Anyone converted to Campag and why?

pblakeney

kirkee wrote:

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!?

Not pre 1984 (There was very little Shimano), and possibly considerably later.

roger_merriman

PBlakeney wrote:

kirkee wrote:

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!?

Not pre 1984 (There was very little Shimano), and possibly considerably later.

No doubt due to there history’s inspite of Shimano being older company it seemed to mostly do Hubs and free wheels, and fishing stuff, only moving to derailers and group sets in the early 70’s where as Campagnolo though mildly younger, moved again did hubs and what not early on, but produced derailleurs 30 years earlier though apparently full group sets not until the 70’s, sadly they missed the MTB Revolution and have ended up not quite niche, and wrapped up in racing history.

pinno

roger merriman wrote:

PBlakeney wrote:

kirkee wrote:

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!?

Not pre 1984 (There was very little Shimano), and possibly considerably later.

No doubt due to there history’s inspite of Shimano being older company it seemed to mostly do Hubs and free wheels, and fishing stuff, only moving to derailers and group sets in the early 70’s where as Campagnolo though mildly younger, moved again did hubs and what not early on, but produced derailleurs 30 years earlier though apparently full group sets not until the 70’s, sadly they missed the MTB Revolution and have ended up not quite niche, and wrapped up in racing history.

They tried and failed with the Campag Euclid MTB gruppo.

They used to say "Campag wears in and Shimano wears out". However, pound for pound, you will be hard pushed to find a Groupset as good as Chorus fro price and reliability. Thank whoever, I don't have any of the press fit BB problems that some frame and gruppo combo's seem to have.
I do like all the Campag/Fuclrum wheel sets I have ever owned. Campagnolo hubs are A1.

DeVlaeminck

kirkee wrote:

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!?

Some 10spd veloce levers weren't that long lasting but then some Shimano cranksets come unbonded. Both manufacturers have produced some less good kit but Campag can definitely be a head rather than heart choice, I ride Ultegra but if speccing a bike now I'd be back to Chorus.

DavidJB

I converted to Campag to woo the ladies.

mrb123

DavidJB wrote:

I converted to Campag to woo the ladies.

How's it going so far?

Tiesetrotter

I tried that, didn't work. Got a puppy instead ....... BOOM!

cycleclinic

I have many bikes with campagnolo and j have never had a shifter gone bad. Also there chainset may require tooling but the upside is long lived BB bearings. Shimano hollow tech BB seem to last me 3000miles (ultegra) on the road the last time I used one. I get 1000 miles from my xtr BB on my MTB. That's is why I don't use Shimano road chainset any more. I know I can buy more reliable after market BB but since campagnolo have it worked out and I like nice tools that's my decision made.

Also I like the deep splines on there freehubs and the shifters too.

However Shimano bits work well enough for most and are cheaper.

chippyk

I’ve gone the other way and converted from Campagnolo to Shimano. I had two bikes with the Italian sets on and two with Japanese. I found that not all bike shops, especially in smaller towns and also abroad don’t always stock Campagnolo spare parts.

pinno

ChippyK wrote:

I’ve gone the other way and converted from Campagnolo to Shimano. I had two bikes with the Italian sets on and two with Japanese. I found that not all bike shops, especially in smaller towns and also abroad don’t always stock Campagnolo spare parts.

Ah but you can get all your spares online. As a lot of us have more than one bike, in the event one bike is 'off the road', it's only temporary.
The last time I used an LBS was in '97 to build me a pair of hoops and time before that was in '94 to remove a seized FAG BB.
That may be partly to running Campag but it's mostly down to me fixing any problem.

chippyk

Pinno wrote:

ChippyK wrote:

I’ve gone the other way and converted from Campagnolo to Shimano. I had two bikes with the Italian sets on and two with Japanese. I found that not all bike shops, especially in smaller towns and also abroad don’t always stock Campagnolo spare parts.

Ah but you can get all your spares online. As a lot of us have more than one bike, in the event one bike is 'off the road', it's only temporary.
The last time I used an LBS was in '97 to build me a pair of hoops and time before that was in '94 to remove a seized FAG BB.
That may be partly to running Campag but it's mostly down to me fixing any problem.

I’ve been overseas more than once and myself or a member of the travelling group needed a spare part and all they have in the LBS is Shimano.

DavidJB

MrB123 wrote:

DavidJB wrote:

I converted to Campag to woo the ladies.

How's it going so far?

Remembered that I was balding and married with a kid...even Campag can't fix that.

Joaaso

Yes, mainly for the Ergolevers and their thumb lever.