Which Groupset?

This is a quite old article about Campagnolo vs the rest of the world, but I found it very good and balanced: http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/italian-job

The article is good but it also tries to avoid the real problem.. the increased significance of marketing with the shift of bicycle components towards comsumerism. The "bike boom" was more about bicycles not being bicycles but as status and design objects. Even during the boom years and into the 1980s road cyclists were pretty much at the fringe in the US-- save alongside the bicycle paths in Santa Monica towards Venice beach were bicycles met divorcees on roller skates (Phil Wood's big thing was that he sold pedals in the 1970s that promised to resist the ocean salt and sand that spelled ruin to the bearings of the day). The boom helped turn bicycles into a "lifestyler" object driven by fashion and fads and sold like Coca Cola and Rolex watches.. Ornate Italian frames kitted out with Super Record was de rigueur.. Riding them was not... Fast forward to today's MANILs... bicycles get ridden.. they, however, are not trendsetters at the fringe but a Jane Fonda fitness video in mid-life crisis. Not brought up with bicycles and without much a cycling history they look to what seems "in". That is where SRAM comes in. They are the Nike of bicycle components even if their heritage (but not management) is really as deep in cycling as Campagnolo having been forged out of the ruins of Fichtel&Sachs, Mallard, Huret, CLB and a good chunk of the rest of the aging French cycle industry (save Simplex which went to Mavic). SRAM is not bad. These days most parts function when new rather well... Its wear and tear that seperates the pack but as cycling components go through shorter and shorter model cycles and consumers chase the "latest and greatest" that characteristic looses its relevance.. What did Steve "Shuckster" Jobs say "you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year".