Campagnolo Record Groupset Review

A combination of beautifully crafted carbon fibre, black anodized aluminium, and titanium make a formidable look. Its unbelieveable to think that people even buy the Durace groups anymore given how aged that crankset now looks. Even the new SRAM groups seem to be made of various non matching component materials which just ruin the overall look of a bike, in a sport where looks are everything.

No so with Campagnolo. Every part looks like it was designed to fit with the other. The materials being carbon, titanium and aluminium all look like they come from the same batch and look totally stunning together.

From a functionality point of view having used all three groupsets I still have a preference for Campagnolo. I believe this is generally the simplicity. One lever has one function. No mucking around, you know what it does, and when you want it there is Zero chance whatsoever that you push it the wrong way and do the wrong thing.

Campagnolo have also updated the shifters with Quick Shift functionality and in their classic design look good. Finally in 2009 Shimano have figured out how to route the cables through the handlebars, something Campy have been doing for years.

As everyone knows the ‘age game' is something no one is going to win, and given this I opted for a Compact Crankset. Combined with a 11-21 cassette this setup a nice combination of low down gearing for climbing hills and high gearing for flat out speed.

When I selected the Compact Crankset I was happily surprised to see that in 2008 Campy had modified the front derailleur to suit either the Compact or normal Crankset. This was nice just in case I decided to change back in the future.

There is no point going into all the technical details about Campy Record. Best place to read that is on the Campagnolo.com web site.

Needless to say though that although the various groupsets look the same, when it comes to the engineering there is a big difference in the amount of titanium, use of bearings versus bushes, and quality of the carbon fibre. The Record groupset is the top of the range in 2008 and comes with all the bells and whistles.

This translates into superior shifting, unbelievable durability and stunning looks that every road cycling should consider acquiring.

As many of you may have seen, Campagnolo have now released to the Tour de France riders the first generation of the 11 speed groupset for 2009. The range has slightly changed with Super Record being introduced as the Top of the Line groupset, and Record relegated to number two. Given the specs of these two sets and the next cousin Chorus, I don't think you would go wrong with any of these.

There seems to be much commentary about what is going to happen with 11 speed group sets, how shops will cope with spares etc, but I believe that just like the introduction of 6,7,8,9,10 speed, there will be a tipping point, and sometime in the future we will all wonder how we did without them.

For now, my stable of bikes are wheels are all 10speed so I am stuck for a little while, but hopefully over time there will be some transitionary parts that allow a cheap transition to 11. In the meantime if Campagnolo were interested in sending me a set of 11 speed Super Record I would be more than happy to convert.