This is sort of a bike question, and sort of a general question.

I have just bought a Fulcrum wheelset, knowing that Fulcrum is the a wheel sub-brand of Campagnolo. But Campag also makes wheels with their own name on them.

So my question is: why? What advantage is there in one company producing a trustworthy product having a sub-brand dedicated to producing the same trustworthy product?

I could understand it if we were talking about a lower brand that wanted to move in the elite level, or an elite brand that wanted to have a lower-end product. But what is the advantage of having two roughly-equal products under two separate names?

I thought it was so their wheels can be be specced as original equipment on new bikes that have shimano group sets.

Yep.

Ime the bearings in the fulcrum wheels last minutes due to poor sealing. Probably Campag want to protect their mame from the stigma & can mix with shimano/sram and not upset the purists

See also Gibson-epiphone/fender-squire as a similar example in the guitar world

See also Gibson-epiphone/fender-squire as a similar example in the guitar world

Not sure if that analogy totally works, as in both cases the alternative brands are generally for lower cost/far eastern made products.
Also AFAIK Epiphone was it’s own entity at one point and Gibson bought them out (not sure if the same is true for Squire)

its a bit like when you go to teh garage and the tire fitter says @these are made by xyz @ why doesnt it have their name on then ? oh thats right – because their crap.

the analogy follows over to fulcrum wheels so well its unreal.

I’ve found Fulcrum wheels to be pretty good. Different brands is a good way to cover more of the market and shift more stuff. Hardly new, same in cars, food, finance, insurance, clothes, toiletries. Well everything.

Also AFAIK Epiphone was it’s own entity at one point and Gibson bought them out (not sure if the same is true for Squire)

I think it was the same with Squire. They made reasonable copies of Fender guitars and basses in Korea (and Japan) and Fender bought them. Whilst possibly coming from the same factory, Campag and Fulcrum wheelsets aren’t just a case of ‘badge engineering’ as the spoke pattern is different.

Pro teams can’t ride Shimano groupsets with campagnolo wheels

Not sure if that analogy totally works, as in both cases the alternative brands are generally for lower cost/far eastern made products.

Maybe but my comment on fulcrums reliability & build quality is based on the ones we’ve had pass through the workshop at work

I don’t think it’s so much about the quality of the wheels, with Fulcrum- the bearings often have the stupid one-sided-bearing-seal thing but mine were great otherwise. It’s more the disastrous customer service and total unavailability of parts for anything apart from their biggest selling lines. (if I wanted a spoke I had to special order a box of 8 from italy for £40 + p&p and wait “up to 90 days”, and though there was officially a 15mm conversion kit they seemed totally incapable of finding out which part it used never mind getting one to me. That’s on the occasions they answered which was about 1 time in 10.

Sorry OP but you did ask!

That’s twice now I’ve read negative comments about Fulcrum wheels in the last 24 hours. Mine that came with the Cube are still fine, but then the Cube does not go out in the rain.

Fulcrum are basically made by Campag.

And yet Campagnola Zonda C17 wheels are raved about, for example.

Are Fulcrum wheels made with an inferior design compared to Campag’s own brand wheels?

Branding taken to the extreme by VAG:

Bugatti
Lamborghini
Bentley
Porsche
Audi
VW
SEAT
Skoda

Ducati

MAN
Scania

It’s similar in the world of white goods – a few companies produce models with a lot of different brand names on.

Has PX and their multiple brands of the same thing been mentioned yet? 😆

It’s a reasonably shrewd move on campags part really, essentially accepting that their share of the OEM market is kind of limited, but recognising that a separate brand could probably operate better in the wheelset market especially if they were “FH agnostic”…

Interestingly I do know people who would probably consider buying a fulcrum wheelset before a shimano one but aren’t particular campag fanbois, with both shimano and SRAM drivetrain bits, which suggests the split of brands has worked…

I thought I was mostly above purist roadie posturing (e.g. I’ve got as many spacers as physically possible underneath a positive rise stem 8) ) but even I couldn’t bring myself to put Campag wheels on a Shimano bike, so I bought Fulcrum, simples!

Worried about all the negative stuff though, I bought as I’d understood the Racing 3 and Zondas to be identical but for the stickers?

Different brands for different reasons. VAG want Audi to be a premium brand, making small cheap city cars would cheapen the premium brand, but they want a piece of the market so they keep Skoda running. Likewise Toyota/Lexus.

“in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king”

for a lot of stuff this applies in bucketloads

Worried about all the negative stuff though, I bought as I’d understood the Racing 3 and Zondas to be identical but for the stickers?

This. 🙁

Did any pro team ever run shimano/fulcrum? I very really see fulcrum in the peloton. Excellent wheels in my experience, although the bearings do go, they are easily replaceable.