Test 12-speed Campagnolo Super Record and Record: In 2009, Campagnolo surprised the experts with the first 11-speed road bike gear system, and now the Italians are once again ahead of the game: with two times twelve gears, the new groupsets Record and Super Record 2019 offer one unimagined range of translations. What else is new, Velomotion was able to experience first-hand and test intensively at the press camp on Gran Canaria.
In the ranks of component suppliers, Campagnolo probably has the smallest presence on the market. The family business from Vicenza has been an innovation machine in terms of racing bikes for decades; with Lotto Soudal, Cofidis and Movistar, large teams continue to rely on the Italian components. And when Nairo Quinatana, one of the world's best climbers, relies on Italian components, as does 2.000-watt sprinter André Greipel, one thing is clear: what Campagnolo supplies has been tried and tested a thousand times over in cycling at the highest level. And in addition to factors such as the very good function, the repairability of many components and the elegant look, there is something else that speaks for Chorus, Record & Co.: the traditional material with style and individuality stands out from the Far East all sorts.
12-speed Campagnolo: Innovation made in Italy
Enough of the preamble – the people in Vicenza are not resting on the company's laurels, and the two new groupsets that Campagnolo presented in Gran Canaria at the end of March are testimony to the company's innovative strength. So curtain up for the new generation of 12-speed Campagnolo Record and Super Record: the first road bike groupset with two times twelve gears. A new "magic number" that, in comparison to all previous additional gears (eleven has been available from Campagnolo since 2009), really has a big advantage: With the two cassettes 11-29 and 11-32, the Campagnolo to choose from the need to switch to a different gear ratio depending on the terrain is finally eliminated. With increments of 11 to 17, the cassettes are closely spaced in the fast range as usual; after that it still goes on almost to the 1:1 range without noticeably large steps.
As is well known, this is not the first twelve-speed circuit; There is already something like this for mountain bikes - with a gigantic range of gear ratios, which makes it possible to do without multiple chainrings, but at the expense of a fine gradation, which is unavoidable in road cycling. However, the new 12-speed Campagnolo has managed the feat of accommodating the twelfth sprocket without increasing the overall width of the cassette; a special freewheel body or even a larger installation width are therefore not necessary. Current wheels and frames are therefore fully compatible with the new system.
12-speed Campagnolo: The cassette doesn't get wider
As before, the largest sprockets of the cassette are combined into two blocks of three, which are no longer riveted but milled from the solid. Whether that is lighter and stiffer remains to be seen; In any case, the appearance of these “clusters” is fascinating. Both groups - Record and Super Record - come with the same cassettes.
There are many changes to the shifting components of the 12-speed Campagnolo. The rear derailleur in particular has moved away from the carefully developed 11-speed model, both optically and technically: At first glance, it is noticeable that the Record and Super Record are now optimized for direct-mount dropouts; until this principle became widely accepted among frame manufacturers, the rear derailleur was attached to the frame with the help of an aluminum spacer. A direct-mount dropout frees the frame builder from the constraints that the classic dropout imposes on him, and which actually no longer have to be in the age of disc brakes and thru-axles. The suspension of the rear derailleur of the 12-speed Campagnolo is oriented further to the rear, which ultimately also makes it easier to change wheels. For example, BMC and Scott currently have racing machines with direct mounts in their range; other manufacturers are likely to follow gradually.
It is interesting that Campagnolo itself in the early 1960s pushed the currently common dropouts. Before that (and for a long time afterwards, especially with simple frames) it was common to screw a direct mount adapter onto the frame, which in turn accommodated the rear derailleur.
Of course, the new rear derailleur has to do more than its predecessors. With 11-32 it is important to haul in a lot of chain and always ensure a sufficiently large angle of contact so that there are always enough teeth in mesh. As can be seen, the upper jockey wheel is centered under the cassette even with extreme skew and "big-big"; with “small-small”, on the other hand, there is still enough tension on the chain.
12-speed Campagnolo: A bit more titanium and carbon on the Super Record
Campagnolo has given the rear derailleur a long shift arm (72,5 mm) and twelve-tooth jockey wheels so that it can cope with the large size of the cassette. A shorter swingarm is not offered; in any case, Super Record and Record rear derailleurs don't look overly large. As usual, the differences between the two high-end groupsets are in the details: on the Super Record, the rocker arm is made of carbon instead of aluminium, small titanium parts are also used and the jockey wheels have higher-quality bearings. Polished shift cables and friction-reducing outer casings ensure smooth control of the shifting components and should ensure that the system works precisely over the long term.
The front derailleurs of both groups of the 12-speed Campagnolo also differ in material; in the SR version, carbon is used on the outer baffle. A new feature of the switching mechanism is an additional joint on the power arm, which is intended to ensure a gentler pivoting to the outside. It is also quite innovative that the cable clamping screw can now also be used from the front. That could bring precious millimeters if extra wide tires are used.
12-speed Campagnolo: Ergopower as usual
Both the derailleur and the rear derailleur are controlled by the tried-and-tested Ergopower levers, which are available for mechanical and hydraulic brakes and therefore differ significantly in terms of internal workings. The hydraulic lever is 8 mm higher and is somewhat more voluminous in the area of the grip hump. Both levers are quite slim and can therefore be easily grasped; a haptic difference can hardly be felt. The ergonomics of the levers have been revised: the brake levers are now oriented slightly outwards; the downshift lever has gotten bigger, as has the thumb button. The latter is now beveled in the rear area and can therefore be released better in the lower link position. A new feature that could have been found earlier is the opening mechanism for the mechanical brake, which has been mutated into a reach adjustment.
12-speed Campagnolo: Lots of new things about rim brakes
Campagnolo's well-known disc brakes have not changed, but there are completely new rim brakes that differ significantly from the well-known skeleton model. The new stopper is more angular and massive and should bring better deceleration values with more rigidity. The Super Record version has ball bearings and should therefore be particularly smooth-running. A direct-mount brake is now also available for appropriately designed frames, which has a bridge at the rear in the manner of a "brake booster". This prevents the brake from pushing the rear triangle or fork apart.
The cranksets of the two twelve-speed groupsets are more of a further development of the current components. Campagnolo has retained the principle of attaching both chainrings separately to their own bolt circle. As before, all chainring variants - compact, semi-compact and 53/39 - fit on one and the same right crank. This is now a bit flatter, especially since the hole in the UltraTorque axle is eliminated. The SR cranks are hollow as before, the Record version is solid; A clearly visible difference between the two groups is represented by the "bridges" that connect two of the four arms with each other on the Super Record. This is intended to distribute the load over these two arms in the area of particularly high force application and thus improve the stability of the crank.
12-speed Campagnolo: That's how it works on the road
So there's a lot that's new at Campagnolo, which has also proven itself in practice, as we found out at the press camp on Gran Canaria. Of course, no big surprises are to be expected, after all, the switching principle of the Italians is well known. The precision with which you can switch between the twelve sprockets of the cassette is amazing. When shifting down using the swivel lever, the manual effort required is low, but large enough to rule out overshifting; with crisp switching steps, the system always gives clear feedback. It's the same with the thumb button - it's easy to use, but the required pressure is high enough to prevent accidental activation. The button is very easy to reach from the arch of the top link, which is a small advantage over other systems; their new shape proves itself on the lower link. As before, up to five gears can be shifted in the direction of "heavy" at the touch of a button, whereby the number of sprockets you want to skip can be dosed very precisely. In the opposite direction, up to three gears can be shifted at a time. The design and size of the cassette causes a metallic sound, especially on the larger sprockets, which is by no means unpleasant and suits the sporty character of the group.
Overall, the new gear system copes well with chain skewing; only when you push it to the extreme with big-big (i.e. about 50-32) does the drive get a bit loud. Friction on the front derailleur baffle is prevented by the two levels of trim on the left lever; with these, slightly lower release forces would of course be desirable - from the lower link it can happen that you accidentally switch to the small blade instead of just "trimming".
12-speed Campagnolo: Significantly better performance of the disc brakes
The new rim brakes coped perfectly with the in-house "Bora Ultra" carbon wheels on the winding Gran Canaria descents; As expected, the disc brakes, which we are already very familiar with, were able to significantly top this impression: Excellent controllability, very snappy in an emergency, and always predictable - this braking system makes it impressively clear that "Road Disc" has a future.
In terms of function, the 12-speed Campagnolo is still an interesting alternative to Japanese and US components; With their 2×12 circuit, the Italians are once again ahead. Here, however, there is also slight criticism: Cassettes that start with the 12 sprocket and thus leave room for the practical 18 sprocket, which on some current XNUMX-speed tills ensures minimal jumps in a critical area, would be desirable. Otherwise, the new groupsets can be recommended to anyone interested in a state-of-the-art road bike with non-mainstream components. Such material should be available from numerous manufacturers, as the fleet of test bikes on Gran Canaria showed: from BH to Wilier with stops at Canyon, Cervélo, Cannondale, Cipollini and other providers that do not start with a "C" (e.g. Ridley and Bianchi) there will be complete bikes with Campagnolo Super Record and Record twelvefold.
12-speed Campagnolo: the prices – a Super Record crank costs almost 1.000 euros
We can already guess at which prices, because the prices for the 12-speed Campagnolo groupset have already been set: the Record with rim brakes will cost 1.960 euros, with disc brakes 2.395 euros; 2.915 or 3.200 euros are due for the Super Record. The Super Record has thus become a fair bit more expensive, while the price of the Record has been noticeably reduced; this moves the two groups further apart in terms of their value.
If you compare the prices of the individual components, there are clear differences from case to case. In the disc brake groupset, the price difference between the brake systems (levers + brake calipers) is less than 100 euros (1.074 vs. 982 euros); the Ergopower levers for rim brakes are only a good 100 euros more expensive on the Super Record (498 vs. 390 euros). There are particularly large price differences for the crankset (Record: €537; Super Record: €962) and the rear derailleurs (€240 vs. €450). The cassette is only supplied in SR quality and costs 339 euros.
It is therefore clear that complete bikes equipped with the new groupsets will belong to the absolute upper class, but if you look at one of the test bikes in the Campagnolo pool, hope arises: A Record, mounted on Cannondale's excellent CAAD12 aluminum frame and garnished with not quite so expensive wheels, could be made for around 4.500 euros.
12-speed Campagnolo: It starts in May!
Delivery of the new components can be expected from May to July; Campa complete bikes should then also be on display at the Eurobike 2018 (which Campagnolo will stay away from this year). It remains to be seen what will happen next with twelvefold: sooner or later electronic EPS variants are to be expected, and at some point the new technology should also be passed on to the brand's inexpensive groupsets, above all the tried and tested Chorus. By then at the latest, it is to be hoped, you will see more racing machines with high-quality technology from Vicenza on the streets again.