Originally Posted by
zandoval
Yep... But still that Tourney/Claris stuff has that name and looks nice. When ever I can afford Campy I go with it. And yes I am one of those guys who prefers Polished and Shinny over Subdued and Black. I am really surprised how expensive some of the group sets are regardless of the manufacturer. Campy appears to take their components just one step farther in polishing out sharp edges, dressing out threads, and having consistent composition of their base alloy to begin with.
Further note that I recently purchased a lever action firearm from a reputable manufacturer. Still, even after the expense of purchase I took it over to a machine shop to have sharp edges on different parts of it smoothed out. After paying good money I should not have to do this. Same with our bicycle components. Consistency and reliability are important, but still, how about a little craftsmanship in the overall piece...
When I saw Claris in a magazine before it came out it was a small picture and I thought it looked OK and then when I saw it in person I gagged a little. Tourney is even worse. Can't stand to see it. Far away the newer Claris it isn't as bad (again far away) but actual performance isn't great and up close it doesn't hold up. Campy generally does a great job but then again they aren't in the low cost business, they are in making a good product throughout business.
There aren't a lot of lever action producers these days, cool concept but I would rather have a nice bolt action but yeah things should be more refined on a nicer one. My end goal is to get a fully custom bolt action of some sort with all sorts of engraving and a custom bolt, the whole nine yards. Probably do a custom roasted swamp ash stock with some internal recoil reduction so I can run a bigger caliber just for fun. However that would be one of those every part is polished and hand filed and hand fit to the action yada yada yada.