Campagnolo Veloce vs Centaur vs Shimano 105

Is it? I thought that those were aluminium.

Sorry- I meant the downtube, not the cranks (which are aluminium), dreadful photo really but I had it to hand.

Sorry- I meant the downtube, not the cranks (which are aluminium), dreadful photo really but I had it to hand.

Ah yes. That makes much more sense.

Not technically fireplaces.

Feck. good point.

We sorta diverted to groupsets I cannot afford haha I want to keep my budget on the groupset at less than £400 preferably. I thought the SRAM Apex would look out of place on a steel frame so I was thinking campag. I would love Athena's but that puts my bike as a high target for theft and also Athena's are at £800 a groupset right?

Also it seems they only do the campag centaur and veloce shifters in black nowadays...

You can get veloce in silver too.

The link in one of Smallfurry's posts was to a full Athena silver groupset for £519 or thereabouts

its worth checking for groupsets on those ebay shops, often fairly heavily discounted stuff

The link in one of Smallfurry's posts was to a full Athena silver groupset for £519 or thereabouts

Yes.

Sram Apex. £399.95
http://www.cyclingbargains.com/product_info.php/sram-apex-groupset-p-457
Pretty far down the Sram ladder. But super versitile. If you're likely to be putting panniers on your bike for the commute. The bigger spread of Apex will be a godsend. You can upgrade the rear mech to a lighter MTB one, or swap to flat bars and run MTB shifters.

Campag Athena. £521.99
http://www.cyclingbargains.com/product_info.php/campagnolo-athena-11speed-groupset-p-758
You get 11-speed, ergopower ultrashift shifting, power torque crankset, and skeleton brakes. With centuar you just get the nice crank system. Its a serious upgrade.

Shimano 105. £424.99
http://www.cyclingbargains.com/product_info.php/shimano-105-5700-double-groupset-10speed-p-1273
I'd actually rate 105 as up there with Athena. Shimano trickle down tech from the top shelf groups far quicker than anyone else. Like I said before its probably the best value groupset at your budget.

There's just over £100 between them. Thatrs not much money when you consider how many miles you will put on them. So go to a bike shop and have a feel of the levers, or better still borrow some bikes (doesnt need to be the exact same groupsets) to check how you like the different systems. Usually this makes the chioce very simple.

its worth checking for groupsets on those ebay shops, often fairly heavily discounted stuff

This^

I was a serious bling whore when building my roadie. But this was made more affordable by clever sourcing of components. Took fecking ages though.

Campag 2010 SR parts - Italian Ebay
Rotor parts - Spanish Ebay
Weight weenie components - German Ebay
Frameset - Austrian Ebay

FWIW I think the apex rear mech is more or less the same weight as the top end long cage mtb ones. Could be wrong, but last time I checked there wasn't much in it.

Dispite my piss taking yesterday - if it's on a classicly styled bike, and you're not going to be swapping cassettes all the time, buy the Athena*.

*assuming you've tried them all to work out which is the most comfortable ;)

I'm resisting the urge to into a massive blurb, on why I love Ultrashift. Getting non-circular chainrings, kevlar cables, and a CNC'd alu cassette, to play nice together within the narrow tolerances of 11-speed. Has had me close to tears. But after finially getting there. The shifting is sublime. Nice and light, but with big reasuring clicks. Up 5 or down 3 gears in one movement.

Much as I love it, penty of folk hate the campag thumb shifter though. So yeah, needs trying.

We sorta diverted to groupsets I cannot afford haha I want to keep my budget on the groupset at less than £400 preferably. I thought the SRAM Apex would look out of place on a steel frame so I was thinking campag. I would love Athena's but that puts my bike as a high target for theft and also Athena's are at £800 a groupset right?

Also it seems they only do the campag centaur and veloce shifters in black nowadays...

Steel frame? Under £400?
Just get silver Veloce from the cycling bargains site SF linked to - £350 is a bargain and it will look nice.

Ignore the thumb shifter or not argument - unless you are a complete spaz you will get used to it and like.

Thread ends

http://www.shinybikes.com/campagnolo-veloce-10sp-silver-groupset-2011.html

£342 here for 2012 version. Love my 2011 veloce. Looks great on a steel frame too.