Originally Posted by Chrome Molly

The big difference between old and new campy for me is the old stuff just worked (for the most part), was very easy to look at, and had a great utility factor (like being able to use fewer tools instead of more). The last part went out the window with 11 speed. Maybe I'm out of touch with the modern view of component beauty, but given campy still produces shiny bits, they know we're out there. What I really want is something that's dead nuts on reliable, rebuildable, works with a chain I can find at any LBS, looks great on hand made steel, and needs a handful of reasonably priced tools to work on. It wasn't too long ago that you could still find silver bits of record quality with cranks that didn't require a special gear puller to remove, and a chain/cassette you could get a whole season of riding out of. Getting my love involves producing great race stuff AND great training stuff. Better yet, one in the same (which the old stuff really was).

These days when I think of a utility (not racy change your chain every 1k with a $100+ special tool) group it's a mix of Sugino, Ultegra, SRAM and Campy. Campy really ought to rethink things a bit since they really could produce something of great beauty that would just plain work without all the add ons to the admission price. Maybe that's the difference between the current gen of Campy management and the old gen, not sure, but somewhere they lost their way. Since they have some challenge dominating the younger market (as evidenced at race day when everyone is riding everything but campy), maybe they should rethink a bit.