What Happened to Campy Popularity?

[LesMiner]

I was at a bike swap meet last weekend. I tried to sell a Campy Vento wheelset, no interest! I had a few Campy 10 speed cassettes, no interest! Anything Shimano sold no problem. I have not tried the forum want ads or eBay. Pro bikes appear mostly Shimano. Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, and even Bianchi all configure their complete bikes with Shimano.

I was amazed at the number of people looking for 9 speed Shimano. Maybe a lot of older bikes used as winter bikes or commuter bikes? Or perhaps many frugal cyclists still using 9 speed?

[Kontact]

11 speed burnout?

[zennmotion]

I think swap meet people may be a different crowd than people who lurk in the forum ads or ebay for collectibles. Swap meet people are looking for bikes to ride on the cheap, and the interchangeability of Shimano between generations, more common standards etc. Or maybe you just priced your campy too high for that market under the assumption that the campy fetish was a thing with that crowd. Also I think campy people looking for older generations have more interest in Chorus and above group level stuff. Put your stuff up for sale in here, it will sell.

[jamesdak]

I loves me some Campy!!

[Jaybee]

Not sure who populates your bike swap meets, but I'm not surprised about your report. IMO, without saying that one is better than the other, campy is niche stuff for enthusiasts (like us) willing to search it out and shimano dominates the market. Most people with a bike-shop quality bike have shimano OEM components, and they work well enough, so that's what they know. A lot of them, as you saw, are still perfectly happy tooling around on their 9 speed groups.

[gone]

The (sad) fact is that in the US the overwhelming number of bikes sold come equipped with Shimano or a mix of the "other guys" (SRAM, FSA, ...).

Go into your non-boutique LBS and count the number of Campy equipped bikes. Let me know if you get above 0.

[Big Dan]

SRAM Etap

[Burnette]

Originally Posted by gone

The (sad) fact is that in the US the overwhelming number of bikes sold come equipped with Shimano or a mix of the "other guys" (SRAM, FSA, ...).

Go into your non-boutique LBS and count the number of Campy equipped bikes. Let me know if you get above 0.

Trek road bikes come with Shimano, Specialized it's SRAM and Shimano, Giant it's Shimano, Cannondale it's SRAM and Shimano.

And the used market has been full on every site I go to, more sellers than buyers based on the bump posts and I see a lot of used wheels for sale as disc are gaining ground.

I think Campy is holding some of it's base but they're not converting enough to move the needle. That base will continue to shrink unless Campy gets more OE contracts to reach scale.

For me Campy has always been intersting but if I were to buy today it would be Etap or Shimano Di2 because that's what I'm interested in and they are OE on some models I like.

[bob heinatz]

I love Campy but there are lots of bike shops that simply don't have the knowledge of working on Campy. They sell and service Shimano and Scram.

[LesMiner]

The swap meet did attract people looking for cheap bargains to resell some where else. A few bike messengers were there looking for mainly old stuff. Collectors looking for old stuff. My friend was selling components and wheels from the seventies. He made a few sales but no wheels. A couple of bike shops were there. One shop came in with what looked like a 100 pairs of new shoes. Old inventory for sure. One guy bought the whole lot of them. Given the amount of sales going on around me and the number of people I thought there would be someone looking for Campy.

I upgraded a 2008 Scott CR1 with eTap almost a year ago. Made that bike feel like new! Also reduced the weight by a pound or so. I had it all done in few hours.

[Burnette]

Originally Posted by LesMiner

The swap meet did attract people looking for cheap bargains to resell some where else. A few bike messengers were there looking for mainly old stuff. Collectors looking for old stuff. My friend was selling components and wheels from the seventies. He made a few sales but no wheels. A couple of bike shops were there. One shop came in with what looked like a 100 pairs of new shoes. Old inventory for sure. One guy bought the whole lot of them. Given the amount of sales going on around me and the number of people I thought there would be someone looking for Campy.

I upgraded a 2008 Scott CR1 with eTap almost a year ago. Made that bike feel like new! Also reduced the weight by a pound or so. I had it all done in few hours.

You got Etap too? That's just what I wrote above, the industry is in flux with all of the changes.

Another thing, the internet has jumbled the used market too. If it's Campy and really worth something it's on the net to get the highest price. With swap meet fodder your only hope for a sale is an old guy stuck in the past. And he's tight.

Shimano new or old sales well because it was/is more common and you don't have to have a "guy in the know" to get it to work.

[rePhil]

If you are willing to ship, post them FS here in the classifieds.

[DfCas]

Does not Campy have much more market share in Europe, their core market?

[Ken Robb]

My last two road bikes are 9 speed. One is Ultegra and the other is Campy. I have some low-mileage 10 speed Chorus components in my parts bin but the 9 speed stuff works so well that I have no incentive to install the 10 speed stuff that I already own. I have had this 10 speed Campy on another bike and I owned a couple of bikes with 10 speed Dura Ace and they were fine too.

[FlashUNC]

Uh, Shimano's dominance of the OEM market happened.