Photos of the Campagnolo Booth at Eurobike 2014

Wonder what the Campagnolo booth at the world's largest bicycle trade show looks like? Wonder no more! Here are some photos from a friend who visited the show:

Confirmed: This IS the Ugliest Campagnolo Gruppo Ever

Campagnolo has confirmed that next year's gruppo upgrade will feature what is possibly the ugliest crankset ... nay, the ugliest single part ... ever produced by Vicenza.

Here's a photo from the official press release.

Campagnolo calls this "fresh and cutting edge aesthetics." We call is the ShimaNO-ization of the once great design house in Vicenza.

Among the benefits of the new, ugly cranksets, according to Campagnolo, is the use of a single, 4-bolt pattern for all cranks in all lines (Super Record, Record, and Chorus). From the press release:

"The new bolt pattern allows for all 3 chainring standards 53/39, 52/36 and 50/34 to be built upon the same crankset. Changing between compact and standard is now as easy as changing 8 bolts and two chainrings."

That's a great idea--the bolt pattern on the current compact cranks is inexplicably different from everything else--but the benefit is predicated on buying ... all new cranksets. All of the millions of riders who currently have Campy cranksets will have to wait 'til theirs wear out (or the peer pressure on the weekend club ride becomes too much to bear).

"Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and with the seal of approval coming from the Campy Tech Lab as well as top professional athletes, these new groupsets are now worthy of bearing the Campagnolo name."

So says Campagnolo. What do you think? 

 

Today's Bike: Yuri's Wilier Zero.7

Everywhere you go in this great world, you'll find fans of Vicenza riding Campagnolo-equipped bikes.

Here's a great example: Yuri L's Wilier Zero.7, equipped with new Super Record 11 (except for the Rotor cranks). You'll see Yuri riding this near his home in Muscat, Oman.

To see your bike on the Campy Only blog, email photos to enorris [at] campyonly [dotcom]

The Cold War and Campagnolo: Yes, There's a Connection

One of our readers, Dave, wrote in to add to the knowledge base about classic Campy:

Hello, I read your explanation about Campy Super Record rear derailleurs from the late 1970s that actually had aluminum alloy bolts, instead of the much more common standard titanium version.  

You said you didn't know why they used aluminum instead, and the reason is that during the late 1970s the only titanium was being mined in the USSR, and the US was basically in the cold war with them at the time. 

Remember the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics, etc?  Well, we couldn't get any titanium from the Soviets, and neither could the Italians at Campagnolo.  

So Campagnolo tried to make their titanium supply on-hand last as long as possible, which was over a year and a half, but finally it ran out and they were forced to start manufacturing test bolts out of aluminum and some of them actually made it into circulation, but very few. 

I have one mint condition derailleur with those bolts in my collection, by the way. I have been wanting to take some very high resolution photos of it and post them online for all people to see, since hardly anyone has seen one. 

You have a nice website. I have several other things to contribute, since I'm a big Campy collector too, like you. 

Thanks for sending this in, Dave!

Today's Retro Shot: Rare Rally

Longtime Campy Only reader Henrik sent in this photo of an unusual derailleur from the Golden Era:

Hello Eric

Here is a special rear mech modified by the Banani shop in Copenhagen in the mid seventies. It's a mix between a Rally and a Super Record, so riders could get a light long cage shifter for mountain rides.

The Banani shop used to build frames as well, famous for their track frames. Rik Van Stenbergen, Freddy Maertens, Danny Clark etc. have all used Banani frames for 6 day Madisons, back in the golden track days.

Henrik :-)