Rant: CF Campy -- listen to coach

[jeffg]

Just inspected the new bike and saw the brand new Record FD is trashed due to road debris having been kicked up. I went with Campy due to gearing options, Q factor, and hood ergonomics, but missed the fact that they use carbon in the FD. ***? Pretty soon Record will be a race day only groupset as long as that race is on smooth pavement with no gravel sections.

Don't use it for the spring classics, yo! Luckily a local shop has a Chorus FD (alloy) that they can put on today since I leave for Europe tomorrow.

Maybe I should have gotten Shimano with a Centaur compact crank? Rant over

[Serotta PETE]

Just inspected the new bike and saw the brand new Record FD is trashed due to road debris having been kicked up. I went with Campy due to gearing options, Q factor, and hood ergonomics, but missed the fact that they use carbon in the FD. ***? Pretty soon Record will be a race day only groupset as long as that race is on smooth pavement with no gravel sections.

Don't use it for the spring classics, yo! Luckily a local shop has a Chorus FD (alloy) that they can put on today since I leave for Europe tomorrow.

Maybe I should have gotten Shimano with a Centaur compact crank? Rant over


Enjoy Europe........and smile.....Glass of red on the way :beer:


Ranti is ok :D

[Andreas]

Pretty soon Record will be a race day only groupset as long as that race is on smooth pavement with no gravel sections.


Pretty soon?
You just demonstrated to yourself they are there. And so are a bunch of CF handlebars, stems, posts, frames, etc.

Have a good time.

[David Kirk]

"There is no such thing as a bad material, only a bad application".

Dave

[jeffg]

"There is no such thing as a bad material, only a bad application".

Dave

Agree with the quote. Do you agree the FD is a bad application (in particular to save what, 5 grams)?

[David Kirk]

Agree with the quote. Do you agree the FD is a bad application (in particular to save what, 5 grams)?

Yep.....it falls under the WTHWTT* umbrella.

Dave

*(What The Hell Were They Thinking?)

[stevep]

Agree with the quote. Do you agree the FD is a bad application (in particular to save what, 5 grams)?

hey, if you had just lost the olympic road gold medal by .000000002 seconds you mighta been happy to lose the 5g/


other than that i cant think of a reason.

[David Kirk]

hey, if you had just lost the olympic road gold medal by .000000002 seconds you mighta been happy to lose the 5g/


other than that i cant think of a reason.


Or if you lost the gold because your FD snapped and you were watching the field ride away while your chain was dragging in the dirt........now that would suck.

I'll take the 5 grams and forego the bling.

Dave

[dgauthier]

Warning: rant zone ahead . . .

The reason Campy used carbon in the FD is because too many cyclists go all squishy inside when they see cosmetic carbon fibre weave on any product. If we want intelligently designed cycling products, we've gotta vote intelligently with our wallets. To paraphrase Lee Iacoca, "Cyclists get the cycling products they deserve".

Now leaving rant zone . . . ;)

Jeffg, thanks for the data point. Sorry you had to trash a part to make me buy Chorus, though.

[saab2000]

I have been using a Record CF front der on one of my bikes since they came out and have had no problems.

Doesn't work any better than the old ones. But it doesn't work any worse either.

And I get a lot more chicks than before. They all swoon when they see me ride by with my CF Record front der.

Then I remember the wisdom I learned in high school, "Don't forget, we're not laughing with you. We're laughing at you!"

[Polyglot]

Just inspected the new bike and saw the brand new Record FD is trashed due to road debris having been kicked up. I went with Campy due to gearing options, Q factor, and hood ergonomics, but missed the fact that they use carbon in the FD. ***? Pretty soon Record will be a race day only groupset as long as that race is on smooth pavement with no gravel sections.

Don't use it for the spring classics, yo! Luckily a local shop has a Chorus FD (alloy) that they can put on today since I leave for Europe tomorrow.

Maybe I should have gotten Shimano with a Centaur compact crank? Rant over

I am at a loss when I read these posts. Why would anybody buy a Record gruppo for riding on rough roads, when you could save tons of money and get a cheaper model from Campagnolo that works every bit as well. I have a former pro team bike that was ridden to 18th place in the Tour GC that has a Record carbon Gruppo, I also have a 2005 Colnago with Centaur gruppo (third level gruppo from Campagnolo) and there is no appreciable performance difference at all between the two gruppi. The only difference is the vanity of the person fitting it to their bike. Campagnolo clued into how good the Centaur gruppo was and down-graded the shifters to where you can no longer make multiple cog downshifts like you used to be able to. Otherwise it was the logical choice to make.

[Andreas]

"There is no such thing as a bad material, only a bad application".

Dave

Dave, of course, is right.

Sorry for my rant as I helped yet another rider deal with a serial rib fracture after a snapped carbon handlebar that day.

For reasons that are somewhat unclear to me, it seems that carbon is being more commonly badly applied than other materials.

Learning curve?