Campagnolo has announced Super Record 13 X, the highly anticipated gravel and all-road variant of its flagship wireless electronic groupset.
As teased at the launch of the road-specific version back in June, Super Record 13 X consists of 1x and 2x 13-speed groupsets with clutch-equipped rear derailleurs.
We’ve not yet had our hands on these new parts, but Campagnolo’s hints about what else might be in its product development pipeline have us very excited for the future of the brand.
X marks the spot
Before we dig into why we think this is great news for Campagnolo, let’s have a quick overview of what’s new with Super Record 13 X.
Building on the existing Super Record 13 road groupset, Campagnolo has announced a series of new components that enable it to encompass 1x and 2x 13-speed wireless electronic groupsets for road, gravel and all-road bikes.
Rather than simply changing the chainring and sprocket sizes to suit the various applications, Campagnolo has created two new rear derailleurs with genre-specific designs.
The Super Record 13 X rear derailleur, for example, is designed specifically for 1x gravel bike drivetrains and features a new pulley assembly, a higher-torque shifting motor and a strong clutch designed for riding off-road.
This is compatible with two new wide-range cassettes – a 10-48 and a 9-42t – and an aero crankset with a wider, 47.5mm chainline for increased tyre clearance. 1x Chainrings will be available from 38-42t.
We’ll talk about the other one, and what options it opens up, shortly. Now, though, here are all the new 1x13-speed gravel components.
Super Record 13 X new components
- Super Record 13 X rear derailleur with Nano clutch
- Super Record 13 X 1x aero crankset, 47.5mm chainline
- Super Record 13 X 1x aero chainring, 38-48t
- Super Record 13 X cassette, 9-42 or 10-48t
Campagnolo says its existing 13-speed Ekar cassettes aren’t compatible with the new Super Record 13 X rear derailleur, because they don’t have as many shifting ramps and could therefore damage the derailleur.
However, riders can use the new Super Record 13 X cassettes with existing Ekar drivetrains and Campagnolo says these will speed up how those shift, due to the increased number of shifting ramps on the sprockets.
As with Ekar, the new Super Record 13 X cassettes are compatible with Campagnolo’s N3W freehub standard.
The Super Record 13 X rear derailleur is said to shift a little slower than the standard road-specific one.
It will also only shift up to three sprockets at a time, unlike the road-specific version, which will go all the way across the cassette block if you hold down a shift button.
Both characteristics are designed to protect the rear derailleur from damage, Campagnolo says.
In our pre-launch briefing with the brand, though, it was still keen to stress it will shift faster than its competitors.
Everything else
The other new rear derailleur is more like the standard road version, with a lighter-tension clutch compared to the gravel-specific one.
Campagnolo says this one is designed for 1x road and TT setups, plus 2x gravel or all-road drivetrains, and is compatible with the existing range of Super Record 13 road chainrings and cassettes. These range from 45-29 to 55-39 and 10-29 to 11-36t, respectively.
For these applications, there’s the existing Super Record 13 2x crankset, plus a new road-specific 1x aero crankset with a 45.8mm chainline (the same as standard Campagnolo road cranksets).
There’s also a new left-hand brake lever, which ditches the electronics and shifter buttons, dropping around 20g of weight.
While intended primarily for use with 1x drivetrains, Campagnolo notes the new brake lever can also be used with a 2x drivetrain if desired.
This is because a single Super Record 13 ergopower shifter can control a 2x drivetrain with one of the three programmable buttons set to toggle the front derailleur, and the other two assigned to the rear derailleur.
Lastly, there’s also a Bora X gravel / all-road wheelset, which features 50mm-deep rims, which are 27mm wide internally and 31.5mm wide externally.
As you’d expect with Campagnolo, these rims are hooked and tubeless-ready, and the wheelset is built with a mix of aero and elliptical spokes that apparently help balance rigidity and comfort. It has a claimed weight of 1,430g.
Super Record 13 X pricing
The exact price will depend on which spec you opt for, but Campagnolo says Super Record 13 X 1x groupsets will start at £2,999 / $3,899 / €3,375.
1x road groupsets cost a little more at £3,050 / $3,975 / €3,410.
Prices for 2x all-road groupsets start at £3,899 / $5,065 / €4,370 – essentially the same as existing Super Record 13 road groupsets.
Adding a Campagnolo power meter spider to any of these groupsets increases the price by £1,050 / $1,325 / €1,167, while the Bora X wheels are priced at £1,999 / $2,599 / €2,290.
As expected, then, these new Super Record 13 X components aren’t cheap. It’s fair to say these prices are in line with the direct competition, however.
Super Record 13 X is even a little cheaper than SRAM’s 13-speed Red XPLR AXS groupset at RRP, which costs around £3,500 or dollars.
Shimano’s wireless 1x GRX RX827 Di2 groupset is substantially cheaper at only £1,739.90 / $2,282 / €2,011.90, but is more comparable to the likes of SRAM Force XPLR AXS in terms of its nominal ‘tier’ and overall weight.
More to come
Given these prices will put Super Record 13 X out of reach for many riders, the most exciting news from this launch may be the tiny hint that something “more affordable” is in development – according to Campagnolo’s head of product and marketing, Federico Gardin.
Other than intentionally vague comments from Gardin about the overall Super Record 13 ecosystem being “the first step for the new Campagnolo”, we don’t have much to go on as to what that “more affordable” stuff might be.
However, it’s easy to imagine how this new tech could be applied to cheaper groupsets in the same way we usually see high-end stuff influencing cheaper, heavier versions.
Given Campagnolo seems to have retired its ‘Record’ line of groupsets for good, that might mean Campagnolo is developing a 13-speed wireless groupset for its Chorus tier – hopefully with the same broad ecosystem of 1x and 2x options for road, TT, gravel and all-road.
- Campagnolo is retiring its iconic Record groupsets – but there’s more to the news than meets the eye
If so, and if it’s priced competitively with the likes of Shimano’s Ultegra Di2 and SRAM Force AXS, I think that would put Campagnolo in a really good spot, with options that could see it start to appear on bikes that a few more of us might see in the real world.
Of course, Ultegra Di2 and Force AXS are still expensive groupsets, all things considered.
However, it’s worth remembering that Campagnolo simply doesn’t have the same economies of scale Shimano has, and it still likes to make as many things as possible in Europe – so it’s always going to be difficult to compete aggressively on price in the same way.
Campagnolo is keeping its cards close to its chest with this one, though, so we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the Italian brand.
