Review of New Athena 11-Speed EPS Electronic

The folks at BikeRadar.com took a video camera to Eurobike to get an interview with a Campagnolo official about the new, budget-priced Athena version of their electronic gruppo. Read their review (with video) here.

Campagnolo's spokesman says the system's battery will go 2,000 Km before needing a recharge, potentially opening electronic shifting to the randonneuring crowd. Let's see how many riders show up at Paris-Brest-Paris in 2015 with battery-powered shifters ...

More photos after the break.

Missing Athena Story?

Our news feed said we could find a story on the launch of Athena EPA 11-speed here, but the link comes back broken. Has anybody been able to read the story? Let us know in the comments.

Posted with Blogsy

Installing Campagnolo's EPS: Not As Easy As Plugging It In

VeloNews' Lennard Zinn tackles the difficult question of how to install EPS on a frame that doesn't come pre-drilled for the internal wiring. Read the entire article here.

When you click over, sit down and get ready for a long read that includes nuggets of wisdom such as this:

"EPS wires have 6mm-diameter waterproof connections. They also require a special tool (the Campagnolo UT-CG020EPS) to plug and unplug them."

Wow. Another tool for the ol' toolbox. Just to plug and unplug wires.

Ah, well. We still stand by our longstanding prediction that Campagnolo will sell each and every electronic gruppo they produce, not matter the cost ... or the difficulty of installation.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Electronic Costs

From one of the email lists we subscribe to. (The writer is referring to Grant Petersen's new book, "Just Ride")

Just ride? Naw! A new paradigm: "Just spend"! Looking thru a new Co Cycler flyer recently received I had to let out a belly laugh when I saw the prices for the new electric Super Record 11 kit on page 12 -- prices that beat satire into the ground.

RD: $925

FD: $850.

Not to mention: Cable set: $165, Power Unit $580, PU Interface $215.

And a FD "Stiffener" for $110.

Who needs satire?

Patrick "gonna get me a $400 helmet, too" M

For the record, we here at Campy Only have predicted that Campagnolo will sell each and every one of the electronic gruppos they produce, regardless of price.

Posted with Blogsy

Electronic Shifting Expands to TT Bikes

Ah, the pace of electronic upgrades. Once reserved to mobile phones and computers (more features! Faster processor!), the same inexorable and rapid improvements are now coming to a bike near you.

Witness Campagnolo's release of new time-trial-specific fittings for the new EPS system (which will also work with triathlon bikes). Only six months after EPS dropped on the world, and it's already expanding.

We'll almost certainly be watching riders this year in the European pro peloton effortlessly shifting during time trials--the greatest thing to come to cycling until ... The next thing.


 

How Low Can You Go? New Campy Crankets Get Doooowwwwn

Riders who enjoy climbing walls with their bikes will be glad to hear that Campagnolo's just-announced new crankset lineup, paired with their 30T cogs, will let you get down to a stump-pulling 27 gear inches with a 30x30 chainring/cog combination. The new lineup includes revamped double and triple cranksets, all of whic have been stiffened to accommodate the higher shifting forces generated by the new EPS electronic front dérailleur. More info here (from Bikerumor.com)

 

Coming Soon: Athena EPS

Thanks to one of our readers for spotting this on the web.

 

 

2013 Rumors

We're hearing that the 2013 lineup will include the return of triple cranksets ... and the introduction of EPS at the Athena level. The latter is a move that will help Campagnolo introduce electronic shifting to the masses ... and perhaps take market share away from ShimaNO despite the fact that Campagnolo was later to the game.

Got a rumor? Email us: enorris [at] campyonly [dot] com.

Velo News Weighs in on Electronics Vs. Mechanical Shifting

Very thoughtful article today from VeloNews on the merits and drawbacks of the top-of-the-line electronic (Campagnolo and ShimaNO) and mechanical (SRAM) systems. Read it here.

VeloNews quickly dismisses battery life concerns ("The question of battery life is not even worth mentioning, because Di2 and EPS batteries last so incredibly long.") without providing specifics. As a long-distance cyclist, your CampOnlyGuy still wonders what "incredibly long" means--a 50-mile road race? 100 miles? 200 miles?

VeloNews, by the way, gives Campagnolo the edge in some areas (the "feel" of the shift buttons, for instance), but ranks ShimaNO higher in front shifting and the ease of "hacking" an additional battery onto the system. They also note that Campagnolo's EPS system is "insanely expensive" and weighs some 359 grams more than the cheaper top-of-the-line SRAM gruppo. (At this point, we will add our standard statement that Campagnolo will sell every single EPS system they produce, regardless of cost.)

 

Ernesto Colnago Turns 80, Goes Electronic

Famous framebuilder Ernesto Colnago turned 80 today, and is celebrating by making a limited run of 80 special bicycles, equipped with the new Campagnolo EPS electronic gruppo.

Reports Cyclingnews.com: 

The C59 Ottanta has Master-like arabesque lug decorations and Ernesto Colnago’s signature, yet is made from the best possible carbon fibre and fitted with Campagnolo Super Record EPS 11s electronic components.

Read the entire article here.

 

We Are Right ... Again

 From reader David M comes this note:

Hello Eric, 

'Campy Only' gets it right again ! You predicted Campagnolo would sell every EPS group set they could produce we hear today that i-ride in the UK has already pre-sold their entire first shipment…. Retail price for Record EPS approx £ 2800.00 and for Super Record EPS £ 3800.00…Ouch !

kind regards,

David M

We have indeed predicted for years that Campagnolo's electronic gruppo would sell like electronic hoecakes no matter how much it costs.  (And by the way, £3,800 is about $6,000US!)

I you see an EPS-equipped bike on the road, no matter where, let us know! Email enorris [at] Campyonly [dot] com

Battery-Powered Shifting: A True Story

Campy Only sponsor Larry Theobald of CycleItalia sent in this report (originally titled "A biased and atypical but TRUE story") after a recent ride with a group that included someone using ShimaNO's new D12 electronic gruppo. 

Read on after this report for a few more thoughts from Campy Only and Larry ...

"Yours truly went for a ride today with the guys who show up at a local bar at 2 pm most days. After the usual 'Tuesday Afternoon World Championships' got started I found myself left with two guys, Giuseppe riding a carbon Daccordi with pre-UltraTorque carbon Campagnolo gruppo and Martino, aboard a new-looking BMC machine equipped with Shimano Dura Ace DI2. We were soon joined by Luigi riding a Pinarello Dogma with a recent Record carbon groupset. These fellows were uninterested in making a race of it and were happy just to enjoy the ride, letting me tag along aboard one of our steel rental Torelli bikes equipped with the last version of 9-speed Mirage components. 

We rolled along for a couple of hours with me trying to understand snippets of the Sicilian dialect with little luck, while observing my first Shimano electronic groupset in action. Eventually we reached the town of Canicattini, our highest elevation and turned for home, almost totally downhill. As we gained a bit of speed I noticed Martino going slowly but pedaling quite fast. As I rolled up behind it seemed his ultra-expensive, ultra-sophisticated front derailleur would not obey his command to move the chain up onto the big ring. The other bikes never missed a beat though perhaps their riders did once or twice, but we had to wait for Martino who could only whirl away on his small chainring and tiny cog in back. 

Ironic how the most expensive and sophisticated components among our small group were the ones that failed, especially the very first time I'd seen one of these groups in action."

Campy Only's take is that this story highlights not only the reliability of Campagnolo's components (which CycleItalia uses exclusively), but the folly of relying on batteries to shift your chain. Even if nothing was wrong with Martino's ShimaNO system, a dead or dying battery would have had the same effect ... and this will affect bikes with Campagnolo's EPS system as well.  Welcome to the age of charging up your cell phone, your iPod ... and your bike ... every night.

We asked Larry about this, and he agreed, and pointed to an opinion he wrote on another blog last year (scroll down to September 2) that highlights yet another issue with electronic shifting.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.

 

Campagnolo EPS Road Test EXCLUSIVE

Campy Only correspondent Mike McGary sent this detailed report on the new electronic gruppos. Enjoy.

"Last week, I was fortunate enough to go to Campagnolo North America in beautiful Carlsbad, Ca. to take in some tech training on Campy’s new EPS (Electronic Power Shift) gruppos and go for a spin on the new kit. I was thoroughly stoked when I found out we would be riding the same Super Record-equipped Pinarello Dogma 2s that were used at the Campagnolo EPS world-wide launch in Sicily awhile back. Let’s just cut to the chase; After over 20 years of development, this is hands down the best gruppo on the market today, probably ever. Bar none.

Ergonomics are excellent-they feel just like Campy’s best-in-class mechanical hoods, (although they are slightly different).  Campy’s “one-lever, one-movement” shifting makes this system very intuitive to those who ride Campy currently, and makes it extremely difficult to miss-shift by pressing the wrong button.  In fact, the amount of finger pressure required to depress the mechanical shift levers has been measured and is set up exactly the same in the EPS electronic levers. There is a defined click with each shift that you can both hear and feel. (Essential for the pro peloton). In other words, the shifters don’t feel any different than what you are used to. It only took a few minutes for me to forget all about the electronics- it just felt like shifting a Campy bike, albeit quicker and easier.