Quote Originally Posted by ridebikeme View Post
I'm sure if you looked at your LBS or perhaps someone in a local club, that you could find someone who rides Campy.

With that said, I own several bikes with Campy, and personally would not use anything else. AS others have mentioned, Campy is very smooth, as all of them are, and the added advantage is that when the shifter wears out you simply have a set of springs installed...rather than throwing the shifter away. It seems to me that all of the companies, have models in their line up now where the reach is shorter... so you simply may have to ask which model is the shortest.

AS someone who has been using Campy since the very early 90's, so I can also attest that the drivetrain wears a bit longer as well... I have way more miles on my cassettes than what I could get from Shimano... just another tidbit.

Building a new bike is very exciting, definitely post some pictures when your new bike is ready!!


http://chasecyclery.blogspot.com
It's great to hear that Campy is smooth...as that is important to me. Also nice to hear about less wear on the drivetrain with Campy. Who wouldn't like that?!? Turns out that the dealer that I'm working with on my custom, happens to have a few Campy bikes for me to look at. I'm hoping to get over there in the next day or two. Not sure if I'll actually get to test ride one, but even if they can put one on a trainer so that I can get a feel for the shifting...that would be great. As I mentioned in my reply above to Wahine, my biggest hand problems occur when I have to move the shift levers inward to up/downshift. My hands are just a mess - poor strength, somewhat arthritic, stiff painful joints, and they numb very easily. All those issues tend to make shifting feel like an evil, painful chore. How do the Campy levers stack up in this regard? Are they stiff, with a long throw? Or do the levers move easily, with little effort?