What's the big fuss about Campag?

I don't get it. I'm in the middle of building / renovating a 1986 Raleigh Sirocco and have been sourcing parts for it on ebay. Now, I bought a NOS period aero Shimano seat-post, which is very nice. I also bought a period NOS aero Campag seat-post, which was quite a few quid more. The Campag post arrived today and it's heavier, it also isn't as well made as the Shimano post. I don't get it; what's all the fuss about with Campag? Is it really, simply, designer label bullshit?

paging andyp and hippy.....

People say it is better made- you and MikeC seem to disprove that.

It looks nice.

Isnt a Sirocco made of 501 ? If it is it's not worthy of Campag!!!(joke I also have Campag on lesser 80s frames)

Snobbery. It also allows you to use and misspell the word "gruppo".

much like 531 it was an internet rumour perpetrated by hipsters that spread with no factual backup.

What do you mean 531 good or bad?

So your judging two companies' entire output on two products?

Me or VanUden?

In the house at the moment we've got three road bikes, 2 track bikes and one road bike converted to fixed. (And an MTB in a box under the stairs, but we don't talk about that).

Road bike #1 is Ultegra with a DA rear mech. It works, all the time every time. Easy to service and set-up.
Road bike #2 is Chorus Carbon, again it works, it's easy to service, but I'm not a fan of the shifters.
Road bike #3 is older Chorus 8 speed- really fiddly to get it set-up well, but works ok when you get it dialled in. I still don't get on with the shifters.

In my limited experience modern Shimano and Campag perform almost the same, however I get on with the Shimano shifters far more than I do the Campag. The Campag ones remind me of Sora.

The older Campag is much more of a pain to set-up than older Shimano.

All in my limited experience.

personal preferance

+1, I personally prefer Shimano to Campag.

What do you mean 531 good or bad?

it's just a bit of tubing slightly thinner in the middle than the ends that was once used to make bikes.
it was superceded a long time ago.
it's a bit of old tube not a whole lot awesomeness.

I've run both shimano and campag on my road bike before, and the campag shifting suits my small girly hands better.

Campagnolo is more beautiful... Er, that's it...

They both make good quality components and the competition between them, and more recently with SRAM, means that we benefit as they try to improve the performance of their products.

Dammit's point on the 8 speed kit is interesting, as it's 15 years old now and shows how much shifting has improved.

Enjoy the competition, rather than getting involved in some utterly pointless comparison.

it's just a bit of tubing slightly thinner in the middle than the ends that was once used to make bikes.
it was superceded a long time ago.
it's a bit of old tube not a whole lot awesomeness.

So that's it, it suffers from "RetroVintageness" syndrome.
It's not necessarily useful/up-to-date anymore, it just sells a lot.

I thought Campagnolo was supposedly more serviceable than Shimano with parts availability for all the little bits and bobs separately. I would imagine that has all changed now and probably both are disposable?

Yes 531 was superceded a long time ago but for a relatively light responsive and importantly durable tubeset it still takes some beating .I know there are now much lighter tubesets but I like the durability and feel of 531 and I can now afford it and Columbus SLX and Ishiwata 017 which I couldn't do 20 years ago I own one aluminium frame and hope to replace that with 853 as soon as I can afford it.I wouldn't give carbon room in the shed as I feel it's to fragile for my 15 stone and I like my frames to last

Steel was superceded a long time ago as a frame material for bikes.

Steel was superceded a long time ago as a frame material for bikes.

Best you tell the hundreds of worldwide framebuilders that fact because they're obviously on a sticky wicket

Hold on Andy; working on a bike that I expect to take a few knocks and still be usable with dents and dings in it and not to suffer from sudden catastrophic failure if it gets a crack in it but which is still relatively strong and light and comfortable I think steel is the obvious choice - unless you can afford titanium.

Not comparing the entire output of two companies but I am surprised. The lower bracket on the Campag (Athena) post is roughish bent/formed mild steel that's been factory spray painted. While on the Shimano it's cast and polished ally, much nicer. Even the Allen Bolt on the Shimano is better quality.

Depends on which groupset the seatpost is from - campag did a xenon etc level one as well as record.

@blodnik and @wiganwill

:p