Is Campagnolo MTB Stuff any good ??
 

Is Campagnolo MTB stuff from the 1990s any good ??

I picked up an older MTB bike with a COMPLETE Campagnolo accessory group made in Italy in basically good-as-new condition after about 25 years of clean dry storage and I am wondering if I should part it out or sell it as a complete bike. The frame is nothing special, a brand nobody has probably ever heard of, but the parts are possibly impressive. Is this old suff worth more than the bike ?

Triple chain ring set: Campagnolo alloy, ( 24 / 36 / 46 ), Made in Italy
Pedals: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Crank arms: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Bottom bracket: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Cassette: 8-sprocket: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Cantilever Brakes, front and rear: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Hubs, front and rear: Campagnolo alloy, Made in Italy
Quick release skewers: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Front derailleur: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Rear derailleur: Campagnolo, indexed, Made in Italy
Indexed thumb shifters gear levers: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Brake levers: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Cables and cable housings: Campagnolo, Made in Italy
Brake pads: Campagnolo, Made in Italy

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwerq834tc...0copy.jpg?dl=0

Campagnolo Off Road kit was generally very robust and worked well.
Unfortunately for Campagnolo, they missed the styling zeitgeist and suffered badly as a result.

At the time, I was the National Sales Manager in the UK for their biggest importer here & the general feeling was that there was nothing at all wrong with most of the product in a technical sense but the thumbshifters and brake levers were too bulky by comparison to the items coming out of the Far East and the infamous "Bullet" twist-grip shift was not the best idea ever, using as it did, the whole grip rather than just the inboard end, as SRAM did.

The other thing that proved to be an obstacle was the shift in bicycle assembly to the Far East which was gathering pace at the time, whilst Campagnolo, then as now, were focussed on keeping manufacture in Europe - in fact at that time, almost exclusively in Italy.

By 1996, the Off Road groups were all gone although the rims remained for a few more years - these are still very highly sought after. Campagnolo turned their attention instead to complete wheels and so became the first manufacturer to offer a complete range of built wheels for road cycling.

I don't recall campy producing any mtb set aside from centaur back then.

The group was rather bulky and overbuilt. Campy at the time had a reputation for superior bearings and longevity with subpar shift quality and braking power.

Very few mountain bikes were spec'ed with campy at the time.

The general consensus at the time wad that Campy was born and raised on the road market, was trying to jump onto the mtn bike sector as the boat was already pulling away from the dock.

The stuff was OK as fat as it went, but Campy was too far behind the curve and tryin g to play catch up in a segment they didn't understand well.

Thanks, guys.

I'll toss the bike back into storage -- or strip the bike and put the Campagnolo group on eBay in pieces.

The bike has a Rohloff S-L-T 99 chain on it so it must be good stuff.

Where I live, a bike with this group on it would get stolen in under an hour, no matter how well secured.

Bink

@speshelite, Campag made several MTB groups over a four-year period including Record OR, Icarus, Euclid and Centaur.

Shifting on the thumbies was good - accurate and by the standards of the day, fast - but the Bullet shift was pretty ropey. The cantis were quite a good brake but benefitted from careful set up which they often didn't get.

It's worth noting that Campag were actually ahead of the cirve to some extent, pioneering the idea of a micro-drive and the use of cassette sprockets on a carrier at the back of the crankset for the granny ring ... alas, the Far Eastern makers had the edge in aersthetics in the cockpit area and better OE distribution ... and had a much more aggressive price point at the entry levels.

Campagnolo at the time were suffering a little internally as well - and so bowed to what they saw as the inevitable and withdrew from the MTB market, re-focussing their attentions on their traditional, core market of road cycling, specifically racing. Although much criticised by the trade at the time, this retrenchment probably saved them.