The converted?

Single speed converted, most certainly. I am referring to the Campy-Shimano Debate, and to be honest in stage one, i think my stance will interestingly refreshing.

To begin, I have run shimano LX, XTR, 105, Ultegra, and only ridden dura ace once for about 7 blocks. I have used, STI, Dual Control, Rapid Fire, and Bar End shifters. I am familiar with the shifting of shimano, the speed of a proper shift, the crispness of an adjusted drive chain, and the performance at different levels. I have a pretty decent grasp on the component groups capabilities.

On my new Bianchi 928 (later to be reviewed) I have been running Campagnolo Centaur 10 speed. I have about 3 hours on the trainer, and about 9 hours on the road with this guy, and I have noticed some differences in the way the bike shifts and the function of the shifters and I have to admit, I'm kinda impressed.

There was some fidgeting with barrels, and small adjustments after the first good ride, but the bike is dialed in. I don't believe I have the narrative skill to write about these components and bring the smell of fresh tomatoes and basil to the air accompanied by the sound of opera music (yeah, just like when your on hold on the phone with Campy), so I will make a brief list of things I really like.

1 Three cogs up, all of them down. So i have the same upshift creative control as shimano, but i can dump a pile of gears. To combat this, most say "When do you need to dump 9 gears" and I say not often, but i can dump three and that happens alot, as well as dumping 6 which doesn't happen often but certainly does.

2 The feel of the hoods. I will admit that I am by no means a roadie, nor do i usually take the comfortable way out when purchasing bike parts, but these things feel good. New Shimano 10 feels good, and Shimano 9 feels pretty alright, too. I am just noting that I like this.

3 The shifting is loud! This is great, I hit the shifter, i can hear the mechanisms, i can hear the chain drop into the gear. I can hear when the indexing is off (boy howdy can you) and I can just can the clicks and noises when I'm droppin all them gears and droppin the hammer.


So, Soupie, you love campy now right? No.

No I don't.

I like it. It is pretty swell, It works great (So far) and riding it is a blast. I enjoy riding my Bianchi 928 for the reasons above.

I can't say that I love it yet. I really think you campy guys need to readjust yourself. I am not talking about guys who prefer to run campy, I'm talking about campagnologists, those guys who eat sleep breath loving campy stuff. I just don't understand your love yet. I really like shimano, and i think that I like campy better. I can never say that I loved shimano, and i don't know if i could ever say i loved campy.

It has like....all this stuff going on that I'm not really excited about, special cables, special routing, but the thing i really can't get over is it has DERAILLEURS!!

Soupie, what about campy track? I Simply respond, are you buying? Are you repacking my hubs? Am I Track racing?

So, This concludes phase one. As the current ambassador to the Campy world from our Campy pro shop TRM CYCLES, I will continue this debate at a later time.

As far as being a Campy Pro shop, we are authorized to work on campy stuff, rebuild shifters, derailleurs, and wheels (depending on their rebuildability, I am not going to relaminate your Ghibli). So, if it brakes call it up!