New Campagnolo Ekar coming on February 20th?

[robertbb]

Was super excited until I read there's no 165mm crank option.

SERIOUSLY?

Going shorter is literally THE thing everyone's doing now, from Pro's to weekend warriors, and has been for ~18 months now.

[robertbb]

Oh and another thing, those new Zonda's look sweet.

The C17's have a cult (see what I did there?) following for good reason. They're superb.

These new ones have a claimed weight identical to that of the outgoing C17 and for that you get 6mm wider internal, 5.5mm wider external at the same depth.

Outstanding.

[Gwerziou]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Ekar shifters/brakes are made in Taiwan.

I've read that they are made in Romania.

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by Gwerziou

I've read that they are made in Romania.

"And if you care about that sort of thing, it’s worth noting that Campagnolo is still manufacturing exclusively in Europe. Ekar cassettes, chains, bottom brackets, and chainrings are all made at Campagnolo HQ in Vicenza, Italy, and the individual bits for the shifters and rear derailleur are made there, too. Production of other bits and component assembly happens elsewhere in the EU (Campagnolo owns two factories in Romania)."


This is from Outside.

[sparky33]

Originally Posted by robertbb

Was super excited until I read there's no 165mm crank option.

SERIOUSLY?

Going shorter is literally THE thing everyone's doing now, from Pro's to weekend warriors, and has been for ~18 months now.

That is odd, especially considering that the original Ekar crank is offered in 165.

[Gwerziou]

The shifters look like a slight redesign, but not cheaper/heavier than the original Ekar.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

my guess would be "double dose" means two levels of Ekar... whether that be one mechanical and one wireless or two mechanical.

My money is on a lower priced 1x Ekar groupset.... although Ekar is already quite affordable.

I think what people likely want is wireless.

And unless you are building a bike, why?..don't get it.

Today's the 20th..I'm betting a lower priced EKAR....

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by prototoast View Post
Ekar shifters/brakes are made in Taiwan.

Originally Posted by Gwerziou

I've read that they are made in Romania.

And sram stuff is made in Chicago....Nope to both, EKAR Nothing made in Taiwan...

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

Huh? It's a wider gear range, less costly, "GT" (ie Grand Tour) vs gravel racing groupset. It answers to all the desires/requests of the 'bikepacking'/non-race gravel crowd. Also, likely more appealing to OEM, which all the internet critics are always saying Campagnolo desperately needs to do. In fact, I predicted on page #1... they would do exactly this.

What's difficult to understand? Pretty simple really.

It's not...it's easy to slam Campagnolo.

In my summation, they're about three years behind the rest of the industry, and three years in bike terms is a whole generation.
(yes I know they have a whopping one extra gear over other brands, but lets be frank, this is a talking point rather than a feature or benefit)

Except the two S brands have followed Campagnolo after each 'extra gear' intro, starting with 9s in 1997....and same 10s, 11s, 12s and 13s is next.

'3 years behind'..show me a Shimano wheel set that is sram XDR compatible..

And Rolex doesn't make an electronic watch either. I guess they are 'behind' also. Seiko does, Grand Seiko models, quartz in spite of the quartz watch debacle.

[gfk_velo]

Originally Posted by coffeecherrypie

Do rim brake Zondas still live or are these disc Zonda GTs the end?

Rim brake Zonda are still in the range:
https://www.campagnolo.com/gb-en/zonda/WWRZONDA.html

[gfk_velo]

Originally Posted by Upcountry

-It's 15% cheaper than the original Ekar(~$200)... insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Especially when there are several cheaper 1x12 and 1x13 offerings.
-Still uses a proprietary freehub body, and starts with a 10t cog.
-Prorietary chain that you're unlikely to find in any shop.
-An 8% increase in gear range(which surely could've been achieved on the existing derailleur).

This just doesn't move the needle in my opinion. With my notes above, I don't see what it offers that the bikepacking crowd was asking for.

I don't understand why they wouldn't just release a new cassette with that "improved" range, and a smaller chainring or two. Surely the tooling costs to manufacture this new groupset will take far longer to recoup than had they done that, and simply lowered the price of the original Ekar...

There are other technical changes in the groupset.

Part of the problem here, is that often final customers don't actually understand why certain design decisions are taken in the 1st place ...

For info, no, the extension of range plus the other longer-term objectives which are possibly not evident in the current offering (bearing in mind all groupset makers are looking ahead to where they are taking a product or product range) could not have been acheived with the existing non-GT derailleur.

The costs to go through a re-design process, a re-tool process, then to actually launch a profuct into the market with all of the other commercial and non-technical considerations that go into that are huge.

It's not something that gets undertaken just for the sake of it.

[gfk_velo]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

I think so. I wonder if the 36T and 10-48 are retro with old Ekar?

Full compatibility tabes are available at www.campagnolo.com, uploaded at launch, yesterday.

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by robertbb

Was super excited until I read there's no 165mm crank option.

SERIOUSLY?

Going shorter is literally THE thing everyone's doing now, from Pro's to weekend warriors, and has been for ~18 months now.

I agree. I use 165 on both mtb and road/gravel bikes. And I don’t do it because everyone else is but because it is more comfortable and fits me better. 80cm top of saddle to center of bb is my saddle height, fwiw.

[Upcountry]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

It's not...[s]it's easy to slam Campagnolo.[/s]

Campagnolo make it easy to be slammed...

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

Except the two S brands have followed Campagnolo after each 'extra gear' intro, starting with 9s in 1997....and same 10s, 11s, 12s and 13s is next.

'3 years behind'..show me a Shimano wheel set that is sram XDR compatible..

Sure there is some selling point in "13 is more than 12", and if they could get an OEM deal, they might lure some people into a sale with that headline... But some large portion of those people who don't get into the nitty gritty technical aspects and susceptible to the sales pitch there, are also probably intrigued by electronic shifting, which is available at the same price point elsewhere...

And how is that working out for them in pioneering the way in simply adding an extra cog every few years... Their $100M revenue looks pretty paltry compared to Shimano($4B) and Sram($700M). People don't care about the first to do something, as that selling point fades away the second others do it, or when it doesn't seem warranted or isn't needed(insert Ekar here).

Similarly, why would Shimano, an industry behemoth with 4x the revenue of Sram, offer an XDR compatible wheel...? Notice Sram does indeed make HG freehub cassettes! In a way, acknowledging that Shimano(with the HG) sort of is the "standard". It would seem wise for Campagnolo to do the same, especially at this "lower price point" where an additional $100 for a freehub body furthers the gap to other options.

I don't think Campagnolo is a horrible product, or doesn't have a place in the market. I just think they need to better identify what that place is, and own it, or re-think their path towards it. There are very few "younger" riders, who absent some fond memory of a distant shiny aluminum groupset from decades ago, seek out Campagnolo. Perhaps they don't want/need this share of the market, but this newest release tells me that they are indeed seeking to gain some new ridership, and it is my opinion that they have once again missed the mark...

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

And Rolex doesn't make an electronic watch either. I guess they are 'behind' also. Seiko does, Grand Seiko models, quartz in spite of the quartz watch debacle.

This is an interesting comparison. The utilitarian function of a watch is keep time, preferably with as little maintenance as possible. In this regard, Rolex is far behind electronic watches. When electronic watches started become available, Rolex realized they could not compete on cost and utility with Asian made electronic watches. So instead they shifted their focus to up-scale luxury mechanical watches made in Europe. From the outside looking in, this looks similar to Campagnolo - they also appear to be largely shifting their focus to up-scale luxury (mechanical) drivetrains made in Europe. While there will always be a niche for brands like Rolex in the watch market, I'm not sure this niche is as sustainable in the bike market.