campy 11-speed

[AngryScientist]

anyone have any inside info - when is campy going to start producing lower 11-sp athena level cassettes and chains, ever?

what about veloce and centaur - any plans for them to jump to 11-sp, potentially increasing the availability of lower cost chains and cassettes?

my theory on consumables has always been, buy the lower cost stuff. veloce and centaur 10-sp cassettes and chains have consistently been proven to me to be very good, i've really got no desire to buy record level consumables. i'll shell out the cash for the good levers, cranksets, and fd/rd.

anyone know any buzz?

[oliver1850]

It took Campy 6 years to move the full line from 9 to 10. I'm guessing Veloce/Centaur will be 11 within 2 or 3 years. I wouldn't think they will want to totally abandon the lower end market, so surely there will be lower priced chains and cassettes. Asian produced maybe.

[Lovetoclimb]

What concerns me is if they ultimately end 10s, 11s will be the go to gruppo for CX and I agree it is not ideal for that application. My Veloce/Centaur 10s setup is good for CX.

[dbh]

Don't think they will stop producing 10 speed. If Centaur/Veloce move to 11, there's nothing to differentiate them from Athena. Agreed, it would be ashamed if they ultimately stopped producing 10 speed consumables.

[jr59]

If you want 11 speed, Go for it! It works great!

After 10 miles, you won't know the difference between 10-11 speed.

It's hard for me to tell the difference between 11, 10, 9, 8, and 7
They all work good. Even though the 7 and 8 are friction.

[ultraman6970]

IMO campy wont move off 10 speed in a looooooooooonnnggg tiiimmeee. They needed to drawn a line between their low end and the high end and IMO they just did that with 10 and 11.

Thats why i doubt centaur and lower will move off 10 speed, seriously who use the 10 cogs and is not racing?? maybe clueless people but the reality is that with 5 cogs is more than enough maybe for 96% of the human race.

Soon 12 will be in the market and then that will be just stupid IMHO.

U can get 11 speed cassettes from other manufacturers tho.

[Dave]

There's nothing that can changed on the chain to lower the cost. Neither of the chain has holes in the side plates. The only difference is hollow pins or not.

As for the cassette, you could certainly save a few bucks using only 3 cogs on one carrier, or perhaps even have no carrier, but you'e not likely to save more than $20 every 12,000 miles, so it's not enough money to worry about.

If you really want to save money, buy from the UK now, while the exchange rates are favorable.

[oliver1850]

The chains and cassettes have always been a lot cheaper for the lower groups, regardless of what it costs to manufacture them. My assumption is that Campy makes a lot less money on a Veloce cassette than a Record. Think about 8 speed ergo levers. 90% of the parts were the same, but Record cost a lot more than Veloce, and I don't think the price had much to do with manufacturing cost. Campy has always offered reasonble cost entry level parts. Hopefully that will continue to be true when the line is all 11 speed, or 11/12.

As far as who needs 11, or 10, or 9: the answer is anyone who doesn't want to have to search for good used or NOS 5, 6, 7, or 8 parts.

[AngryScientist]

The chains and cassettes have always been a lot cheaper for the lower groups, regardless of what it costs to manufacture them. My assumption is that Campy makes a lot less money on a Veloce cassette than a Record. Think about 8 speed ergo levers. 90% of the parts were the same, but Record cost a lot more than Veloce, and I don't think the price had much to do with manufacturing cost. Campy has always offered reasonble cost entry level parts. Hopefully that will continue to be true when the line is all 11 speed, or 11/12.

As far as who needs 11, or 10, or 9: the answer is anyone who doesn't want to have to search for good used or NOS 5, 6, 7, or 8 parts.

Yea, that was what i was getting at- regardless of what it costs campy to make a chain , veloce is going to be cheaper than chorus.

[dana_e]

maybe 11 is the answer

[Joachim]

Yea, that was what i was getting at- regardless of what it costs campy to make a chain , veloce is going to be cheaper than chorus.

I buy KMC x11L chains, around $30 bucks, quiet, no special tool needed, wear well and it shifts great.

[leooooo]

IME 3rd party chains work well. Cassettes, not so much.

[prometheus20]

As to the original question: I doubt anyone on this forum would have reliable inside info. But I don't see why Campy would be in any hurry. Ten speeds are plenty for most applications, and continuing with that in the Centaur and Veloce lines differentiates them from the high end gruppos.