Upgrade from Potenza 11 to Chorus 12

Hello everyone,
Last summer I've put together a Bianchi oltre xr2 with a campagnolo potenza 11 groupset.

I've been keeping an eye on eBay for parts as I'm afraid by the time I need them those won't be around anymore. I saw the cost of these parts seems to be as high as brand new pieces like the chorus 12 at the point I was wondering if I should just "jump" on it straight away.

Is there anyone with experience on both the groupsets that could help me understand if that's something worth doing or better stick with potenza for the time being (was a used but basically new groupset. I keep it clean and lubricated, hopefully prolonging it's lifespan)

Thanks guys :)

The annoying thing about Campagnolo is that they have a lot of quirks, one being that the Potenza group is an orphan and the deraillers/shifters are only officially compatible with Potenza parts, which could be an issue in the future for spares.

One thing to ask is what do you actually want to achieve? The advantages of the 12 speed groupsets, apart from the extra gears is they have more options with lower gearing. Chorus 12 is also a bit lighter too. Occasionally you can find the whole groupset brand new at a discount as less people are buying mechanical rim brakes groupsets these days.

Alternately have you thought of Chorus 11 or Record 11? In particular the post-2015 models. Still lots of these floating around on eBay, parts availability is good and interchangeable between Chorus/Record/SR. These are even lighter than the 12 speed and on Ebay are not too expensive. They are a bit more limited in gearing choices though.

Lots of advice on this thread. https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/361323/?offset=550#comment17221743

I’d just go for Chorus 12, it can be found super cheap at the moment. It’s worth it for ultrashift alone. Older Campag groupsets also have relatively poor gearing options.

Look, I'm an amateur myself. Currently training for my first century (ride London 100) so definitely not a weight weenie :)

I got my potenza for £220 while looking for a campagnolo for my Bianchi. I love It and I've just read good things about it.

I should be able to get a chorus 12 for circa £740 sourcing each piece (I have already chorus 12 rim brakes) but can't really make up my mind on it. Probably not the best moment right now as the potenza is still pretty new and would feel like a waste.

I was thinking about going chorus/record 11 but pricewise I was going to spend very close to the 12 so not really bothering.

I guess that for the time being I should be ok although I need to find something else to feed the "monkey" on my shoulder XD let's see. Thanks for the input guys.

Ha yes good point, Ultrashift is awesome.

Mind you if you are patient enough you can sometimes get a good price on some of the 11 speed stuff second hand. There is a lot of it on the market. I recently got a complete 2015+ Chorus 11 groupset for £260 on eBay. Needed a little bit of love and had to replace the FD but no issues other than that.

Although pricing with Campag stuff is a bit odd at the moment as sometimes the 12sp individual parts can be cheaper than 11.

there is one guy selling a chorus 11 minus the chainset for £350 but I would not need the brakes and I would need to buy the chainset for at least £150 going to 500. I could get the chorus 12 for £717 with the latest discounted items I found online. I'm really conflicted here. mostly for the "waste" of a good set like the potenza. I may just "wait" for it to "expire". once it is time to change the cassette and chainrings I'll probably swap out everything.

A question I've asked in the campagnolo thread (which I'm not sure if it is monitored :D), When I had the groupset installed, the BS apparently has used Shimano cables. I've been using it since last summer and haven't had many issues with it. Well, I don't think I've had issues at all to be honest or I'm not familiar enough to say this issue is because of the wrong cable installed apart from the OCD thing of seeing shimano with campagnolo on the same bike...

Do you guys think I've been missing on any features by not having campagnolo 's cables?

Yeah brakes you could prolly sell for £40-50. Chainset you could probably get used for £100-150 I think. These are my guesses for the 11 speed stuff. Is that price for Chorus 12 new? That is not a bad price and I’d prolly go for that than bother with the old stuff, depending on what your budget allows. You can probably always resell the 11 speed stuff at a later date for not much difference anyway.

As for the cables, the biggest difference is the cable ends as ones intended for Shimano/Sram have a slightly bigger head, they don’t seat perfectly into the Campag shifter and may catch as the cable spool goes around. You can file them down but the genuine ones are not expensive so I wouldn’t bother.

Personally I’ve found the genuine Campag cables and outers do give the best results as the cables and the outers are matched, particularly if you get the full set with ferrules etc. make sure you cut with a disc cutter or file the cable outers ends flat for best results.

One weird bit of useless trivia is the Campag gear cables have strands woven in an anticlockwise direction. Not sure if this makes any difference tho :)

Yes, the price is for all new parts. It looks very good right?

Re: cables
I have no idea how they used Shimano stuff in there. Obviously I'll change them if I'll pick up the new stuff.

Ah I just realised that is the price for a NOS one in the classifieds atm. Yeah that is a good buy actually, if you are ok with the gearing limitations of the 11sp group sets.

It’s also the older pre-2015 one, I have both and the newer 2015+ ones shift a bit better but not a massive difference to be honest.

Personally I’ve found the genuine Campag cables and outers do give the best results as the cables and the outers are matched, particularly if you get the full set with ferrules etc. make sure you cut with a disc cutter or file the cable outers ends flat for best results.

They also say Campagnolo on the outers 😎. Bonus points if you can cable the bike up with Campag showing on every visible outer.

And I 100% agree with you. It pains me to have campag gear and Shimano cables although from a cost effective way, there's no point to change them. Not sure how they made them fit honestly but if there's no feature I'm missing right now, I'll stick with what I have.

Still undecided though. I found some bargains online so went down to £717 and by selling my potenza I could get some cash on top of that. I've just finished paying off frame+accessories. I really wanted some time off from recurrent payments... Damn monkey!!!

Haha true. Even more bonus points if you have the “the maximum smoothness” outers for the gears. Although I heard they are included from factory for the 12 speed and Ekar gruppos

Hey I've had the whole range of Campagnolo Groupsets from SR EPS to Potenza.

Personally I would stick with Potenza and you'll get some decent life span out of it. It works fine and is reliable. I've crashed mine and its robust.

Chorus 12 is deffo an upgrade (weight and functionality) and absolutely recommended but not necessary to make the jump IMO. I really have no issues riding Potenza and does not feel like a cheap gruppo by any means...

Thanks for your message Zed. Very helpful!

Hi Zed, one question as you said you own potenza as well. Are the brakes (rim) the same between the front and the rear? I found a guy selling 2 rear and I was wondering if I could use it as a front. From the tech specs there does not seem to be any difference. Thanks

I've got a front and rear potenza for sale and the only obvious difference between them seems to be the longer bolt on the front one.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/17031777/

Lovely, thanks for the reply :)

I have discs

I'm still in the pondering stage, do I do it or not kind of question XD
I've received an offer for this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285625188144?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=DQ8CuzlvRcS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=wpFxvwe7RQO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Is it worth it when I could get it new for less than £200 more?

Looks like it's missing the calipers from that set? So factor that in as well as any other things...

Normally the way I do things is do it cheap and accept some kind of compromise, but if you're going to spend a decent chunk it should be exactly how you want it.

The good thing is that I have already chorus 12 calipers so it will fit perfectly. I was pondering if £200 are worth the new/used thing

I dont think there's any difference between chorus 12 and chorus 11 rim calipers, as in they are exactly the same. Record and Sr have a different shape to them, otherwise there's no difference to any of the rim calipers anyway.
12 speed cassettes are very expensive which is what stopped me. They're £150.

Yeah, but the groupsets are perfectly happy with Shimano cassettes, you can get 105 12s cassettes for £35 at the moment!

Oh, dream!

For that price difference I don't think there is any point buying it used, given that the chain is not original it's more likely that the cassette/chainrings are already well into their usable life.