessible, it then spoils the position from the hoods. As I said in my post, which you appear to have ignored, it is a subjective view, ie mine. :roll:

Think outside the box..... specialized women’s handlebars with lovely with campag and small hands. The tiny specialized decal rubs right off too win win

pinno

Matthewfalle wrote:

Pinno wrote:

27 years? I presume you treated yourself to your first Campagnolo part with your first pension cheque then?

1st redundancy payment.
I was standing in an LBC and was about to purchase an Ultegra replacement headset.
One of the Macnamara brothers* was stood there and said "...if you know what you are doing, you would buy a Campag one." The one I had (another Shimano, I think it was a 600), had gone in 3 years. The Campag one was still going when I sold the frame in 2007.

*Very dominant pair in the race scene then.

FatTed

I have gone from Ultegra to Chorus and now eTap

Ben6899

OP, have you thought about SRAM Red?

nicknick

Ben6899 wrote:

OP, have you thought about SRAM Red?

No.....I had SRAM a few years ago and found it wore out really fast/no 52-36 option/don’t really like it visually. Oh and I want to keep a lid on the cost

dstev55

philthy3 wrote:

thegreatdivide wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Personally, I can't stand Campag, the hood shape and feel in particular. Thumb levers, seriously? Not so good for small hands from the drops. Additional tools to work on your bike too when Shimano and SRAM use more or less the same tools.

Good to see you've gone for your usual stock answers. Original responses really aren't your strong point.

The small hands argument is tired old nonsense. Get the right bars and position the levers correctly - job done - and as pointed out further up you don't need specialised tools anymore.

Ooh get her! Sorry chum, but small hands and Campag for me do not work. As for dropping them down the bars to make them more accessible, it then spoils the position from the hoods. As I said in my post, which you appear to have ignored, it is a subjective view, ie mine. :roll:

I'm completely the opposite. I have tiny hands and coming from Dura Ace to SR I found the levers to be ergonomically perfect and when I go back to my winter bike (SRAM) I find my thumbs longing for the inner lever both on the hoods and in the drops.

de_sisti

Back in 2003, just before a cycle holiday, the left lever on my Shimano RSX stopped working. My local bike
shop diagnosed a missing 'thingy' (or 'gromet') that couldn't be purchased separately. They helped me out by putting a bar end lever to help my gear changes on the front chainring.

On my return from holiday I did a bit of research and discovered that I could replace the 7 speed RSX levers with 8s Campag ergo levers. I managed to find some Record ones for £90. This was the beginning of my foray into mixing Campag and Shimano components.

My three bikes are all shod similarly with mainly Campag bits (10s ergo levers), but with 9 speed Shimano hubs and cassettes, all of which are still available.

I particularly like the thumb operation of the Campag 10s levers (which some people upthread hate)

shortfall

Well for those of you with small hand issues, the consolation is that it makes your knob look much bigger when you're holding it.

dstev55

Shortfall wrote:

Well for those of you with small hand issues, the consolation is that it makes your knob look much bigger when you're holding it.

I never thought of it that way. Maybe my manhood is more modest than I first thought :?

thegreatdivide

Shortfall wrote:

Well for those of you with small hand issues, the consolation is that it makes your knob look much bigger when you're holding it.

That's called the Beadle Principle.

shortfall

thegreatdivide wrote:

Shortfall wrote:

Well for those of you with small hand issues, the consolation is that it makes your knob look much bigger when you're holding it.

That's called the Beadle Principle.

Yes, but on the other hand?

pinno

When cross compatibility went West, I took the plunge and bought a complete 'bin end' Campag 8 speed record titanium transmission and Chorus gear levers
It was such a good quality gruppo. Lasted the best part of 9 years ('97 to '06). I can't see my current set lasting anywhere near that long.

nicknick

Slightly off topic, but as is the above But which bars do you guys find work best with Campag it terms of flat transition and thumb button reach from the drop?

mercia_man

nicknick wrote:

Slightly off topic, but as is the above But which bars do you guys find work best with Campag it terms of flat transition and thumb button reach from the drop?

Deda Zero 100 work well for me.

pinno

nicknick wrote:

Slightly off topic, but as is the above But which bars do you guys find work best with Campag it terms of flat transition and thumb button reach from the drop?

Cinelli Criterium (yes, it's old school) but I am almost never on the drops so I don't really have a decent suggestion.
Alu bends quite easily.

thegreatdivide

nicknick wrote:

Slightly off topic, but as is the above But which bars do you guys find work best with Campag it terms of flat transition and thumb button reach from the drop?

For me it’s the FSA Compact series. From aluminium up to carbon, they’re all the same shape and curve. The 3T compact bar (can’t remember the name) is also very similar. In the drops I can have two fingers on the brake/paddle and a thumb over the button, plus a flat transition from bar top to hoods.

You’ll get a good idea from these pics https://www.bikerumor.com/2016/02/24/td ... lars-boom/

nicknick

Thanks guys. I suspected the FSA would work but never had any. They’re cheap enough to give them a go.

Not a fan of Deda RHM-that’s what I’ve got. As above the women’s spesh bars do work but a little narrow at the hoods (they’re measured at the drops that flare but they don’t tell you)

dstev55

My small hands don't have a problem with my Fizik Cyrano 00's.

cycleclinic

Deda bars are good but so are Nitto M106 NAS or M109AA or the mod 177.

I have the Mod 177 which are not a compact design with the record 10 speed ergo's and the shape is perfect.

Tiesetrotter

The Campy advantage is the button dump and the quick change. Chorus is just a phenomenal piece of kit and I can't see any other groupset with as much flexible high speed change.

Appreciate the difference is small. But for me switching between my Shimano and Campag is a big difference. I have no issue with my Ultegra, I like its solid sturdy feel and the front deraileur is the best. But Chorus is a big step up in capability and speed of change.

davebradswmb

I suppose I didn't really convert, but rather went back to Campag. My best bike and my commuter was running 9 speed Veloce when I decided that I needed to replace the commuter with something a bit nicer (it was a horrible Claude Butler thing) that I could use for commuting, but I would be happy riding in bad weather to save the best bike. I decided that I didn't need to spend too much money so I went for a Sora groupset. I soon came to the conclusion that I couldn't live with it, but to be fair to Shimano the Sora groupset is significantly below Veloce in both price and capability. So I upgraded my best bike with a new wheelset and second-hand Record and Chorus kit off ebay and transferred the old wheels and groupset to the commuter. Now my best bike is super sweet and the commuter is more than acceptable.

I have fairly small hands and I find the Campag system easier to control than Shimano, from either the drops or the hoods, but that might just be that I have got used to it. The best thing, though this probably only applies to 9 speed, is that by pressing down on both thumb levers I can change from the 7th sprocket on the big ring to the 3rd sprocket on the small ring in one action, which is a one step lower ratio.

davidof

I started out on Dura-Ace in the late 70s then moved to 8 sp Chorus when it came out. When I built my first carbon bike went back to Shimano Ultegra 10sp and now back to Campag (Potenza) for 11sp. I think that is a KMC chain and SRAM cassette I have though. The 11sp Potenza is certainly better than the 10sp Ultegra - but I understand that's a cable pull issue with Shimano's top end 10sp systems.

https://youtu.be/ImgE0sE728k

I like the Shimano grips

kirkee

I ran shimano 105 down tube lever groupset since 88. I purchased a new bike with Shimano 9 spd 105 sti levers in 99. After a year or two of rattling sti levers doing my nut in I swapped over to Campag Veloce and Mirage 9spd and had no more rattling. Im invested in Campag now with spares, wheels etc. I seen the light and binned my standard chainset to a compact. I read about the ultra torque and power torque faff and it seemed a bit ridiculous so I went with a 105 hollowtech chainset whose simplicity and bb design is brilliant. I dont know if there would be any stand out reason to convert to Campag nowadays though. At least in the late 90's early 2000's the ergo lever cables were the only ones to be hidden and that was a draw, plus back then the parts looked realy well made. Now I dont think Campag has as much, if anything other than the name to sway buyers from Shimano or Sram.

dstev55

kirkee wrote:

I ran shimano 105 down tube lever groupset since 88. I purchased a new bike with Shimano 9 spd 105 sti levers in 99. After a year or two of rattling sti levers doing my nut in I swapped over to Campag Veloce and Mirage 9spd and had no more rattling. Im invested in Campag now with spares, wheels etc. I seen the light and binned my standard chainset to a compact. I read about the ultra torque and power torque faff and it seemed a bit ridiculous so I went with a 105 hollowtech chainset whose simplicity and bb design is brilliant. I dont know if there would be any stand out reason to convert to Campag nowadays though. At least in the late 90's early 2000's the ergo lever cables were the only ones to be hidden and that was a draw, plus back then the parts looked realy well made. Now I dont think Campag has as much, if anything other than the name to sway buyers from Shimano or Sram.

Longevity.

nicknick

I ended up going for potenza shifters/mechs/brakes with chorus crankset. It’s all about the ergonomics of the hoods for me. I fondled chorus on a bike in a shop but the horizontal button just doesn’t work for me.
Not surely what people mean about longevity-I’ve never had an issue with shimano reliability.

kirkee

dstev55 wrote:

kirkee wrote:

I ran shimano 105 down tube lever groupset since 88. I purchased a new bike with Shimano 9 spd 105 sti levers in 99. After a year or two of rattling sti levers doing my nut in I swapped over to Campag Veloce and Mirage 9spd and had no more rattling. Im invested in Campag now with spares, wheels etc. I seen the light and binned my standard chainset to a compact. I read about the ultra torque and power torque faff and it seemed a bit ridiculous so I went with a 105 hollowtech chainset whose simplicity and bb design is brilliant. I dont know if there would be any stand out reason to convert to Campag nowadays though. At least in the late 90's early 2000's the ergo lever cables were the only ones to be hidden and that was a draw, plus back then the parts looked realy well made. Now I dont think Campag has as much, if anything other than the name to sway buyers from Shimano or Sram.

Longevity.

Not so much any more in my experience, Ive always used lower range Campag components from Mirage to Daytona and now I'm running the newer, now discontinued 10 speed Veloce power shift with the better Eps thumb lever. My rt hand ergo lever lasted less than a 2 years then it started playing up so I bought a new pair. Admittedly the shiftings excellent but the older rebuildable ergos seemed to last longer. Maybe if I went for Chorus that may be a different story. I would say that the best reason to switch to Campagnolo would be for taste and style based reasons more than practicality, thats how its always been though!?