Shimano to Campag

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Markmoddy
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:30 am

by Markmoddy

I too am a Campagnolo user.

I love the shift quality of the campagnolo over Shimano, often mistaken for a clunkyness, I like it positive shift... Ker chunk.

I also like the heritage that goes behind campagnolo.

The top group sets have a reputation of being cycling jewellery!

However over the years, I do expect most manufacturers of group sets have become very similar. Most of it is manufactured in the cheapest place they can find to put it together etc etc... Technology seems to have been 'shared' etc so I don't think you can really go wrong nowadays with a mid to top enf group set from any of the big guys.

The saying "you pays your money..." applies well.

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XCProMD
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:25 am
Location: Cantabria

by XCProMD

I think the outsourcing thing as in "most of it is manufactured in the cheapest place they can find..." applies mostly to SRAM, and to a lesser extent to Shimano.

SRAM doesn't own their manufacturing facilities in Asia, where most (almost all)of their stuff comes from. From a merely functional point of view this is nether good nor bad. The stuff works and when otherwise usually it is because someone screwed it in the USA or Germany.

Shimano owns many facilities, actually it acquired its behemoth status during the 70's and 80's being able to shift production away from a strong Yen and into Malaysia and Singapore, something that Maeda/SunTour couldn't do. But those facilities in Singapore and Malaysia belonged and still do it to Shimano Inc.

Campagnolo has always refused to move production away from Europe. At this very moment they have two facilities in Romania (which is a low wage country by Eeutopean standards, but still more costly than most of the Asian southeast), and their headquarters in Via della Chimica in Vicenza. When Tullio Campagnolo was still alive they had to take the decision of following the industry to Taiwan or staying in Italy, and they chose the latter.

They are very often criticised in this forum for it, but the thing is that more than 30 years after that decision they are still at the forefront of cycling technology: they had electronic shifting functional prototypes in the pro peloton before Shimano did, actually their patents were filed between 1993 and 1994 and their program started in 1992, they have been pioneers in all things carbon in moving parts, and they are still a healthy company albeit much smaller than the "S" ones. It is not the American way of managing a company, but the Central European way (you see this pattern from Sweden To Italy across Denmark, Germany, Austria...). The owners don't dream of getting immensely rich, they just enjoy doing a product that is unique and keeping the knowledge in the company, making the community around them thrive.

You may like it or not.

Markmoddy
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:30 am

by Markmoddy

And that my friend is why I do like Campagnolo :)

Markmoddy
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:30 am

by Markmoddy

Yes I do remember that Campagnolo brought electronic to the pro omelet on first, along with all the waterproofing/ mechanical problems they had with it too.

Hence the delay to market, and being beaten to general sale by Shimano.

A shame really... As when people think electronic shifting they think Di2 mostly now.

Go for campagnolo you won't be disappointed I'm sure.

XCProMD
Posts: 1125
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:25 am
Location: Cantabria

by XCProMD

Well, they didn't had many problems, actually they never had a problem during a race during 2003-5. The waterproofing thing arose during a car transfer and IMHO they overreacted and chose to develop new casings and buy all the new machinery for the factory afterwards to be able to ultrasound solder everything.

Or perhaps it was a wise decision after all: they know very well that they lack the PR power of their competitors and that they may be slow sometimes at reacting if a problem pops up far away form Europe, due to their distribution system.

So they tend to be ultra conservative when it comes to reliability issues. Maybe as users we benefit from that too after all.

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