Wednesday, July 29, 2009

No, It Ain't So!!

Responding to the rumors flying around (see our post down below), Campagnolo officials have now confirmed that the company is not for sale and has not been sold. More here.

Seems that their spokesman's cryptic comment of a day or so ago--"I am not going to give you an official answer on this, as this is not an official matter inside the company"--needed to be expanded upon just a little.

So rest easy, Campy fans. You won't be riding Super Dura Ace anytime soon.

A New Crankset for the Campyonlyguy

This past weekend, we swapped out the alloy Record crankset on our custom Richard Sachs for a new carbon Chorus Ultratorque version. Once again (we have Ultratorque on our Rivendell Road) we were pleased with how very easy the Ultratorque cranksets are to install. Once the Record crankset and bottom bracket (square taper) were removed, it took less than ten minutes to install the new crankset. (Note: Campagnolo is very emphatic about using a torque wrench on the bolt that holds the two halves of the crankset together, warning of injury or death if it isn't installed correctly. Yes, we did use a torque wrench, which every home mechanic should have in their toolbox.)

Performance is also improved--the new Chorus UT crankset has much less flex than the Record. Sprints that used to result in chain rub on the front derailleur don't anymore, and the bike seems to accelerate faster (at least it feels that way).

Tour Winner Wasn't Riding Campagnolo

Remember the good old days, when Campagnolo-equipped riders stood atop the Tour de France podium year after year after year? Those days are long gone (blame Shimano-using Lance Armstrong for that), and this year brought another non-Campy winner in Alberto Contador.

Campy fans can take some solace in the fact that Contador's Trek used components that at least looked like Campagnolo (and is wasn't ShimaNO). His ride was equipped with SRAM's "Red" gruppo, which features levers that look very much like Campagnolo's but work very differently. More info and photos here.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Campagnolo Sold??

Rumors are flying that Campagnolo (a privately held company) has been sold. No word on who the buyer is (if the sale has in fact taken place), but one web site quoted a Shimano spokesman as saying that they were not involved.

Friday, July 24, 2009

We're Back!

The Campyonlyguy recently completed an epic ride: 1,120 miles with more than 50,000 feet of climbing in 11 days of riding. The ride was Wheels North, a fundraising ride from Santa Rosa, CA, to Seattle, WA, that retraced an historic 1909 ride. Information on the ride is here: http://www.wheelsnorth.org and http://wheelsnorth.blogspot.com

Coming up is a Campy-equipped double century next weekend, another in September, and a series of brevets next year. 2011 will bring the next edition of Paris-Brest-Paris, a ride that we completed on a fixed gear bicycle in 2007. For '11, we'll be riding a Campy-equipped bike with gears.

See you on the road!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Campagnolo at the Tour de France

A great guide to who's riding what is available online here. Check it out and then root for riders who use our favorite stuff.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Layoffs at Campagnolo: Company Aims to Streamline Operations

An Italian web site reported recently that Campagnolo was forced to lay off 60 workers at its Vicenza facility. The company said the layoffs were the result stiff competition for its products, particularly in the US, and were part of an overall restructuring to make Campagnolo more streamlined and efficient.

A Google translation of the original article, which includes a mention of the company's Romanian factory, is below:

Campagnolo but the restructuring bill. "Reorganize the company, 60 redundancies'

VICENZA - Streamlining internal "Campagnolo", the company bicycle race leader in the world: termination of employment for 60 employees and workers of the establishment vicentino. The announcement was made yesterday by May dismissals will take effect. "We aim for a reorganization of production 'process', the style of Toyota - the CEO says Valentino Campagnolo - despite the sector is affected by the crisis are we going to conclude this exercise in positive, with about 110 million euros in turnover and orders up 6 cents.
The corporate restructuring has been agreed with unions Fim Cisl and FIOM Cgil for redundancy and pension accompaniments. Campagnolo The group has 438 jobs in pati ¬ Vicentino - between the parent and the brand name 'Fulcrum' of Arcugnano - more than 230 workers, mostly laborers, in a third factory in Romania Bitesti. "The 82 per cent of our market strategy is ¬ Niero, especially U.S., which absorbs 14 percent of total production - says the ad - suffer from competition from competitors particularly aggressive. ¬ tend to continue to be leaders, and for that we are reorganizing: on one side with strong investment in innovation, we have allocated two million one hundred thousand euros for new trademarks and patents, the other with a rationalization of produc ¬ ne.
The fiscal year in Campagnolo opens the first in June and ends May 31 after the 2007-2008 budget was closed with 104 million euro turnover and a profit of one million and a half. "Of the 60 esu ¬ beri, 20 are accompaniments to the board, 20 will be mobile and rhyme ¬ nents in layoffs and mobility - explains Paolo Buratto, in charge of personnel - in the works remain Vicenza ¬ tions with a high added value, such as pro ¬ duction of molds and prototypes.
There used high professionalism, which accounts ¬ nueranno to stay in Italy. The fact is that the company is moving from a pi ¬ ramidale to a proces ¬ organization is more agile. Certain roles are no longer ra ¬ gion to exist, and are denied ¬ tively impact on the cost of the product. " ¬ The company has provided to a budget con ¬ fon of his own about a thousand euros for each of the employees made redundant to start a course of retraining to customize ¬, chosen by the worker.
Andrea Alba

Campagnolo: Made in Romania?

Here's some interesting news: Campagnolo is among a number of companies that have located subsidiaries or production facilities in Romania. The FCA Group, an Italian company that provides services to Italian businesses seeking to locate in Romania, lists Campagnolo among a number of other well-known industrial firms in Romania. Others include Ford, Renault, Pirelli, and Michelin. Read an English translation of the FCA Group's web site here.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

11-Speed Video

Reader Henri Karam sent us this video of the new 11-speed gruppo at the EICMA show in Milan. Nice stuff! (Note: This is a wide-screen video. To see it all, click here.)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Veloce Crankset Reviewed

British online site BikeRadar.com likes the new Veloce Ultra Torque crankset (read their article here). They scored the lowly Veloce as 9 out of 10 in terms of stiffness. As they point out, that's not bad for an alloy crankset, and similar to higher-priced carbon versions.

In fact, with Athena now out in 11-speed, riders who want an alloy crankset (some of us prefer them for aesthetic reasons only) have several great choices from Campagnolo.

Campyonlyguy Photo Wins Award

This photo by the Campyonlyguy won the "Best Portrait" award in the Davis Bike Club's annual March Madness photo contest. It shows our stepson, Willie, aboard our Campy-equipped Santana tandem. You can see all of the club's March photos here.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Our Other Passion: "Wheels North"

Your host, Campyonlyguy Eric Norris, has been involved for the past two years in planning a once-in-a-lifetime fundraising ride, Wheels North. Based on the historic 1909 ride of two young men from Santa Rosa, Wheels North will travel 1,000 miles across the western states to the University of Washington in Seattle.

Wheels North starts just one month from today! We will roll out of Santa Rosa on the morning of July 4th, starting our long journey northward.

We invite all of our Campy Only friends to join us online as we ride. The WN web site and our blog are both up and running--the blog will be updated daily (and potentially more often) while we ride.



And remember, you can still donate to our benefitting charity!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Campyonlyguy on Wheels North TV

We are interviewed about fixed gear riding in this Wheels North video report by fellow rider Warren Jones. (P.S. If you are interested in donating to Wheels North and our charity, the Histiocytosis Association of America, go to the secure online donation page for Eric Norris.)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

2010 Wheel Lineup


Campagnolo has released initial specs for their 2010 wheel lineup.

Look for new graphics, a new spoke channel (sorry, no photos), and a redesigned Scirocco wheelset.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Go to 11 ... in Europe

Riders who own an 11S gruppo (or just intend to buy one) can enter an online contest to ride with Campagnolo's "11-Speed Dream Team" in Italy this July.

Info is available online at www.c11.campagnolo.com

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Shout-Out to our Fans

We ran into several Campy Only fans at yesterday's Davis Double Century. Thanks for the nice things you said about the site--we'll keep Campy Only going as long as our readers keep enjoying it!

More Campyonlyguy Adventures

Yesterday was the 40th running of the Davis Double, and the 26th time around the course for the Campyonlyguy. Here's a video of events from the ride. We'll have photos posted soon.


Friday, May 8, 2009

Win a Richard Sachs Frameset--Deadline May 15

Campy Only invites everyone who would like to own their own Richard Sachs frameset to enter the upcoming drawing for a custom-made frame made for you by master himself. (We are fortunate to own a Sachs--read about it here.)

A maximum of 100 chances are being sold for a drawing to be held on May 18. For a $100 ticket, you could get one of the world's best bicycles, made by a living legend. Tickets are available online HERE.

Your ticket is also a donation to the Histiocytosis Association of America in support of their efforts to cure a rare and deadly childhood disease.

Today's Video

Yet another video by the Campyonlyguy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFFpFetzRoE

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Campagnolo Officially Announces 11S Athena

The formal announcement came out today ... Athena is back as an 11-speed gruppo. According to this report, they are billing it as "11-speed for the masses."

No pricing info as of yet.