AlexCyclistRoch

On my ride this morning, I stopped for a coffee, and the barista asked me about my mid-80's Cannondale. Then he added that he had a road bike, and had just ordered a Campagnolo cassette for it. Now, knowing that Campy bikes are pretty rare here, and mostly on the $4000+ range of bike, I was skeptical that a guy probably making barely above minimum wage would own such a bike. "Does your bike have a Campagnolo groupset?" I asked him. It didn't. "You know, Campagnolo cassettes only fit Campy freehubs", I replied, and you could see the expression on his face drop.

Oh, then later, I passed some guy on his mountain bike that had his fork facing backwards...........

Homebrew01

Not everyone buys Super Record, y'know.

fietsbob

Stay in Bike Snob mode if it gives you a fleeting sense of superiority .. Dont Cycle-tour on it Most places wont have any spare parts.

mstateglfr 

Is not knowing Campy doesnt mix with most all Shimano really 'mechanically incompetent'? Or is it moreso just being unaware of the hundreds of exceptions relating to what plays well and doesnt play well with what.

AnkleWork

Count the fallacies.

aluminummonster

People who are new to cycling often use the word cassette and freewheel pretty interchangeably. Maybe he meant freewheel, and if he's running a friction drive-train, it won't matter. Either way, it sounds like the guy was just trying to make a connection with you, and left the conversation embarrassed. But yeah, haven't we all made some boneheaded buys when we were just starting out? I know I did.

JonathanGennick 

Sure have. I still have the five-bolt ring I bought 10 years ago for my four-bolt crankset....

Agent Cooper

Heh. And I still have the square taper bottom bracket I bought earlier this year to replace my old worn out one.

....Which of course, is ISIS.

Live and learn.

HillRider

Right but complete bikes with lower line Campy groups are nearly non-existent in the US market. Try to find a bike shop selling a bike equipped with Veloce or lower components. Europe is different but here Campy pretty much sells only the top tier stuff.

corrado33

Sorry ya old farts, I somewhat agree with the OP on this one. (Not knowing part compatibility is more ignorance than mechanical incompetence.) More and more young people now-a-day are mechanically incompetent. I'm not strictly talking about bikes either. Anybody who comes into my shop willing to learn will never get made fun of by me, however those people seem to be more few and far between. It seems that today people are afraid to try to fix ANYTHING. They'll never take a single screw out of an old THING, even if that THING is already broken. "Well what if I break it more?" There are few things in life that can't be repaired by a hobby repairman. Even certain circuit boards can be repaired if you know what you're looking for. (Multilayer boards... not so much.)

For me, it's very similar to computer science and programming. When I was growing up programming was becoming more and more popular. We had a multitude of classes in high school and college that we could take if we so desired. However, that trend has reversed itself. I never thought that one day I would be the only competent "computer person" at my job. Nobody I know can program. Nobody I know can use the command line. The majority of my coworkers can't even troubleshoot simple problems. They barely know how to use the computer more than "I click this button and get the internet."

It's sad.

Am I a snob? I don't know. You can call me that if you wish. I just wish more people were interested in how things work today. Whether that be bikes or computers, it doesn't matter to me.

fietsbob

My local shop carries No Campag stuff.. when touring cyclists need parts for their Campag fitted bikes they either wait for a special Order
(eat, drink and be merry we can & do have available while they're here )

Or a call is made to another good shop, next bigger seaport town down the coast ,

they put the special order through and hopefully its waiting for them a couple days later when they arrive.

AlexCyclistRoch

FWIW, does anybody make Campy-compatible stuff today? I seem to remember that Zeus used to, and I heard that somebody was trying to resurrect the Zeus name.

unterhausen

this is why it's nice to have a very good LBS to go to. It's not that i would make a mistake like this, but there are a lot of subtle things about compatibility that they live with every day and might escape my thought processes

Marcus_Ti

Lots do. Depends on exactly what you are looking for.

speedy25

When I entered Architecture school ten years later than the rest of the class, the professor remarked to me about having to teach things like how to use a wrench or a screwdriver.

We use volunteers at the co-op to assemble new bikes. Despite fairly detailed instruction there are still many who just dont get it.

I even see the results when I have to repair something someone else has had their hands on!

-SP

Homebrew01

It's the indexing that makes the incompatibility these days. Although 11 speed brings them together a bit since the cassette spacing is the same, so campy wheel & cassette works with Shimano/Sram drivetrain & vice versa

3alarmer 

rms13

From what I understand all 11 speed cassettes play fine with each other. Of course you do still need a Campy hub. I have Shimano cranks, sram chaim and planet x brakes currently on the "Campy" bike I recently bought and all plays fine together. So saying that Campy only works with Campy doesn't seem like a fact

rms13

Thats because there isn't much anyone needs to know about computers than how to use a web browser. We're moving to a cloud based world. Unless you work at Amazon or Rackspace you probably will never need to know much more

Homebrew01

It's mostly fact, especially pre-11 speed. And you can't mix Campy shifters with Shimano derailleurs etc
Even within brand, some brake levers don't work well with different generation calipers due to pull ratio.

So "generally", they are not compatible, but some kluges like Shiftmate, or successful odd-ball combinations will work, on case by case basis

no motor?

I'm with you here. My grandfather taught me a lot about fixing things, and he was one of those guys who could fix most anything mechanical. I grew up thinking people that could fix stuff could fix most anything, and learned alot of what I know the same way he did - by either breaking things and then having to fix them or having someone who knew how to fix it show me. That's how I learned how to work on my bicycle and still show up at the shop with dirty hands and parts wrapped in a rag to ask the mechanic (and he's a real mechanic at the shop I go to) for advice when I need it. There's no such thing as a dumb question when you're learning that way.

My Dad was a very smart guy, but he didn't get the fix it gene. I used to refer to him as mechanically illiterate. I still remember the paniced look on his face the day he came home as I was starting on my first valve job. He'd never seen that many parts removed from one of my cars, but he liked my progress as things started to go back together and was very proud when I started the engine for the first time.

Camilo

People know what they need to know and/or what they are inclined to do and/or what they are trained to do.

Not knowing compatability is not incompetence, it is lack of understanding, maybe ignorance if you want to use that loaded word. Big deal - he maybe ordered the wrong thing, will figure it out and get the right thing. Why would you make fun of him or make him feel foolish?

Gee folks, I'd bet good money that almost everyone we sneer at for not knowing the precious and so-important knowledge we have knows or does something that we can't do.

Unfortunately the internet, and especially the bike forums are loadeed with engineers and similar who think that things that they learn about or are naturally inclined to understand are so important that people who don't have that ability or knowledge are somehow worthy of scorn.

Get over it folks. It's simply not necessary or important to most people. Enjoy the hobby you like and obsess over, but don't sneer at the people who don't. I don't make fun of my dentist because he has the bike shop change his tires and adjust his shifting. He doesn't laugh at me because I don't know how to cap teeth or (in his case) navigate a boat or cast a decent fly.

AnkleWork

This is the post-internet era. The cloud does not help those who can't search adequately, can't read and understand, can't think critically, and can't filter the signal from the noise. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to find which generation(s) demonstrate the greatest inadequacy of those abilities.

oldbobcat

Man, that was in the dark ages before indexing, when the only things that were proprietary were the bottom bracket taper and the 144 mm BCD of the chain rings.

AlexCyclistRoch

Well, thanks for making me feel old. The shop I worked at in 1978-ish sold a lot of Zeus stuff. The owner billed it as the "poor man's Campagnolo". And I think they also had 144mm BCD rings. If you wanted something for climbing, you bought a Cyclotourist crankset.