cbresciani

I grew up with Campy on my road bikes when I started seriously riding in the late 70's early 80's. I still own my Campy Record, beautiful high flange track hubs and gruppo, track bike from that time and Campy was the main gruppo on most of the bikes at the velodrome back in the day. Since then all of my road bikes have had Campy on them and still do. The quality, craftsmanship, reliability and the rebuild ability IMO is what I like most about it.

My only bike that isn't Campy equipped is my MTB and that has a mix of Shimano XT and GripShift, which is awesome, and surprisingly still works great.

George

I was told that Campy is as loud as Sram. Is that true?

RollCNY

Only after it's been drinking.

kraftwerk 

My Local bike shop no longer carries Biopace Chainrings

Is Biopace in decline?


Seriously though, On the 11 speed Ultra torque crank, does the bearing come off to be serviced or cleaned?
Or do you have to replace the whole crank arm assembly?
If so I would say that is a big no-no. More than a decline: a downfall.

Trsnrtr

Installed a new Record group this week and sold my 2006 group yo a young man who works at my LBS. I told him "welcome to the cult."

Campagnono

I don't really understand why I see so many folks on the other side of the ocean not having access to Campy OE bikes. I just read an article today on VeloNews about "how Campagnolo OE is non-existent." That's like saying "Merida bikes are non-existent" or "Canyon bikes are non-existent." I guess things ARE non-existent in places where they don't exist.

So when I went to pick up new cables today at Decathlon (which is basically like France's version of Dick's Sporting Goods) in Rouen, I snapped a few pics showing store-brand carbon Btwins and their Campy OE specs.

You can get an aluminum Merida with Veloce for 999€, with Centaur for 1249€, a carbon Canyon with Chorus for 2199€, the same bike with a Power Tap G3 rear wheel and a free Garmin 510 for 2699€. In the U.S. that package would be like $5000 easy, no doubt. And you definitely couldn't get it at Sports Authority.

It's crazy when you guys think that Campy stuff only comes on $4,000 bikes. I guess that's true over there, and that's why Campy is "non-existent." But if you could walk into a Dick's or Sports Authority and get a store-brand alloy with Veloce for $850 (or whatever 649€ is today) it would be a different story and the "Campy OE is non-existent" articles would never be written. Campy is very much alive and folks just ride it. In the U.S. people call Campy riders "fanboys" or "Euro snobs" and that just doesn't even make sense to me. My aunt, who's 60, rides a 10-year old drop bar hybrid with Xenon 9-speed with 40mm tires and cantis, so perhaps it's just a perspective issue. But my 75kg aunt certainly isn't a Campy "fanboy," ha!

Campagnono

You need a special bearing puller tool, Park, Var, and Campy all make a version of it.

I have several UT cranks and have only had to replace one NDS bearing after 20.000km on a 2010 Athena UT crank (which are now sadly PT.) That bike has a BB30 frame and uses the BB30 adapter cups, so that might have something to do with it.

On my main bike I've gone through three sets of brake pads and a rim and the original bearings are still solid.

Drew Eckhardt 

Yes. The new 4-bolt crank is an eyesore which resembles ShimaNO's dead octopus cranks. Black alloy is a cheap carbon knock-off. St. Tullio is probably spinning in his grave.

cbresciani

Wow! That is very cool. I wish I could buy a Campy equipped bike at a sporting goods store.

kraftwerk 

Thanks for the tip on the bearing puller tool, will keep that in mind.

Hat's off to your Aunt, she seems like a cool lady.

rpenmanparker 

Anyone who has followed my posts on the 41 knows I'm no Campy fan, but I will make this observation. I have learned something from watching In-n-Out Burger as compared to the Big Three (MacD, BK, Wendy's). You don't have to like any of these restaurants see the analogy so please, no opinions about any of them. That is not really what my comment is about. My thought is it is a lot easier to be best in a category and make good money than it is to be biggest. When you try to be biggest instead of best, that is when the problems start. I can see Campy occupying a permanent place as the In-n-Out of cycling group parts. Good stuff, just no compromises to allow it to be the biggest.

rpenmanparker 

That is standard operating practice for European companies. They only send their highest end goods to the USA. It has been the case in autos forever. We get no Mercedes and BMWs that don't have the full luxury treatment, leather etc., etc. No belt driven Volvos. No tiny BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, etc. How many stripped-down Mercedes taxis do you see in New York? It is a marketing strategy.

Leinster

And I think that's a not insignificant part of why I eat at In n Out but not any of those others. The main reason is their burgers genuinely are better, of course.

I think you do Shimano a disservice by comparing their wares to McD's, though.

rpenmanparker 

Like I said, that isn't the point. The point is the difference in result between trying to be best and trying to be biggest. Analogies are never perfect. If they were, they wouldn't be analogies, they would be equivalences.

3alarmer 

...
...someone needs to start a thread here on whether In-n-Out Burger is in decline.

Also, does Campagnolo have a secret menu, that only the cogonoscenti can access ?

Leinster

Andre Greipel rides EPS Animal Style.

sbxx1985 

That's interesting.