I agree that a petition would be a great method to compel Campy to remake or license vintage rubber parts.
While production costs overseas are much lower, this price benefit can only be achieved in mass-production quantities. I am not sure that producing a one-time run of only 5000 pairs of break-down resistant synthetic rubber hoods would interest any manufacturing company, large or small. The overseas producer may require a much larger production run to make a profit.
However, Richard Storino at Campy USA is a hard sell about repro parts and currently opposes any such licensing of the Campy name to third parties. Third party or not, he will direct Campy lawyers to whomever reproduces the Campy logo without authorization.
Since Richard is unwilling, maybe CR members should petition Campy to make a custom run of rubber products. Prehaps if CR members committed in advance with a cash payment for a large group buy, this may sway Richard. Sometimes money on the table speaks louder than words!
What is the Campy official policy on repro parts in England, France, and Italy among other countries? Could some CR overseas members comment?
Regards, Steve Neago
Milford, OH USA
> Actually,
>
> You can cut your mold costs significantly by going to Taiwan/China/Hong
Kong
> etc. Expect to save 60-70% over U.S. prices for tooling, which makes the
> proposition a whole lot more attractive. I source parts from Asia all of
> time, including custom plastics etc., and their quality is excellent. And
> you could then lower your price point, if so desired. The kicker would be
to
> get Campagnolo to authorize a third party to use their registered
> trade-marks, as I suspect that they would protect them very aggressively.
> Without the world logo, the repro hoods would not be worth replicating, in
> my view at least.
>
> Candidly, as a collective unit (the CR list) perhaps we should try to
> petition Campagnolo to maintain or start up some sort of "historical"
> division, as they could possibly replicate other sought after parts from
> time-to-time. As the Reynolds tubing ad used to say, "there's strength in
> numbers". Take the issue right to the Campagnolo family (Valentino?).
There
> must be quite a few projects/items they could reissue. The pricing would
be
> steep, I'm sure, but it seems market prices may be support some of this.
> How about a reissue of the Cambio Corsa? Do you think they could sell 500
> pieces world wide? 1000 pieces? I'm sure they could contract out some of
the
> manufacturing to third parties. Then we could get Bianchi etc. to build a
> replica bike to incorporate the Cambio Corsa dropouts etc. Look out, I'm
> getting carried away here! I feel light-headed!
>
> Anyway, just a few thoughts.
>
>
> Dave Patrick
> Chelsea, Michigan
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org
> [mailto:classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of GPVB1@cs.com
> Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 12:05 PM
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: Re: [CR] Repro Campy hoods
>
>
> Hi Ben:
>
> I don't see anyone on CR "expecting" Campy to make us any hoods.
>
> What folks are concerned about is the fact that there aren't new hoods
> currently being made anywhere in the world, ergo the supply of this common
> wear item that's on hundreds of thousands of old Campy-equipped bikes will
> run out at some point. To imply that what's out there now (much of it
> already
> twenty+ years old) will last forever is just plain silly!
>
> Let's do some math: perhaps $10,000 US for a mold. Sell 2000 sets at
> $50/pair
> (that's less than what NOS world-logo ones are selling for right now. Like
I
> said, this won't be cheap). That's a ten-to-one ROI, perhaps reduced to
> five-to-one after other costs are considered. Sounds laughable to me -
not!
>
> If there's money to be made, someone will do it eventually.
>
> FWIW, my recollection is that replacement world logo hoods were about
$15-30
> per pair in the late '70s.
>
> Greg Parker
> A2 MI USA
>
>
>
> Ben wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > none of this becomes the CR list.
> >
> > would my life be richer if i had an original remote for 4 year old sony
> VCR
> > - no the Tandy universal model for $14.99 does just as well. sony would
> > laugh at my request to remake one for me just as Campy is laughing at
> > requests for their hoods. its cute and flattering but they will never
take
> > it seriously as they are in business to make money. if tullio were alive
> his
> > response would be the same. it should have dawned on some of you that
> what
> > you live for isnt getting cheaper.
> >
> > ciao,
> >
> > ben "still waiting on repro door sills for my Yugo" kamen NYC