Campy 10sp or 11sp?

[roguedog]

Thinking of building up a bike with Campy group. I've always had Shimano but I'm interested in trying Campy because I think the hoods might be more comfortable.

Yes, I have gotten shims in my Shimano brifters and they're not bad. And they are mounted on a shallow reach bar.

I could just strip my current bike and put on the Ultegra group but I thought maybe this'd be a good chance/excuse to explore Campy hoods and also compact gearing since this bike will be more of a "go" bike versus my Riv Atlantis. (Course for me "go" is a .. ahem.. relative term. Maybe I should say "go .. a bit faster." )

So just thought I'd ping the community out there for thoughts and see what your experiences might be.

[smilingcat]

If the chain on the 10 speed is wider, go with a 10 speed. If the chain width is the same then I really see no difference.

I'm not really sold on even the 10 speed. More cogs you have, the narrower the chain. And with it, shorter life span of the chain. My SRAM chain didn't even last a season and replaced it with Ultegra. And I don't race. Just a casual weekend rider these days.

For my casual riding and training on hills with 10% grade, I rarely use the top two cogs anyway. I only use 8 cogs in the rear.

[Biciclista]

I'm with smiling cat. 30 speeds is already more than I ever need!

[Thorn]

If I were to build right now, I'd be looking at Campy Athena for a go-fast bike (if my 14-17 qualifies as "go-fast")

My nice bikes are Campy 10-speed, but RideBikeMe has a point. If you keep your bike a long time, then you want to be able to repair and keep it running. If you buy 10-speed, you're already buying a couple years less of maintainability.

Sure, the lower end is still 10-speed, but when you do maintenance, do you want to be looking and downgrading your component because that's all you can get?

As for 11-speed reliability (my fear with the narrow chain), my LBS guy has run Athena without issue and I'd say he can put more power into his pedalling than I ever would.

Edit: Oh yeah, and as for the extra gears....it is the in-between gears that you're getting. Going to 10-speed from 9-speed meant adding an 18(?)--a gear in my normal spin range meaning I can find a nice spinning happy gear for long rides.

[Cataboo]

do you want a triple or a double/compact? I don't know that they make campy 11 sp for triples, but if you want a triple, I think 10 speed should be fine if there's significant cost savings.

If you're going to be running a double or a compact, an 11 speed could be nice... I wouldn't pay (much) to upgrade my 10 speed double to 11 speed, but if I was just building a bike and it didn't cost that much more, I'd go with 11 speed.

I liked the upgrade from 9 to 10 speed with shimano - I don't know that I'd run out and buy new shifters and all of that if shimano went to 11 speed - but I did upgrade all my 9 speed bikes to 10's... However, there's no shortage of 8 or 9 speed shimano parts just because there's now 10 speeds available... you can still get all the parts you need to maintain older systems, ebay's always a great source if something is hard to find.

I haven't had any problems with my 10 speed chains wearing out too fast - I typically use sram's 1070 chains, 1090's are lighter, more expensive, and hollow pin so may not last as long.

[ridebikeme]

Many of you are right in terms of 8 and 9 speed Shimano parts being available. HOWEVER, in my experience, Campy does NOT keep their drivetrain parts available for as long as Shimano. I have been riding Campy since 1992, and I can tell you that I have several boxes with shifters, derailleurs and parts because I couldn't find other parts to keep the drivetrain going. The other issue here is that Shimano has lots of groups on mtn bikes, where Campy does not. While that may not be an issue with shifters, with chains, cassettes and some derailleurs it does add to that extension of getting parts.

AS far as 10/11 speed chains, I have been riding them for several years without any issues. There are always instances where something fails... and that can be a new product or an older one. Remember most of these products are tested with the pros, and they certainly ride more miles, have more power than many of us ever will!

The bottom line is that Campy has a great reputation and makes very high quality products.

[TxDoc]

Hee-hee... I just saw this only after sending you a looooong PM about the different 10/11 Campy groups that I have either owned or tested...

[ridebikeme]

Ahh Campy is great, and the wonderful thing is that you can rebuild the shifters overtime unlike Shimano where you simply throw them away and buy again. With that said, if I were buying a new group I would buy 11 speed. The reason is that I'm sure down the road 10 speed will become harder to get ... that will make things difficult when you need to replace a chain/cassette etc... You can buy other brands of 10 speed chains, but if you are someone that tends to have their bikes for a few years, than 11 speed is the way to go.

IMO there isn't any point to buying something that will become obsolete over the next few years, and make it difficult to keep the bike running with the current group.