What happened to Campagnolo MTB components?

The ‘what frame did you really want but never got’ thread reminded me of the Campagnolo MTB components that did once exist (I saw them!). Centaur, Olympus and Record OR, I think. Really beautiful looking components, very high quality polished alloy, lovely sculptural looking cranks etc. Used a grip twist shifter? Made Shimano Deore XTII look cheap, until XTR came along. Very expensive as I recall, perhaps the high price put people off. But it looked so good! And then it all disappeared quickly. Campagnolo don’t seem to do any MTB type components any more,which given the popularity of MTBing, seems somewhat strange as a business decision. Anyone remember Campagnolo MTB stuff, and got any idea why it disappeared?

It really wasn’t around very long. No idea why it was dropped, but it puts me off speccing Ekar on a gravel bike.

I remember it, it was very expensive and iirc was quite heavy and didn’t work as well as Shimano or Suntour at the time.
Some of the components looked great eg the cantilevers, but again worked badly. A friend had some of the bullet shifters and they were absolutely terrible.
The chainsets and rear mechs looked really nice.

Yeah, from memory, it looked great but didn’t work as well as the competition, so people stopped buying it. Suspect lack of interest due to cheaper and better kit put it all in the grave.

This is what we all remember.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1989-swallow-griffon-mbuk-test-bike-finished-page-12.250974/

I remember it, it was very expensive and iirc was quite heavy and didn’t work as well as Shimano or Suntour at the time.
Some of the components looked great eg the cantilevers, but again worked badly. A friend had some of the bullet shifters and they were absolutely terrible.

Ah, right. I never got to actually use any of the kit. But then, I suspect neither did hardly anyone else, as it just didn’t seem to be available anywhere to actually buy. I think Condor had some of it for a short while, but I don’t recall it anywhere else.

The chainsets and rear mechs looked really nice.

They did! The chainsets, particularly. Beautiful, like a sculptured thing. Only the original XTR components came close. I have a set of original XTR M900 mechs; they are such good quality. Which stuff still looked that good. Even lasting half as long would be nice. :(

This is what we all remember.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1989-swallow-griffon-mbuk-test-bike-finished-page-12.250974/

Nice one Mickr. How can it be 32 years ago? Interesting Noah’s Ark ad…

I feel very old :-)

Probably still got that issue in the attic somewhere.

I think the Klein team used to ride it in USA / Grundig.

The problem was that Campagnolo wasn’t geared up for OEM manufacturing and the MTB ‘business’ model – Shimano totally dominated the market and killed off the competition (including Suntour) by aggressive pricing and marketing. Also, the Campagnolo ‘purchase’ model was based on enthusiasts buying a frame from a dealer and then building it up with components (like road bikes) whereas you could buy a complete bike from the likes of Specialized with Shimano components for considerably less.

I had a Record OR group BITD. The canti’s looked amazing, but were s***. The chainset is still on a Kona Cindercone pub bike at the in-laws, not been used in 10 years or more, has also got most of an old XTR group set and Hope Hubs. Should probably get it back and flog it as my retirement fund! Had weird chainrings, the inner was a sprocket and lock ring if I remember correctly.

And the Campagnolo that everyone could afford…Elucid? was garbage in comparison to the Shimano equivalent. IIRC

Some top end Dynatechs came with OEM Campagnolo. They were trying to compete with XT at that point, and never got to the stage of offering OEM at all price/quality points, which is where Shimano were at… they could offer OEM the kit they needed at many different price points.

I’ve very little recollection of campy stuff back then – but I do remember that Noah’s advert very well….

The canti’s looked amazing, but were s***.

That’s true of all canti brakes though, let’s face it. I remember fitting the original XT V brakes; second ride I went over the bars. :D Night and day difference.

The problem was that Campagnolo wasn’t geared up for OEM manufacturing and the MTB ‘business’ model – Shimano totally dominated the market and killed off the competition (including Suntour) by aggressive pricing and marketing. Also, the Campagnolo ‘purchase’ model was based on enthusiasts buying a frame from a dealer and then building it up with components (like road bikes) whereas you could buy a complete bike from the likes of Specialized with Shimano components for considerably less.

Makes sense. Campagnolo have always been a bit weird when it comes to actual business; yes, they can supply big Tour de France racing teams, but don’t seem to want to actually make money from the significantly larger (or was, at least) MTB market. All a bit ‘exclusive’, a bit like the Apple of the cycling world.

I had a Record OR group BITD. The canti’s looked amazing, but were s***. The chainset is still on a Kona Cindercone pub bike at the in-laws, not been used in 10 years or more, has also got most of an old XTR group set and Hope Hubs. Should probably get it back and flog it as my retirement fund!

Ah, sorry to say, but it’s all utterly worthless. Because everything new is better. Haven’t you read this forum? ;) I’ll pay you the postage to send it to me though, can’t say fairer than that.

I think the only thing that could possibly beat a 90s niche machine like that campag’d swallow (for me) would be an early whisky town racer dripping with Grafton, Phil woods and Paul components stuff, the full “peak CNC” multicoloured annodised nightmare on a green with orange spatter paint frameset.

It’s got to be breathtakingly expensive, rare and slightly difficult to look at, otherwise why bother.

Ah, sorry to say, but it’s all utterly worthless. Because everything new is better. Haven’t you read this forum? 😉 I’ll pay you the postage to send it to me though, can’t say fairer than that.

You strike a hard bargain sir.

I didn’t get this rich through sheer hard work you know…

Seems to me Shimano and SRAM do it better for less money for both road and mtb, and mtbers are less led by ‘tradition’.

A mate of mine had Campag across 2x road bikes (the expensive stuff too), it always seems to be out of tune and finicky to set up.  I see it on road as more of an ‘I follow the ‘rules’, I’ve got a Colnago so I have to have Campag’ rather than spec my bike with what actually works best sort of thing, which roadies seem to be more inclined to do.

I can’t remember the exact parts but I “upgraded” from exage to I think Olympus based on some fanboi reviews and it just wasn’t very good. Looked nice though

Seems to me Shimano and SRAM do it better for less money for both road and mtb, and mtbers are less led by ‘tradition’.

I’d say kitting out bikes with stuff from the two big S’s have become an MTB “habit” if not quite “traditions” and it could well have shaken out differently. Suntour were in the running up until the late 80s Sachs had touring/MTB drivetrain products long before SRAM bought them out, Mavic even had a dabble with drivetrains including some flat bar levers for the MTB market. Ultimately they were all crushed by Shimano who got their OEM approach right first and established a good reputation for function and reliability early on.

SRAM as you know them today only real exists because of a shady move Shimano made with OEMs whereby ‘discounts’ were apparently only available if a whole group set was purchased, SRAM at the time basically only had one product; Grip shift. Which of course they wanted OEM customers to buy and assemble along with Shimano drivetrains… The resulting anti-competition ruling and payout was basically the cash injection SRAM needed at that point to grow into the mega-corp they now are…

Campag are just campag, they didn’t really get MTBing I think they just thought it was off-road flat bar touring. And who needs good brakes for that?

And who needs good brakes for that?

To be fair, they’d already had the same attitude on the road in the 80s…

http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/2014/03/campagnolo-delta-brakes.html