The prototype electro-mechanical Campagnolo drivetrain has gotten some press on cyclingnews.com and even generated results in races.
Does the idea of an electro mechanical gear kit appeal to you? Why? Why not?
Yes. It’s techy, it cool. Would I ride it?
Yes, if they gave it to me for free. I can’t afford centraur, let alone something electronic.
The problem is, Campy likely won’t be able to pull it off. It’s just not their crowd. Shimano, maybe, SRAM, yes. Campy riders are to classical and (sorry to sya it …but…) prudish.
I think you’ve answered yourself…Why??? Doesn’t the non-electrical system work well-enough already? My Chrous gruppo is a thing of beauty…how does this new contraption improve my shifting?? How could it ever justify the weight increase?
I say no…
It solves a problem that I don’t have, so no.
Don’t like it. What if the batteries (or whatever the power source is) fail during a race, and you are forced up an alpe in your 53x14? That’s no good. Shifting is so smooth now, I don’t see the need to change it.
-C
I say gimme a break! What do you do if the battery runs out? Do you have to plug your bike in overnight in order to maintain a charge? Is this accomplishing something that Record doesn’t, cause, yeah, Record really is pretty crap gear and everything, so they sure needed to improve it. I am glad, on the other hand, that it is Campy and not Shimano who went this route first, as I am a Shimano fan and all of the Campy Cult would be having a field day over this if Shimano had come up with it!
It’s still quite bulky IMO. But really, I don’t feel that my current cabled setup is bad. Is this using technology for technology’s sake, or is it a real improvemen? I’d love to hear the argument for why this is better rather than just different.
It is interesting though and I applaud Campy for pursuing it.
It’s sexy. Currently, cables run amuck on a lot of the pro’s bikes. If you had electronic, it would look cleaner, it would be easir to take apart and put back togethor a bike (no cables or derailures to re-tune) and it would be more aerodynamic.
Why? Because I said so.
A potential advantage that I can see is that you could effectively have multiple points where you could control the shifters.
Consider two examples:
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Traditional road bars with clip on aerobars. The shifters are not directly available when you are using the aerobars. With the electronic shifters you could have a second set of controls on the aerobars.
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Tri-type bars. The shifters and brakes are not accessible at the same time. Again, with a second set of controls you could access both at the same time.
Probably a minimal benefit though.
Personally I think they’re pretty cool (I am an engineer though…I seem to recall a saying along the lines of “if it ain’t broke it doesn’t have enough features yet”)
FWIW IMO it is a solution for a problem that does not exist.
Umm…Didn’t Mavic try and fail about 10 years ago? How is the Campy going to be better?
Campy engineers should listen to Colin Chapman the famous head of Lotus cars. He stated that their overriding design objective was to “simplify and add lightness”. This is the most proven way I know to make things faster and more reliable. I suppose if Campy can convince me that their eclectic group is accomplishing that goal then I would give it a try.
I used the Mavic electronic system for a while. I liked the ability to shift (rear only) from mulitple positions.
I had buttons on the clip on bar ends, the brake lever and under the arm rest pads. I thought it made it easier to get used to aerobars.
The problem I had with the Mavic system was that police radar would reset the computer (wireless) and make the system stop shifiting. Campy has a wired system so it should not have this ‘feature’. Cables are heavy and can be a problem for some frame designs, especially tandems so I hope the Campy system does well.
“Didn’t Mavic try and fail about 10 years ago? How is the Campy going to be better?”
It’s a good thing the Wright brothers didn’t subscribe to this logic… 
My buddy still used the Mavic system on his TT bike. Very clean…(one cr up front), no shift levers.
Works well, although the batteries are dead right now!
IMO, not a good product for road or tri though…
Unfortunately in the case of Lotus, simplicity and lightness did not equal reliability or quality regarding the road cars and a lot of the race cars.
Did anyone ever use the Elan as a daily driver?
“It is never too late to fix your childhood!” Tom Robbins
Not for road bikes - it’s pointless.
Maybe for TT bikes so you can change from the tribars or the bullhorns. And the bike wouldn’t get such a pounding as the road bike so youd have a good idea how full the batteries were. But still probably not.
If they could make it wireless, that would be cool.
Am I reading this thread correctly?
Can it be?
Are a bunch of triathletes with:
Dimpled disc wheels
Carbon bottle cages
Aero hemets
10 speed clusters instead of 6 or 7 or 8
Molded, carbon aero tubes
carbon-only saddles with no padding
Heart rate monitors that download to websites
40 GB MP3 players
$200 sunglasses
$400 wetsuits
GPS devices
Saying that THIS is finally a piece of technology you don’t really need?
There is a business proverb that says “you can have it lighter cheaper,stronger…pick two” I think if you change stronger to “more dependable” we have a basis for deciding this products worth. If you string any two of these together someone will buy it.
lighter, more dependable
lighter, cheaper
more dependable. lighter
cheaper, more dependable
Doubtful you would get all three and if you just get one its not worth it. Just a thought on a topic I know little about.