He's Valentino Campagnolo, and You're Not

Interesting piece by longtime observer of all things cycling (and friend of Campy Only) Gary Boulanger:

Valentino Campagnolo (left) with Eddy Merckx and Miguel Indurain

http://www.pavedmag.com/featured/5-reasons-why-he’s-valentino-campagnolo-and-you’re-not/

Not really five reasons why Campangnolo's leader isn't you, but some nevertheless read-worthy vignettes about the company and some of the people who love its products.

From the article:

"First-mover status takes a backseat in Vicenza, based on Valentino’s edict that mirrors his father’s decades later. “The bicycle has evolved greatly, especially in the last 10 to 15 years, and even more in the past five years,” Valentino said at the 80th anniversary celebration. “We can expect that evolution to continue and we need to be able to follow or, even better, to try and anticipate the evolution. But, everything has to be based on performance and reliability. Sometimes we need to be able to anticipate the future needs of the market; this is a tough job. But staying behind racers and being willing to listen to their experiences, to the reasons why they lost a race, will see us continue to develop. That is the difference for Campagnolo.”

Campagnolo spent 20 years developing its EPS electronic groupset, with the eventual launch of Super Record EPS and Record EPS coming in 2011, two years after Shimano Dura-Ace Di2."

Not touched on in the article is why Valentino's father, Tullio, named one of the company's lowest-priced and least desirable gruppos after his son. All flavors of the Valentino derailleurs were cheap, stamped-metal shadows of their more expensive Nuovo Record and Record counterparts. Thanks, dad.

As a faithful reader, you probably know that the CampyOnlyGuy is an accomplished randonneur, a participant in the French sport of unsupported long-distance riding. So ... it was fun to see several friends featured in today's San Francisco Chronicle in an article on this unique and difficult sport.

You need to be a subscriber to read the article, but here's the photo. We've ridden with all of these folks, and they are indeed some of the nicest cyclists out there.

Randonneurs Martin Meyer (left), Rob Hawks, Jason Pierce and Kitty Goursolle need resourcefulness as well as stamina. Photo: Katie Meek, The Chronicle

For Sale: Every Derailleur Campagnolo Made from the 1950s to 1980s

Framebuilder Richard Sachs (a longtime sponsor of Campy Only) is a well-know fan of Campagnolo. Over the years, he's built up far more bicycles with Campagnolo than any other brand.

Richard is also a well-known collector of Campagnolo parts, some of which end up on project bikes, some which never leave their original boxes. It's a collection of the latter that Sachs is now offering for sale.

In this blog post, Sachs describes his collection of 1950s to 1980s rear derailleurs, collected over the years in new condition--with the original boxes---that he is now offering for sale. It's an amazing collection that he says is the most complete in existence, and we don't doubt that that's in fact the case.

Cost? Just $14,000 will, in one fell swoop, make you the owner of the most complete collection of Campy derailleurs from the classic era, from Gran Sport to Nuovo Record.

Here's a link to larger versions of the photos above. Lots more at Richard's blog post.

Today's Retro Photo: Forgotten Campagnolo Derailleurs

Well, not forgotten, but certainly among the less common examples of Campagnolo design. Included in the photo are several variations of the "Valentino," named for the son of the company's founder (and current head of the company).

The "Sport" model dates from about the 1950s, and is unique among Campagnolo's rear derailleurs in that it has only one jockey pulley. You can see one of these mounted on one of Campy Only's bikes here.

Branford Bike News: June 2013

Happy Campy-Equipped Branfrod Bike customer. Note the fenders; BB is located in Seattle.

Campy Only sponsor Brandford Bike is out with their latest newsletter: Branford Bike News: June 2013

Apologies to readers of this blog for the blatant ShimaNO content in the newsletter ...