Just priced out and ordered an Athena 11 speed group for a friend's build.

$425 for silver Ergopowers, crankset, and front and rear derailleurs.

Also ordered a set of Fulcrum 5s for another $215.

He's putting it on a nice Jonny Cycles frameset he picked up at our swap for $275.

Sure, he still has to add some pieces, but this will be a whale of a bike for the money.

The price of admission into quality Campy products is very fair as far as I am concerned.

Those 11 speed cassettes take a big chunk out too don't they?

Chain an Cassette will add to the price tag...

Campy's groups are a great value all things considered. Sure is a pain in the ass to install compared to shimano though. Campy has the only vintage looking (all silver and conventional styling) groups as well so it has that going for it.

The 11 speed Chorus cassette can be smart shopped down to $82, which is still a chunk of change.

That is the one we ordered two weeks ago when the discounts were super good.

For comparison, I have found the Veloce 10 speed cassette for less than half that, so they are getting a very good margin from us.

The Chorus chain was just ordered for an additional $35.

So, yes, there are always those final pieces that drive up the price of any build.

FWIW I do feel like trying a Miche cassette sometime, as they usually run about $40 less than the Chorus unit.

Most of my friends and their kids race cyclocross.

Once you have a half inch of mud on everything the look doesn't factor into the equation as much.

Even at $1000-1200, I think it's a good setup for the price of all the parts.

I'm using Hudz hoods on my Centaur 10 speed ergos, mostly just as a fashion statement. When I ordered from Wiggle in GB I wanted silver levers. They were out of stock and hard to come by, so Wiggle sent black CF, instead and gave me a small discount. Turns out they worked on this build.



I don't have a clear shot of the drivetrain, but I ended up running a wide range (11-32) IRD Campy compatible cassette (less $ than Campy) with the Campy Comp Triple RD. Works great. BigBossMan has gone this route as well. Another place to save some money is to use a Wipperman 10 speed chain.



From what I understand, all Campagnolo Ergo shifters can handle a triple. This is because they work more like an old Suntour barend shifter with larger movement between "clicks." Just make the shift on the chainring and then trim with a "click" if needed to adjust the FD from rubbing the chain.

I spent two hours the other night tweaking my ridding buddy's Ultegra STI Shifters-RD and 105-FD in order to get everything perfectly aligned. I almost used bad language for a pastor.

I'll look into the IRD cassettes.

I use Veloce most often, and they are fine.

I totally agree the Wipperman is another good option as well.

I've had great luck with those, that's for sure.

Very nice Cannondale btw.

That's one of the reasons I chose a Shimergo build. 10 and 11 speed chains and cassettes are pricey.

The complete Athena 11 group I used on the Gazelle set me back $1050. Including a chorus cassette and a Record chain.

I have 8, 10 and 11 speed groups, all Chorus. Lots of plastic on the 11, but it shifts more precise, the clicks from the right thumb lever are easier to modulate and the hood shape is better for my hands. The plastic parts make sense on modern black styled components: Lighter and less expensive.

Compared to the other 11 speed indexing is also a true 'set and forget'.

I would love to see more pictures of this cannondale

While the frame is 11 years old, the bike is hardly C&V. Need to wait at least another 10+ years. How do you like the blue Brooks Team Professional.

Loving what you did with that Cannondale, PastorBob!

I run the campy veloce brifters and really love them. They are the most comfortable brifters on the hoods that I have ridden. Toss those together with an inexpensive shimano 8 speed cassette and a 105 or ultegra RD (often CL sourced) and you can build up on the cheap and give away nothing to the competition (especially if you run a triple up front). 8 speed chains are inexpensive too. I haven't found the campy brifters any less of a PITA to install and tweak than shimano, and find it's nice that they are usually purchased with the cables included.

That cannondale is very very nice (well maybe except for the stem). Nice look with the blue and yellow.

Here's a linky regarding shimergo...
https://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3946

My experience with the shiftmate combos not as good as straight matches, or hub-bub. Not that the shiftmate isn't a well made product that does the job, but it's more fiddling than I care for.

While I don't mind the prev. gen Campagnolo 10sp levers (first liked the shape in the Tektro R200A lever), I have 2 sets of them and one set of the Tektros - I do think the new generation are more comfortable. I have the 10sp Centaur levers on my Fuji and while the shifting feel could be better (and was improved in later versions), they are the best fit I've felt bar none. I've got a full Athena 11sp group in the closet waiting for the Kirk. I bought it from VeloMine, US based shop that will price-match the UK guys if you call them (or email most likely). I think they've still got a few of the 2010 or 2011 Athena groups for deep discount.

They do.

$975 for a Athena gruppo.

Not bad for domestic pricing, but still higher than Ribbles.

Ben's a good guy though, and will ship so fast it will make your head spin.

Is it as simple as that? Plug and play? I'm running an 8 speed Shimano setup and today ordered Veloce 10 speed Ergos to replace the bar ends.

Do you have any experience with 11 speed Ergos and Shimano 9 speed drivetrains?

Justin, I've put another 50 or so miles on my Campy 10 Shifters --> Shimano 8 everything else this week and it is great!

No experience with 11-9, you will have to be the guinea on that and let us know...

I wasn't clear from the link (didn't read it too closely). Is it a straight plug and play or do you have to do the alternate routing bit mentioned as hub bub or use a shift mate (or is that only if you don't do 10->8 or 11->9)?

A while back I picked up a microshift RD that had good reviews for crisp shifting and light weight, but could do a wide range rear cassette (shimano compatible). I wonder if it'd work with that.

Then I could have the ultimate frankenbike drivetrain with campy levers, microshift RD, 105 FD, Sram cassette, KMC chain, and I can't remember the triple crankset I bought for it. Have a set of DA DT levers I was planning on putting on my Kelly Take-offs, but this would be cleaner looking and appeal to my strange desire of making it as diverse a setup as possible if it all played nicely together.

Thanks, Alex. Athena 11 Ergos should be here early next week. I'll report the results here.

Yep, plug and play, play, play. I played with mine 40 miles today (got above freezing here today)

I don't have any experience with 11 speed and 9 speed combos. It does not appear to be quite as close a match as C10/S8-SRD, but close enough. I also use the C10/S7-SRD (with 7 speed shimano FW's) and it works just fine that way. Pitch/ratio-wise that's farther off than your C11/S9-SRD appears like it's going to be, so you should be fine.

C10 works with S8

C11 should work just fine with S9 (awaiting our report on this one)

C10 works (in my experience) with S7 fw's with just a bit of trimming when working to lower/larger gears on the cassette. The C ergo shifters allow you to trim a fair bit without advancing to the next ratchet within the shifter. With the S7, there is usually only one shift to the lower/larger gears that is stubborn (don't know why, but there seems just one). Downshifting works well.

Hub-bub arrangements allow C10 to work with S9 (seen that one done)

Or C11 to work with S10 - haven't seen this one because S10 shifters from microshift or shimano are usually chosen to work with S10 rears

I have tried the shift mate and it works fine, but with all the combos above that can be made to work, I only think you'd need it if you had some combos that only the shiftmate can make happen.

Best of luck