New Campagnolo Ekar coming on February 20th?

[fignon's barber]

After being underwelmed by their last gamechanger, I have more modest expectations. I'm going with a newly designed Ekar cassette and a newly designed ergo lever/thumb shifter. An Ekar 2, if you will.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Move the thumb to where normal hands' thumbs are..

Compatibility with xdr and/or microspline freehubs.

A chain that's compatible with 12 speed chainrings.

Do not touch the thumb shifter. In fact, allow me to retrofit my other Camy with it.

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by makoti

Do not touch the thumb shifter. In fact, allow me to retrofit my other Camy with it.

Agree 100%. That design is perfect to me - and makes the "normal" shifter found on chorus and up, seem wrong...

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

Agree 100%. That design is perfect to me - and makes the "normal" shifter found on chorus and up, seem wrong...

The "normal" shifter found on Chorus and up is also wrong.

[robertbb]

Originally Posted by gorkypl

If you look closely, the wheels on the video seem to be low profile, box section, G3 laced. Perhaps new wide aluminum Zonda? Or wider carbon Shamals?

It also makes a lot of sense to release similarly targeted group and wheels together.

Yep. That looks like an updated Zonda to me. If it's for gravel likely they'll skip 19mm internal and go straight to 20mm or 21mm. The rim doesn't look like it has raised bits around the nipples.

Excited for this!

[Mr.Appa]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Guess we'll have to wait to find out!

But this is the internet (albeit a very calm corner of it), and what would the internet be without speculation on a new thing releasing in a couple days :|

It reminds me of both the Shimano 100 anniversary book that was released and the trek wavecell helmet. Different strokes, but I recall the crazy interpretation of what could be released...followed by a global 'seriously?'

[fignon's barber]

Originally Posted by vespasianus

Agree 100%. That design is perfect to me - and makes the "normal" shifter found on chorus and up, seem wrong...

Yeah, I put a lot of miles on my Ekar bike, and when I switch back to my Record bike, I go to shift and I feel like something is missing.

[Gwerziou]

I would guess that there will now be two Ekar groups. If the new group is lower-end, I hope that they have also refined the extant group. I see the brake lever blade looks wider, people will probably like that.

[madsciencenow]

not sure if this has been mentioned or not but I'd like to see Ekar with a wide crankset option that's like AXS wide or GRX. I'm keen to use the group but it won't fit on my gravel bike. Apologies if this was already discussed elsewhere. Feel free to shame me and point me in the right direction.

[Zackus]

Between all of the things that everyone has mentioned I have compiled the info and refined my prediction: new cheaper mechanical Ekar, which would move mechanical lower end in the market, to make space for them to release a high-end wireless Ekar later on in the year. This will be paired with a new cheaper gravel wheelset than levante. Effectively creating a low end and high end gravel group-wheelset pairs

[robertbb]

Originally Posted by Zackus

Between all of the things that everyone has mentioned I have compiled the info and refined my prediction: new cheaper mechanical Ekar, which would move mechanical lower end in the market, to make space for them to release a high-end wireless Ekar later on in the year. This will be paired with a new cheaper gravel wheelset than levante. Effectively creating a low end and high end gravel group-wheelset pairs

I'm backing this in.

Once the wireless eKar drops it'll effectively be like Apex AXS and Apex mechanical, with controls that are very similar visually (same hood pattern, similar shape) but with slightly different dimensions. A cheaper aluminium crank would be good too, for a lower price point. And an improved mechanical rear derailleur, with more refined spring tension.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by robertbb

I'm backing this in.

Once the wireless eKar drops it'll effectively be like Apex AXS and Apex mechanical, with controls that are very similar visually (same hood pattern, similar shape) but with slightly different dimensions. A cheaper aluminium crank would be good too, for a lower price point. And an improved mechanical rear derailleur, with more refined spring tension.

The new aluminum crank would make sense. The current Ekar crank is essentially the same as the Chorus sub-comact crank (carbon, same shape, same BCD), which only made half-sense: The smaller BCD of the Chorus crank was appropriate for a 1x drivetrain; but Campagnolo's road cranks have a narrow width (low Q factor) which doesn't leave much room for the fat tire clearance on most gravel bikes. A new aluminum crank would be both less expensive, and opens the door for a new crankarm shape with a wider Q and more tire clearance. Now the question - what BCD? The same as current Ekar? The new BCD from SR WRL? Or a whole new BCD? Either the current Ekar or SR WRL BCDs would work fine, but since Campagnolo has a history of making up new BCDs at the drop of a hat, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a whole new BCD.

[capt_velo]

I think it will be a wireless Ekar.

[huck*this]

^^^Agree with Capt^^^

[Baron Blubba]

I hope it will be wireless Ekar. With a rim brake option!

Speaking of the Ekar crank, it's my favorite looking crank.