That was indeed the hallmark of Campy. They were consistent and predictable. I still find a Campy NR bike the easiest to work on, partly because a Campy T-wrench or a Campy hex wrench fits about 80% of the fasteners. But consistent and predictable is the enemy of innovative, and Simplex, CLB, Maxicar, TA and a host of other French companies made stuff that was more innovative and more interesting. And some of it just worked better. Simplex had a spring loaded upper pivot on their rear derailleurs about two decades before Campy and that made Simplex RDs of the era shift much better than Campy NR. The Campy loyalists who deny this are simply in denial. Like Chuck, Ive ridden Campy and all the other stuff, and READ MY LIPS - SIMPLEX SHIFTED MUCH BETTER THAN CAMPY. And of course the SunTour rear derailleurs with the brillant and patented slant parallelogram shifted best of all. If you read "The Dancing Chain" you know that real techincal innovation was driven by the touring market, not the racers, and touring was by far strongest in France. The Italian racing scene on which Campy focused may have been the vanguard of quality and consistencey, but it was the backwater of innovation. If Campy had built the first bicycles in the 19th century, we'd all now be riding excellent quality high-wheelers. Vive la France.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> I have a nuanced view from many years of full time
> mechanic work; Campy had anywhere from a tiny to a
> huge quality advantage in the 70's depending on the
> part discussed. What they did have was consistent and
> predictable quality as well as an organized system for
> supplying repair parts.
> David Feldman
> Vancouver, WA
> --- Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > "kohl57@starpower.net" wrote:
> > >
> > (cut)
> > > As a teen trying to save newspaper route money for
> > these things, we all
> > > knew that if you wanted a "real" racing bike, a
> > Gitane was cheap, a Peugeot
> > > a mite more but way cooler and then you had your
> > Schwinns and Raleighs with
> > > their coveted Campy stuff which just cost a bomb
> > in comparison. And I am
> > > not talking so much real quality differences here,
> > just "But I gotta it..."
> > > marketing at work.
> >
> >
> > I respectfully disagree... there were _real_ quality
> > differences there,
> > make no mistake about it. And yes "Gotta have it!"
> > but for a very good
> > reason. Whether you could afford it or not was a
> > whole other question,
> > of course...
> >
> > Chuck Schmidt
> > South Pasadena, Southern California
> >
> > .
> > _______________________________________________
> > Classicrendezvous mailing list
> > Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> >
> http://www.bikelist.org/
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online.
> http://taxes.yahoo.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Classicrendezvous mailing list
> Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> http://www.bikelist.org/
>
_______________________________________________
Classicrendezvous mailing list
Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
http://www.bikelist.org/