Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
The advent of indexed shifting nearly killed Campy. When Campy struggled for 5 years to market a viable indexed shifting group, they lost the better part of a generation of riders to Shimano (myself included).
They need to learn from that historyy, and not get caught short on electric shifting.
I was part of that generation.
Ahh yes, I remember it well as a young cycle-pup, shop rat. The Campy index stuff was a cruel joke. Most everyone ended up riding it in friction mode anyway. It was so far behind Shimano as to be laughable. Nobody except the most retro of retro-grouches would ride the stuff.
But Campy got on it and changed the system pretty much every year until they got it right. The fact that we can even have a Campy vs. Shimano thread to today is testament to Campy's persistence and skill.
I was very skeptical of the whole electric thing until interbike this year. Its nice. I mean, REALLY nice. And apparently there are big changes coming up in both features and pricing.
-Z