campy centaur 10 speed s vs athena 11 speed

gonzalez gomez
gonzalez gomez Posts: 61
edited December 2011 in Road buying advice
I'm sure this question has been asked many times before, but.... I've had a Guerciotti G45 frameset hanging around for a couple of years part built with FSA SLK cranks and seatpost, FSA carbon pro bars and stem, Mavic 577 calipers and Gipiemme platinum wheels. I now have a bit of spare cash to finish the build and can't decide whether to go with centaur 10 or athena 11. Living Forest of Dean the cycling is a lot of short sharp climbs. any advice??

Comments

  • Wooliferkins
    Wooliferkins Posts: 2,060
    You're going to get the same extremes of gears but with one extra in the middle somewhere. I would go 11x as at a guess it's lighter most things including Saturn are lighter than Centuar. Sadly weightweenies appear not to have noticed the 21st century where Campag is concerned
    Neil
    Help I'm Being Oppressed
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    Ignore the above - he can't count. Never heard anyone suggest Campag is particularly heavy before either. AFAIK, Shimano make the lardiest groupsets.

    There's little difference in the weight of the groupsets. The biggest difference is in the cassette for which Athena uses the Chorus one saving a whole 18 grams. If it bothers you, you can probably spec a Chorus cassette......

    The only difference is one sprocket which you probably notice less on continuously changing gradients than flat country.

    Funny thing is, when I ride my old Raleigh (a proper 10 speed with a 5 ring freewheel!) the thing I notice that it is tough to climb with it because of the range of the gears. I never actually feel that conscious in any other way that there are only 5 gears on the back. So I doubt I'd notice having 11 rather than 10 on the back. And, of course, 10 is cheaper to maintain and apparently easier to index.

    Either way though, I would try to source a 2010 groupset. Both Athena and Centaur were Ultratorque until 2010 which allowed multiple downshifts. Now they have been downgraded to Powertorque and can't.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • fleshtuxedo
    fleshtuxedo Posts: 1,853
    Planet X doing 2010 Athena with carbon chainset, Chorus cassette and chain for £450:

    http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/ZXC ... on_cranks_
  • Canny Jock
    Canny Jock Posts: 1,051
    Agree with Rolf - Ultrashift is better, don't know why Campag don't do this on mid range groups any more - even my 6 year old Mirage has it and it's great!

    Regarding weight - didn't cycling plus test mid range groupsets from the 3 manufacturers and 105 was half a kilo heavier than Centaur? I think Apex won because of the rear cassette range though.

    11 speed seems a bit expensive for what you get at the moment, check the prices of replacement chains and cassette's.
  • Gazzetta67
    Gazzetta67 Posts: 1,890
    Dont you just hate that Yankee term " Campy" !!!!! :evil: What next "Shimy" for shimano or "Sramy" FFs.
  • Velonutter
    Velonutter Posts: 2,437
    I have now upgraded all my bikes to 11 Speed, after using 11Speed Athena with Ultrashift, I was so impressed from using the 11speed Athena vs. my Record 10 speed that I had to change.

    To be truthful, I am no mountain goat and used to ride a 50/34 with a 12/25, I got up the climbs but they could have been easier, going 11speed gave me a 12/27 on the back and the difference was just amazing.

    11 Speed shifts smoother is dead easy to set up, no fancy tools needed, would I go back to 10 speed....not a chance unless it was to build my self a TT bike.

    JMHO

    Yep Gazzetta67 hate that term Campy, but apparently when I mentioned this on the Campag stand at the NEC this year they said that some of the Europeans had problems saying Campagnolo and that was why they were changing, load of old bollox if you ask me, it's been good enough for over 50 years so why change?

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