Coolwall Nov 2010 - Campagnolo MTB groupsets

[raymondluxuryyacht]

Nicely summed up. Clunky but still cool. The chainset looked ace. Hubs fine. Campag rims.....nice ! Not sure about the gears though. Brakes looked excellent but probably no better than anything else at the time. On balance , just about cool....

but ultimately out-done by shimano efficiency...or in fact suntour efficiency. Have to admit suntour xc-pro was cooler in my mind because the chainset loooked amazing and the gears functioned better than campag, if not quite up to shimano standard.

So on balance cool, but only just.

Two bikes that were cool and enhanced by using the alternatives to shimano back in the day were.....
Zinn with Centaur groupset (ridden by Isla Rowntree I think)
One of the Bromwich bikes (yellow and black but can't remember the name) fitted with suntour xc-pro. Would have loved either of those. I don't suppose anyone has a scan of the latter ?

 

[SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum]

Would take M900 XTR, Black XT M730 or M737 over any Campy any day.

 

[MikeD]

Desperately uncool. Campag-sponsored Furtado swapping her Campag kit for XT the night before the 1990 Worlds because it didn't work - epically cool.

 

[Neil G]

Cool, very cool...especially on Kleins

 

[Elev12k]

I have Campagnolo mtb parts in use on several bikes. The early stuff looks and is a tiny bit overbuild Later it became more sophisticated. I am not impressed by for example the early style Euclid brake levers, nor am I a fan of the later cassette style cranks. Everything with bearings is good.

It is cool to some extent. Probably more than it is uncool.

I would have expected a positive outcome for Campa in the cool wall series, but not with high figures. Moreover I thought most people would consider it only 'mildly cool'. However what I see are many very explicit ravings. We need to be a bit critical To balance it out nicely I voted uncool.

 

[RockiMtn]

not for me thanks. on a road bike perhaps… which i don't own.

 

[Rich Aitch]

Surely a no-brainer and since when has fragility stopped anything being cool anyway?
With groupset names like Icarus, Centaur and Euclid, that alone knocks “Evil” Shimano [Dr Shimano would be a great Bond-villain name] into a cocked hat. Campag stuff would be cool even if it's only redeeming feature was that joined up sqiggly signature that looks like it belongs on the bootlid of an Alfa-Romeo.

 

[Rich Aitch]

Look at this Campagnolo book, it is pure gadget porn. They have it at Waterstones in Leeds but it is sealed up and on a high shelf like a DIRTY book...

http://www.amazon.com/Campagnolo-75-Yea ... 476&sr=8-2

 

[dbmtb]

OK Decision time

Bearing with me - I have 3 road bikes with Campag Record of various generations, my wife has one with Chorus and my track bike is mostly Record, that I have Campag rims on 2 of my MTBs, and that I ran Record OR cantis BITD. So I LIKE Campag.

But the question covers MTB groupsets and looking with perspective on the bikes that had them BITD - it was never any of the ones I liked. Garish Kleins mostly.

The chainsets were fugly. BB axle was insane length. Hubs just looked plain wrong on an MTB. Front mechs were a disgrace.That leaves seatposts, rear mech, headsets and brakes - and even the cantis were a mess until Record OR/ICarus which were a copy of Graftons anyway.. Rear mech was just too expensive to dare use and wouldn't index with anyone elses shifters anyway.

So with regard to both form and function and sense of image protrayed - out of the window for me. UNCOOL.

However this IS Retrobike and I can see its niche appeal to forum members. Within the context of Retrobike it's probably cool. However I don't consider Retrobiking to be particularly cool in the wider sense of the word. So therefore because a group of what is predominantly early-middle-aged bike geeks think it's cool - it is therefore still UNCOOL.

Still hanging onto my NOS Record OR cantilevers in the vain hope a pair of brake levers comes along though ( :roll: )

 

[thummie]

I'm running a mixture of Euclid and Centaur on my commuter bike. I have two other bikes with XC Pro and XT 730. The XC pro is slinky and efficient, while the XT 730 is crisp and simple. The Campy functions but does not make me smile.

While quirky can be cool, it has to be accompanied by elegant design and function.

Uncool