recent experience w/broken campy 11 shifter

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aermet
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:37 am

by aermet

Had a recent experience with a broken part inside of a chorus 11 right side ergo on someone's bike and I thought I'd share the experience.

In the USA, if you have an issue with a campy product warranty issue, in this case a 11 speed ergo lever, be prepared to be without your bike for a couple of weeks. The part must be sent back by a bike shop, to one of the approved service centers (distributors) to be repaired.
Though theoretically you can buy spare parts, the fact is that you actually cannot buy spare parts for the internals of the shifter like you used to be able to with the older non "escape" type and 10 speed mechanisms. You must send it in and they will replace the entire guts of the shifter, in this case, because of a little spring. You, as a consumer, cannot do the expedient thing.

Kiss your bike goodbye for a few weeks while the inefficient campy warranty network does it's thing. In a big training block in preparation for a race? Too bad. Ride the spare bike if you've got one.

Fancy calling campy USA for a way to perhaps get the parts or speed things up? Been there done that. Based on that tel conversation, it's no wonder that campy have been steadily loosing market share the last several years-and that tel conversation is what put me over the edge to post my experience with this specific incident.

In contrast, if you have an issue with a SRAM or shimano component, as a shop, you give them a call and they put a replacement in the mail to you straight away. A 4 minute conversation. The shop has the part in their hands within 1-3 days and you can be on your bike again just as quickly. That's the way it should be, and that's the sign of a company who actually cares about people who spend obscene amounts of money for bike parts.

Do you work hard, and look forward to riding your bike when your schedule allows? How long do you want to be off your bike if you have a component failure on your campy equipped bike?

Yes, I used to buy into the fact that you could buy spare parts for campy shifters and I've replaced my share of index springs and ratchet rings. When I stop to think about it though, I've personally never actually had to replace a part in a Dura Ace shifter. Yes, they wore out-but after years of use-and I don't mean just 2 years of use. It's not that nothing from SRAM or shimano breaks. It's just that they actually care about the consumer experience if something happens by establishing an effective warranty and customer service network.

For me, campy, NEVER again.

sharkman
Posts: 1399
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2004 8:32 pm
Location: the Netherlands

by sharkman

Good to hear not all things are the same overseas. Over here Sram shifters give up (broken levers etc) and Shimano is the brand that produces shifters that reach the end of their lifecycle at an alarming speed...
Getting parts from both brands (especially Sram) is time consuming. On the other hand so far I hardly had any problems with campy on both my own and customers bikes (most products of this firm hold forever) and spare parts are expensive but can be ordered and are delivered in a reasonable amount of time. The only pity is instead of Sram an Shimano copying Campy concerning the availability of spare parts it's Campy that has started to imitate the other two which simply means that expensive parts will reach end of life when something goes wrong.

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aadamcycle
Posts: 79
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:19 pm

by aadamcycle

Had the body on my campy record 11 shifter break and yeah you cant just buy the body you have to buy the shifter assembly. This basically includes all the internals minus the blade and the hood. I think it was only 140$ but damn campy I use to love to rebuild a shifter but not now that you cant. What a shame.
put the fun between your legs

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