CAMPAGNOLO

The Italian brand thrives on its heritage, but still aims to lead the way with its technology, including the launch of the first 12-speed groupset

There’s something about Campagnolo that leaves cyclists misty-eyed. Maybe it’s the mythology – the oft-recounted tale of Tullio Campagnolo’s struggles to undo a frozen wing nut in 1930 leading to the invention of the quick release skewer.

Perhaps it’s the heritage – generations of beautiful groupsets, crafted by artisans and ridden by legends such as Coppi and Merckx. Or it could be because Campagnolo remains resolutely an Italian family company, replete with all the quirks and idiosyncrasies that brings, in an age of hyper-efficient Far Eastern corporations.

However, for all its traditional appeal, Campagnolo also sees itself as an innovator, and is proud that it has often beaten its competitors to certain landmark developments.

‘We were the first with 10-speed and 11-speed, and now we are the first again with 12-speed,’ says Campagnolo’s communications director, Lorenzo Taxis, talking of the company’s recent major launch. ‘As a small company we are able to control and master innovation. In the 1970s it was magnesium, then came titanium, then carbon fibre. We are always thinking, “What next?”’

Taxis is keen to point out that the addition of an extra sprocket is not the only update to its top-tier Record and Super Record drivetrains. The groupsets have been completely revamped, with new derailleurs, brakes, hoods, levers, cabling, chains and cassettes. However, he is aware that for all that, it’s the number 12 that will be the big story for the brand, and he fully expects Shimano and Sram to follow suit in the near future.

‘I’m sure that all our competitors will do the same step forward. Good luck to them,’ says Taxis. ‘We are not the same as the other two competitors – they are mass marketers, we are a niche manufacturer, a premium brand, and we need to keep our status.’

As far as Campagnolo is concerned, it is not even competing on the same playing field as Shimano and Sram. While most observers would suggest that the top-tier groupsets from each of the big three are comparable in performance, Taxis insists that Super Record exists on a different plane.

‘We realise that the market likes to present the first-in-a-row with the first-in-a-row, and we’re not saying one is superior to the other, but we cannot say that Super Record is competing with Dura-ace or Red. We believe that Super Record is something different and stays apart from the competition.’

What makes Super Record different, according to Campagnolo, is the company’s refusal to treat it as a commercial product. The company, as headed by Tullio’s son, Valentino Campagnolo, seems genuinely only interested in creating what it considers to be the pinnacle of technological and material refinement. It uses only the most advanced materials – UHM carbon fibre, titanium, ceramic bearings – and spares no expense in construction and testing.

As a result, many people see Super Record as ‘jewellery’ – beautiful but overpriced compared to the slick efficiency of Dura-ace – but that is perhaps to misunderstand the Campagnolo mindset.

The brand does offer lower-priced groupsets, Record and Chorus, which it insists are functionally identical to Super Record but simply don’t use the same materials, so may be slightly heavier or marginally less stiff. As such, there are few rational reasons for spending the extra money on Super Record, but rationality isn’t Campagnolo’s driving force.

‘In the industry they say, “You have too many groupsets,”’ says Taxis. ‘It’s true. It makes it more complex, but this is history. Would you suggest that Mr Campagnolo kills Record? That is a historical name.’

And there is the rationale that is simultaneously Campagnolo’s biggest problem and its greatest asset. It could shift manufacturing to the Far East, make more price-efficient products and pour its money into marketing, but then it would no longer be Campagnolo.

The push for technological advancement has to go hand-in-hand with a respect for the company’s heritage. Campagnolo knows its products have to be both up-to-the-minute and timeless.

‘That’s why the testing and the standards that we have when producing a product are usually much higher than normal,’ says Taxis. ‘While other products are wearing out, ours are wearing in.’

‘We were the first with 10-speed and 11-speed, and now we are the first again with 12-speed’