Unique Items for Sale, 4-1-09

From one of our email lists:

To: Davis Bike Club Date: April 1st

I have come into possession of some unique historical Campagnolo bicycle parts and wanted to give DBC members first choice before I put the stuff on EBAY.

Item 1: Campagnolo "Cinque"" crankset. The Crankset has rings of 10, 20, 30, 40 & 50 teeth. Used with a rear cog of 50 teeth this gave the bike a low gear of 5 inches. This prototype was developed by Tullio Campagnolo for use by the Italian Army during WW2. Since fuel was in such short supply, these were to be used by cyclists riding special Military Bicycles towing tanks over the Alps to save gas. The story is that the Italian Army drafted Fausto Coppi to ride one of the test bicycles. good, slightly worn condition. some pasta staining. $300.00

Item 2. Campagnolo Pedali Parmesano. circa 1952 These were developed by Tullios not so smart brother Fredo. The idea behind these was that if you were out for a long ride, and ran short on food you could break off a part of the pedal and eat it. The hard cheese actually worked quite well in gripping the soles of that era. 1 pair 9/16 thread, some mold $100.00

Item 3. Campagnolo "Scoop Del Gelato" circa 1976. Most people know that Campy ocasionally makes non bicycle related items. This is a finely machined ice cream tool capable of dispensing 5 different size scoops. To change the scoop size, a Campy Record shift lever and rear derailleur of the era were used in the mechanism. Unfortunately these tended to clog easily and people complained about the taste of the derailleur oil contaminating their Gelato. Some rust, the derailleur is jammed up with pistachios.
$150.00

Reply off list only

Dave

11S Athena Photos

One of our readers pointed us to these:

Athena 11-Speed

It appears that Campagnolo's Athena will return next year ... and it will come in 11-speed. Several sharp-eyed readers pointed out that installation instructions on Campagnolo's web site make reference to an 11-speed Athena gruppo (read them here).

Athena will join Super Record, Record, and Chorus, which currently come in 11-speed.

The Price is Right?

Lost in the shuffle of early 2009 news was this item ... The trade publication, Bicycle Retailer and Industry News reported in January that Campagnolo is (in BRAIN's words) "leveling the playing field for retailers that sell its components." Translation: Campagnolo will establish suggested retail prices for its products, and then monitor prices posted in print and on the internet to make sure that retailers are advertising prices that are within the suggested range.

Backing up the pricing requirements is a new labeling system that will let Campagnolo track when and where an item was shipped, and how many of the item were shipped. This will let Campagnolo identify "gray market" retailers (as well as helping them track products in the event that a manufacturing defect is found).

Campagnolo defends the pricing system as a means to help all of their retailers succeed. Campagnolo North America general manager Tom Kattus is quoted by BRAIN as saying, "Campagnolo is a premium product and priced accordingly--it always will be--but I want retailers and distributors to be able to make a fair margin when selling our products."

Fair enough. It's also fair to note that ShimaNO beat them to the punch several years ago. And other manufacturers seem to thrive with "no discount" pricing--when's the last time you saw an iPod on sale at Target?

What do YOU think? Please comment on this post.

ShimaNO's Electronic System

About 15 years ago, when mountain biking was sweeping the bicycling world, Campagnolo basically missed the boat and let ShimaNO grab all of the market share for the hottest new cycling craze. Campagnolo still hasn't re-entered the mountain bike world (although you can put together a Campy-equipped mountain bike fairly easily with triple cranks and "flat bar" controls).

So now Campagnolo finds itself falling behind again in an area it should have been leading in: electronic shifting. Say what you will about electronic shifting (and there are many detractors out there ... Campy Only's position is that electronic shifting is unnecessary for those of us who ride bikes in the real world outside the European pro circuit), it is the wave of the future. And that wave right now is being ridden by ShimaNO while Campagnolo watches them.

Campagnolo has been testing electronic shifting systems for several years now--they've been seen in the field and photographed. But they've never brought an electronic system to market, focusing instead on other improvements, like 10- and then 11-speed systems.

And now along comes ShimaNO, a relative newcomer to the field, with a genuine, hold-it-in-your-hands, yes-you-can-buy-it electronic system, the Di2 (read an article about it here). We just saw a Di2 gruppo in a local bike shop--it looks a lot like Ergopower, but it's real and someone in our area will soon be riding it. For the price of a small car, you can have electronic shifting on your bike, and it will bear the ShimaNO name.

Still More Malware Stuff ...

We're sorry to be clogging up the blog with this stuff, but we wanted to let you know that our web hosting provider is also on the case. Here's an excerpt from an email they sent us today:

"It has recently come to our attention that your site has been listed in Google’s directory for infected sites or sites distributing malware. In order to prevent any further negative effects to your website, we will be beginning cleaning efforts to rid your account of malicious files as early as today. These measures should have no adverse effect on your account and in fact, should get your site back to normal as quickly as possible.

We will be examining files in your account and removing those that pose a threat to the security of your site. We recommend that you also personally examine your files and clean out suspicious-looking files as well. If necessary, we are ready and willing to assist you in this process if our proposed plan does not entirely eliminate your problem. We will also be trying to comb through your databases (should you have any) for malicious files and remove or quarantine where needed.

We hope that these efforts will help keep you off of Google’s infected sites directory, keep your website up and running and also help keep you happy with our service."

The Malware Adventures Continue

Several weeks ago, Google began warning visitors to Campy Only about potential malware on our site. Taking their warning to heart, we checked all of the places they told us malware could be hiding and fixed them all. We've asked Google to remove the warning, a process that their web site says could take several weeks.

We apologize for any inconvenience that our readers have faced as a result of Google's warning. We also not that there is no way that we know of to actually communicate with a live person at Google, or to speed up the process of removing the malware warning. This is, in our opinion, an overreach by Google that is harming many, many web sites.

We welcome your comments.

Campy Only Visits Branford Bike

We're in Seattle today, so we visited longtime Campy Only sponsor Branford Bike. Branford Bike opened up in Seattle under new owner Rodd Wagner several years ago, and they've put together a very nice retail space--and of course their web site remains a great source for all of you Campagnolo needs.

Visit Rodd and the crew at www.branfordbike.com ... and tell them you read about them on the Campy Only Blog.

More photos of Branford Bike's shop are here.

In the photo, the Campy Only Guy (Eric, in the middle) is pictured with BB owner Rodd Wagner (right) and his assistant, Calen (left).

Bulletin Board Update

We've located the problem (some malicious code) in our Bulletin Board, so it should no longer be causing any problems. You may still get a warning from Google when trying to access the site--unfortunately, it takes a while for their warnings to be updated.

Again, sorry for any inconvenience.

Bulletin Board Problems

Yes, we're aware of the problems with our Bulletin Board. Google users (and others, perhaps) are getting a nasty message warning of potential malware. We've submitted a tech support request to our web hosting provider and hope to have the problem fixed soon. Sorry for any inconvenience.