I've only ever had shimano on my bike, but when i look at campy it does look dead sexy.

From pictures I've seen of Ballan celebrating his win as he crossed the line in the world championships, I could have sworn he was using Record, not Super Record.

Hmmm, donuts.

Oops, wrong thread

Hmmm, Campagnolo

Carbon componentry, I can understand (weight savings, mass), but 11 spd? Is this what's new? One more cog?

maander, you are correct. Ballan did win last years Worlds on Record 11s. Super Record parts were few and far between last year and In fact, many of the ProTour teams do still not have it this year!

(By the way, the article does say that Ballan won on Record!)

i dont get it. There were expensive 11 spd Chorus, and brilliant, affordable 10 spd Centaur (AL and Carbon). Who needs Athena. Is it any better than Centaur (exept 11 spd)? Looks like chorus- centaur mix.

If "Athena is most likely targeted for Gran Fondo and sportive riders" then why such limited gearing choices: There is no triple crankset and no wide-range cassette like an 11-27. It seems like they've missed the needs of a lot of their target audience's needs due to these omissions.

Strange thing is, I'm looking at this and thinking of my 29er MTB...

Quote dg74 Hmmm, Campagnolo

+1

Also agree that it is limiting on ratios. No triples or anything. But then I'd go for compact or use a different chainset....

Hi, ditto Chris, are they going to dump forever going up to a 29 on the rear mech? Does this mean they'll be phasing out centaur and 10 speed already?

Yak

Yeah, but it goes up to 11 - that's one more than 10. If you're on Shimano and you're in 10th where can you go from there? Where? These go to eleven.

WOW... affordable 11-speed, maybe. This could be a winner, if Campy can avoid a few pitfalls:

- PRICE: If they can hit the Ultegra price-point, that'll go a long way to ensuring its success.

- GEARING: Definitely needs more options here. Dura Ace now has an 11-28 cassette, ditto SRAM. So where's the Campy 11-spd equivalent cassette?

And yeah, a triple would be nice as well.

- CONSISTENT ALLOY FINISH: I just do not get why nearly all of the group is alloy/silver finish, and yet the levers are still carbon. Why ruin the consistent, classic look? Makes no sense at all.

Sure, offer the carbon levers AS AN OPTION, to match up with the optional carbon crank, but it's very ugly and weird to pair the carbon levers with alloy-everything-else.

I thought Campy was supposed to be the *tasteful* component maker??

Still, it looks promising.

What I REALLY want is campag to DO SOMETHING FOR TOURERS.

I am fed up twiddling shimano rear cog sets and campag bits just so that I can have a bike that will go up hills with my camping stuff. When you get to 55 you need a little help. Ooo it makes me so angry. What does it take to give me a bike with touring gears Campag. Can somebody tell me what needs to be done then I will get the mods done and market the stuff myself.

The reason Campy does not offer a triple is because they want to push the compact crank instead. Why? you ask. Triples are inherently finicky and very hard to keep in tune. They do not shift well and are heavier. Think of the overhead they must have to produce three gearing options as well. Especially when triples are not particularly popular at the higher end market. Notice they have also gotten rid of triples in almost all of their other lineups as well. Oldknees, do you use bar end shifters? If so, maybe you could look at using the TT shifters. They do make different length derailleurs in the 10 spd stuff.

Could be very interesting to see how 11-speed develops. But why don't they do sportive-friendly gearing instead of keeping the close gear ratios. They do a 11~25 cassette but why not add a 12 sprocket to a 13~29 to make a 12~29. That then solves the touring question because the range is the same as a 50/40/30 chainset with a 12~25 cassette (i.e. giving a low gear of around 32 inches).

I use a 10-speed 12~29 by mixing 10-speed cassette rings and it works great - even with the jump from 15~17.

I think campag could increase their market share if they understood that not everyone is a power-house racer. We might all have dreams, but reality has to take front seat.

Are you guys ever planning on having a second look at this groupset?

I fitted Athena 11 today and first impressions are...

Plus:

1. The levers index very cleanly (no wishy-washy soft indexing of the earlier Ergo new-style levers).

2. Several screws are Torx (so be prepared). The larger surface area and sharper edges compared to hex means it's easier to apply greater force without stripping.

Plus/Minus

1. Good rear cassette ratios with no big jumps. But that meant I ended up buying an 11~25 for TTs + fast events and 12~27 for sportives and hilly rides using different wheel sets for each. There are no bail-out gears with Campag (they have always been consistent about this - if wrongly so). Now if there was a 12~29, or 11~28....

Minus:

1. I fitted the 12~27 cassette to my Neutron wheels of a certain vintage and the cassette rubs slightly against the hub ring with the very low clearance. It's ok with my non-Campag wheels, so this is an own-goal on Campag's part.

2. That blasted special chain link that needs the custom Campag tool. I just linked the chain with a standard Park Tool so keeping fingers crossed it'll be ok.

Test riding tomorrow (weather permitting....)