The difference between Campag & Shimano?

'Campag wears in, Shimano wears out!'

Campag is the orginal and best! It's designed and manufactured in Italy with all the flare and passion the Italians have to offer. Shimano on the other hand is efficiently churned out in Japan by a company who also make fishing tackle reels!! ( You might be able to tell I'm in the Campy camp.)

Seriously - there are some differences in the operating of the two. Shimano gears are indexed - this means that you can only move up and down one gear at a time and get a solid click to let you know you've move up/ down a ring. Shimano gear shifters are also incorporated into the break levers, so you only have one lever and have to shift the entire thing to change gear.

Campag on the other hand is less ridged. You can move between several rings in one go - so you can drop down into a smaller ring just by shifting the lever once, rather than clicking through all the ring. You can also 'feather ' Campag. This means if you hear your gears grating a little - eg if you've just shifted between the big and small ring on the front, you can gently tweek the lever till the grating stops.

When you change gears with Campag you don't have to move the entire break leaver, there's a smaller leaver tucked beneath it. You also change down again using a smaller thumb leaver.
I prefer this. I've got Campag on my best bike & Shimano on winter hack and don't always feel confident having to moving the whole break leaver - especially going up hill when I'm out of the saddle. I sometimes worry I'll pull the breaks on when I don't mean to.

Eek - a little more involve than I intended.

I agree there is a certain snobbery regarding Campag & Shimano. Some people tut if they see a beautiful Italian frame with crude Shimano groupset. However, Shimano entry level stuff is generally cheaper than Campag and does a good job. Shimano also seems to be more popular with triathletes over here. Not sure why.

Phew - hope that sheds some light....