Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Campy Only friends around the world!

 

Friday, November 16, 2012

Raleigh's Campy-Equipped Team Issue Anniversary Edition

Fans of classic bikes will love Raleigh's 125th Anniversary edition bicycle, a steel-framed, Campy-equipped homage to the famous Raleigh bikes that were ridden to so many victories in the 80s and 90s. The Anniversary bike, built with Reynolds 525, is equipped with a mix of Record, Chorus, and Athena components.

Act fast--only 125 of these will be made! More info here.

 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Today's Ride Photos




Ride to Napa 11-4-12, a set on Flickr.

About 70 Campy-equipped miles today from Davis, home of Campy Only, to downtown Napa.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

HOF Ride, 11-3-12


P1030799 - Version 2

HOF Ride, 11-3-12, a set on Flickr.

We had the pleasure of riding this morning with Tom Ritchey and George Mount, two inductees into the US Cycling Hall of Fame. Thrown into the mix of photos from the ride are a few shots of some gorgeous old Campy drivetrains--look closely and you'll spot one of the very few Gran Sport rear derailleurs that we have seen being used in the wild.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Really? Campy Only is in the Top 1%?

The folks over at the (apparently legit) web site nerdydata.com wrote to us last week to let us know that Campy Only (our main web site) receives more traffic than 99% of the web sites on the internet, placing us squarely in the top 1%.

Campyonly.com is gold certified
Of course, considering that there are more than 366 million web sites out there, we have a lot of company (about 3.6 million, if we get the math right). Still, nice to know somebody (or some robot) noticed.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

History for Sale ... But No Takers

An eBay seller in England had a somewhat tattered Catalog #12 listed on the 'Bay this week, but there were no takers for the starting bid of $646. Maybe he'll relist it again ...

P.S. To read Catalog #12 for free, head over to the Campy Only catalog archive. You'll find a pretty complete selection of historic and modern catalogs, all in PDF format.

 

Friday, October 5, 2012

New Archival Catalogs on Campy Only

We've uploaded four new catalog sets today, covering Synchro (Campagnolo's first attempt at indexed shifting), Fluid Dynamic Wheels, Lubricants, and the Victory and Triomphe gruppos. All free and offered for your use by the folks here at Campy Only.

See the full 1987 catalog set here.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

This Weekend's Ride: A Little 200-Mile Spin Through Northern California

Those of you who follow the exploits of the CampyOnlyGuy know that we've been doing long distance riding for a while (actually, since our first double century ride in 1983). This weekend, we'll be at it again, riding the 200-mile Knoxville Fall Classic Double Century.

On Knoxville-Berryessa Road
Completing Knoxville will be an accomplishment in itself (think miles of uphill, with extended stretches over 10% grade), but it will also keep us at the top of the all-time California Triple Crown completion list. Yes, your CampyOnlyGuy remains the only rider to complete the CTC every year that the competition has been offered--22 years so far, and 23 after Saturday's Knoxville.

If you're on the road in NorCal this weekend (or on the Knoxville DC), please say hello. We're always happy to talk to fellow Campy fans.

We'll post photos from the ride (and hopefully some video, too) when we're done.

 

Friday, September 21, 2012

Campy Tattoo

We'll be adding this to our Campagnolo Tattoos page, but for now, you can enjoy reader Jared B's nice ink here on the C-O blog:

Sunday, September 16, 2012

"Slaying the Badger": The Campy Only Review

The Tour de France has never been a "clean" race. It takes only a cursory glance at the race's history to find that, even a century ago, racers were doping (and often getting caught) in an attempt to grab cycling's biggest prize. The current controversy over Lance Armstrong's alleged use of a variety of techniques to ride his way to seven Tour wins is only the latest episode in a storied history of cheating--and it won't be the last.

In the midst of all this hand-wringing about drugs and cheats, comes a book that hearkens back to a (somewhat) more innocent time, when the three-week rolling soap opera that is the Tour was dominated by two men: Breton Bernard Hinault and American Greg Lemond. "Slaying the Badger" (Velo Press) provides a compelling insight into these two men and the Tours of the 1980s that cemented their reputations as two of the sport's greatest riders. The fact that they did it (as far as we know) without doping makes the story all the more remarkable, and serves as a lesson to today's riders: Yes, it's possible to have an incredibly compelling race that doesn't rely on illicit drugs.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Campagnolo's Eurobike Booth

For those of us who can't make it to Eurobike:

 

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.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Report from Eurobike

The annual Eurobike trade show is under way, and the folks at Road.cc have a pretty extensive report on new stuff at the show, including a brief glimpse at Campagnolo's trade booth (scroll waaay down on the page). The only Campagnolo product they mention are new EPS bar-end (time trial) shift levers:
If you're at Eurobike and have a camera, send us photos (enorris [at] campyonly [dotcom] ) and we'l post them here.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Quick BikeCharge Impressions

Because many readers have asked, here are some quick impressions of the BikeCharge integrated light/dynamo/USB charger. We've used the BikeCharge several times, including a hilly 53-mile ride and several local rides in our hometown.

BikeCharge mounted on a steel fork
General Impressions: Overall, we're impressed with the quality of the unit. It's solidly made and generally works as advertised. We took the unit up to speeds of over 40 mph with no problems.

The exception so far is the USB function, which is not working on our unit. We informed the manufacturer, and they're sending a replacement unit, which we will test and report on as soon as it arrives.

Riding with the BikeCharge: On that recent 55-mile ride, we rode with the BikeCharge's dynamo engaged for the entire ride (it's easy to disengage the unit for daytime riding, but we kept it on for test purposes). The unit's drag is minimal--we honestly couldn't discern any loss of speed caused by having it on. Lacking any special testing equipment, we'll guess that the drag is equal to or perhaps a bit less than a Schmidt hub, and certainly less than a B&M bottle generator. The unit's gearbox emits a very low level of noise, certainly less than a bottle generator. The only time the unit produces more noise is when changing speed, when the gearbox and/or the "clutch" mechanism that rests in the spokes make slightly louder gear meshing sound.

Brightness: We've been pleasantly surprised by the brightness of the headlight. The LED lamp is rated at 100 lumens, but it seems brighter than that. We used the BikeCharge for a brief nighttime ride, paired with a helmet-mounted Exposure Lights "Joystick" on the lowest setting, and adequate light for riding at about 20 mph. It's certainly not as bright as an Edelux or a similar high-end light, but certainly enough to ride with. We can certainly see this light working well for randonneuring events. The light is quite visible from the front, even in bright sunlight, making it a great running light for full-time use.

Our only minor complaint with the front light is its low-mounted location, which makes it somewhat hard to aim properly. We prefer a light mounted on the fork crown or handlebars, but the BikeCharge offers the tradeoff of being a single, easy-to-mount unit.

The red LED taillights, on the other hand, are a bit of a disappointment. They're not nearly as bright as the headlight (good thing, too, because you can see them while you are riding), and I wouldn't want to rely on them as my only source of rear-facing illumination. Riders in the USA and other countries where we drive on the righthand side of the road will also note that the unit mounts on the right side of the bike, making the taillights less visible to cars approaching from the rear on the left side of the bike.

USB Charging: As noted earlier, we couldn't get the USB charging function to work. The manufacturer said this was rare, and is sending a replacement unit. We're a little concerned about the relatively lightweight connector for the USB cord, but we'll wait to see how well it withstands regular service once we get a working unit.

More photos of the mounted BikeCharge after the break. Click here for unboxing photos.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Campy Only Panda

Turning a set of Nuovo Record cranks on our retro-styled Raysport fixie.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Campy Only Photos: Winters Road Race

Photos by Campy Only from today's road race in Winters, CA. Surely there's some Campy stuff on some of the bikes ...


More photos here.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Reader Bikes: Campy Equipped, Santa Fe Style

Reader Alan W, of Santa Fe, NM, writes,

These two beauties have logged thousands of miles over the years, without a single fault.

From the hills around Santa Rosa, CA to retirement and the mountains around Santa Fe, New Mexico saying, "ONLY CAMPY"!

Now, the photos ...