Did Campy ever make a special “black groupo?”
 

There is a local shop that has a nearly complete Nuevo Record campy groupo in anodized black

now I know about the BMX crank that came anodized gold, but never seen all black before.

kinda cool, very different, kinda stealthy in our “hey, let’s bling the **** outta our parts by making them gold/kardashian” era that we currently live.

wondered if any experts could weigh or someone had way too much time on their hands and meticulously dismantled all of the parts to have them anodized.

Aftermarket stuff - not factory:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...109a5a7c32.png

Note the blurb at upper right in the photo below:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a4fc5dca2c.png

DD

Gold has been used as bling before the Kardashians were born.
Galli. I did not have the impulsiveness to bid beyond $275usd on ebay for a remarkable gold crankset + rings to match.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cfd98c881.jpeg

Black GS and NR was (I think) a personalized thing. At least in my case.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3d34c921e.jpeg

now where’s my black NR rd pic? Oh well.

Campy in the early '90s made Record in Century finish and Chorus and CdA in darker graphite finish:
https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/site...ue_scan_4.html
Raggi di Storia: Freni DELTA Campagnolo - Tutto quello che c'è da sapere

gruppo, not groupo.

Campy might not, but there were always other companies to fill that void in the market In my Masi's case, Galli.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fed249c0af.jpg

Some nice examples from Cycloretro Australia one of the many who do such.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3febb72b7c.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...66ab6bcd23.jpg
Bikerecyclery claims that the people who did the pantos made them in small numbers and maybe campy itself in even smaller numbers... I consider both as legend...

https://bikerecyclery.com/campagnolo...exc-near-mint/

Back then shiny af was the best looking thing in the world... they were prout at these. Even the word stealth had no important meaning until the 90s with the official appearance of the F-117 no matter if it was "stealthing around" in the late 70s.

Guys at the shop would send out Campag parts for black anodizing. The long gone Highland Plating did a good job.
one guy then handed the cranks and seatpost to Art Stump for his milling magic.
Styling.
when reassembled, stem, seat post brake calipers, crank arms were all Black.
white and Red bike- he sold it off for a handsome profit when his Masi arrived.

This brings up an interesting question of durability. I'm seeing hardness figures for anodizing of up to Rockwell 70C, which is harder than hardened tool steel by quite a bit. It seems like anodized aluminum gears might eat chains rather than the other way around.

Has this been tried? Anodizing is a pretty straightforward process.

This was at a local shop...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...53dfcb21_b.jpg
Campagnolo Noir by djk762, on Flickr

Yes, and Nuovo not "Nuevo"

Back in the NR era, the only black that came stock (that I can recall) is the cages on Superleggera pedals, and a few small parts like derailer stop screws/springs, hub cones/locknuts and the oil hole cover clip on the hubs.And since those (all but the pedal cages) are steel parts, it's not anodizing anyway.

SR brought a bit more black, mainly parts of the F&R derailers. They showed all-black chainrings when they first announced SR, and the Raleigh catalog showed a Team Pro with black rings, but then when SR groups showed up they had siver rings. OK with me, black rings always look awful after a few miles.

Other than that, any color anodizing you saw was aftermarket, done by hotrodders.

My fave from BITD was Art Stump, who did color anodizing (green on one of his own personal bikes I saw), followed by intense drillium that cut through the ano to show the silver alloy underneath. Here's a black one found on the web:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d712982203.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...32670fd957.jpg
That was probably blacker originally. Some black ano fades a bit in sunlight, eventually to a kind of brown, not sure why some and not all.

Mark B

You need to work with the anodizer and choose "UV resistant colors". There are a few leaning black, but most trend towards bronzish hue. This is why all of the anodized window frames you see (commercial buildings) tend that way, to remain consistent.

I believe it's that special black groupset that you and I rarely see: Mirage.

I'll be here all week.

For me, black anything on a bike just becomes a black blob. Bikes have totally cool components and lines and are simply a visual delight mechanically. Why anyone deliberately fades any of that by making it black is a mystery to me. JMO of course - invisibility is certainly anyone's choice to make.

I partly agree to this, especially thinkning about 70's-80's parts, which were really the jewels of the bikes, where apart from lug shapes and pantos they mostly looked the same for the untrained eye (within a category).
BUT depending on one's taste, there are exceptions to the rule, e.g. the Modolo Kronos delta brake - which is by design isn't the most beautiful object on the planet - looks awesome in black. Actually so good, that it would look plain ugly in any other finish.... in my opinion.... It's a different topic, that there was no matching chainring, FD and RD in real black yet (on the Italian top shelf) and it causes a bit of a "disturbance in the force"


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e935823dd1.jpg


Lattz