Comments on: Something new from Campy? http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=something-new-from-campy The blog about industrial design in the bike industry Thu, 23 May 2013 20:33:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Anonymous http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-1216 Anonymous Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:21:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-1216 I agree that Shimano has been more innovative in the last couple of decades, however they stole many ideas from the Suntour Superbe group as well as other smaller Japanese marques. Campy introduced the 10 speed group long before Shimano did. Also, the integration of carbon and Ti to the components is very innovative in my opinion. It can’t be done without a very high QC. Shimano is only just now starting to offer a comparable crankset.

]]> By: bigZ http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-146 bigZ Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:14:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-146 I am a selective Campy lover(great brakes and transmission, pity about hubs, cranks). I also own the Mavic Mechtronic(best shaped brake levers for ergonomics, but that bloody battery) and have used Shimano.

Shimano is great at pushing the bounderies(who introduced 10 speed?) but unfortunately I have always found that the parts just don’t last(apart from their cheap bottom brackets). I have a winterbike that still uses an abused Campy Record 97 transmission which still dosn’t skip cogs. You just cant abuse the Shimano stuff like that. Plus the concealed gear cables look better.

]]> By: Fritz http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-130 Fritz Wed, 24 May 2006 08:02:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-130 Sheldon touches on Shimano’s innovation here.

]]> By: James http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-129 James Tue, 23 May 2006 13:30:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-129 Good point, Anonymous. I only mentioned drivetrain parts, but it is easy to forget things like dual caliper brakes that Shimano also pioneered. I think that any one of those innovations alone is enough to justify my opinion that Shimano is a more innovative company than Campagnolo. Together, all of the recent Shimano innovations are much more impressive to me than anything Campy has done in the last 15 years. I will say again that I really liked the first generation C-record group. At the time, those aero delta brakes were pretty cool and different than anything else on the market. The first C record crank looked great compared to everything else on the market in 1988. It is hard to not want to like Campy. They have a great history and have made some beautiful parts in the past. Still, I have to judge them by what is on the market today, and I have to say I mostly agree with your assertion that they just “warm over” Shimano designs. Too bad really.

By the way, if you were anti-Shimano in the early nineties, why didn’t you outfit your C’dale with Campy Euclid? Probably because it would have cost a fortune. Does everybody remember Campy’s short lived mountain bike group?

]]> By: Anonymous http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-128 Anonymous Sat, 20 May 2006 03:33:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-128 I agree completely and I had a full Campy Nuovo Record Gitane when I was in high school. I wanted to hate Shimano for their innovation, or planned obsolensence as I saw it then. I even outfitted my early 90s Cannondale mountain bike with Suntour before I realized that Shimano works better. Campy repeatedly warms over a Shimano design, stirs in some carbon and charges more money for something that ultimately does not work as well. Here are some things that Campy has blatantly copied after Shimano brought it to the market place: the freehub to replace thread on cassettes,indexed shifting, Hyperglide( shaped tooth profiles to help shifting, ramped and pinned front chainrings, road STI shifter/ brake levers,cartridge bottom brackets, dual pivot brake calipers and now external bottom brackets.

]]> By: James http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-127 James Fri, 19 May 2006 21:23:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-127 Hi Fritz, I was still in high school, but it sound like our priorities were about the same, except that cycling came right after girls and before studies in my case. About the only Campy item I could afford back then was a t-shirt, but I did love those aerodynamic C-Record parts that I spent way too much time looking at in catalogs. At the time I had a Trek 400, but I really, really wanted an all Campy Italian bike. Today, most of my bikes (6 of them) are from American companies and have Shimano components. My track bike is the oddball, a 1984 Pinarello with the old Italian Ofmega Pista group.

]]> By: Fritz http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/comment-page-1/#comment-126 Fritz Fri, 19 May 2006 19:42:00 +0000 http://bicycledesign.net/2006/05/something-new-from-campy/#comment-126 Hello Commisar James. In the mid/late 80s I was a college student obsessing about girls and my studies (in approximately that order). I was happy with my Shimano 600 drivetrain and I LOVED my new Look pedals with my Nike cycling shoes. Campy was completely irrelevant to me at the time.

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