A Cyclingnews special sponsorship feature
Veloce: Campagnolo reliability for everyone
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It's easy to forget that as well as the glorious top-end components that grace the bikes of the world's top cyclists, Campagnolo also makes high-quality but value-for-money equipment. Groupsets such as Veloce are intended not for the professional rider, for whom the light weight of Record carbon is paramount, but for amateur and recreational riders who need Campagnolo performance and reliability at a sensible price.
As Campagnolo's Piero Da Rin puts it, "Veloce is most suitable for two types of users: young riders and all those who are looking for a racing groupset at a very favourable price/quality ratio."
Campagnolo brings its famed attention to detail and durability to Veloce, but uses less expensive, slightly heavier materials and economises on some details of finish to keep the damage to your bank balance under control.
Nevertheless, Veloce is still the most cost-effective ten-speed group, and, Da Rin was keen to point out, it "derives many qualities from the top of the range groupsets: double and triple 10-speed drivetrain, serviceable Ergopowers, and hubs with high quality bearings."
As well as the versatility offered by both ten-speed and nine-speed versions, and double and triple cranks, for 2005 Veloce gets new flat-bar brake levers. This lever design is appearing right across Campagnolo's 2005 range, from Mirage to Chorus. They may look like mountain bikelevers, but that's not the case, says Da Rin.
"The optional levers are the Ergopower Flat Bar," he explained to Cyclingnews. "These components are not suitable for mountain bikes. The thinking is to provide the road rides with the option to set the bike in a more comfortable position."
New for 2005: Compact transmission
CT compact transmission components are also a new option for 2005 on Campagnolo's Centaur, Chorus and Record groups. But rather than simply add a new chainset configuration to the line, Campagnolo has also created new front derailleurs to go with the new cranks.
"Many companies are offering compact cranks," says Da Rin. "The difference is that Campagnolo is offering a compact drivetrain. It's rather easy to develop A single component, but at Campagnolo we design parts that need to work with other ones, that is, the drivetrain as a whole. This is why Campagnolo developed the new CT front derailleurs along with the new Campagnolo compact cranks."
The issue that Campagnolo is addressing with the new front derailleurs is the large difference between chainrings typical of compact transmissions. The usual configuration is 50/34 and that 16-tooth jump is more than most front derailleurs are intended to handle.
The CT front derailleur is matched to the CT cranks in two ways. Firstly, the cage plates have a slightly tighter curve than other Campagnolo front derailleurs to track the curve of the 50-tooth chainring. Secondly, the CT front derailleur has a very deep inner plate to pick up the chain from the 34-tooth ring and bring it quickly, efficiently and safely to the 50. It's this design aspect that improves on standard front derailleurs for use with the CT crank. Typical front derailleurs are optimized for a gap of no more than 15 teeth, and front derailleurs for triples are intended to cover a range of up to 23 teeth in two jumps. The CT front derailleur is simply the right tool for the job of moving the chain across a 16-tooth difference.
- Campagnolo 2004: Changes across the board
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