Chrome-mo said it and I agree.... it's how it rolls off the tongue

I did ride my 40 year old town bike w/ it's motley collection of surviving OEM Campagnolo Nuovo Record bits & bobs to the local farmer's market today.
Although it wasn't an epic slog on the pave' to the Roubaix velodrome, a desperate sprint finish in Paris or a torturous ascent of Alpe du Huez mine was the only bicycle at the FM. Score yet another victory for Tullio's finest groupo!

PS
The grass fed longhorn ribeyes will be the focus of tomorrow's rotating supper.

-Bandera

SRAM Purple-Orange: it's 3 grams lighter than Red; it'll make you go faster, kid. The offer of saving 3 grams is like crack for Cat-3 racers.

Hmmm... Lots of interesting responses...

SunTour's heyday was a little before my time, but over the years I've developed an appreciation for their components (even though I've primarily been a Shimano guy, stemming from my single-track days in the mid to late '80s). I went car-free about ten years ago, and since then I've found that the basic economy and utility of Shimano's 8 sp. gear couldn't be faulted. My commuter, mountain, & touring bikes all sport HG 3 x 8 groups and probably always will; it's a good all-around gear ratio, they're easy to maintain, & spare parts are fairly easy to find, if not ubiquitous.

With regard to my sport bikes, I made the shift to 9 sp back around '01 or '02 and frankly, I've been less keen on their 4500 - 6500 groups because they can't be rebuilt: the aesthetics are fine and they work quite well until they wear out, but when they do? C'est fini- they're finished; done with; no second act.

I quite like 7700 D/A, but viable spares are becoming ever more expensive, which will eventually necessitate a move to 10sp. And Shimano's 10 sp groups are (for me, at least) kinda 'faceless,' kinda lacking in style. I feel SRAM does a much better job of that within the same aesthetic parameters and- more importantly- performance is similar; however they also suffer from the unfortunate problem of not being repairable: if your 'Force' shifter breaks or wears out, you have no choice but to toss it in the trash and spend another $250 for a new one. Which might be fine for pro teams with multimillion-dollar budgets, but- well, I don't know about you folks, but I see disposability as being more than a little wasteful outside the context of racing.

With an eye to these concerns, I've been gradually preparing to shift my sport bikes to Campagnolo 10 sp, acquiring both a Centaur & a Chorus gruppo, piece by piece. Performance is excellent; aesthetics are A-one; and they can be maintained & repaired (and thus kept out of the landfill). Another nicety for me is that Ergos fit my hands better than STIs; I have better 'reach' from the drops.

Looking at the broader picture, from what I understand, the general idea has been to try to eventually get all the gearing on the rear cluster with a single front chainring. I guess in terms of pro performance, the few grams of saved weight can be an advantage, but it would be an illusory one for the remaining 95% of cyclists, hence why I have no interest in 11 sp; it's really unnecessary for me, and every wrench I've mentioned it to, hates it working on it: apparently the tolerances are so fine that it's very finicky to set up & keep tuned; chains are prone to snapping, etc.

I dunno...

Fwiw, while I love tinkering with my bikes, I love riding them more, and the more time gets spent on necessary maintenance, less time gets spent on the saddle.

I like almost every brand, Campy included. Campagnolo gained its reputation through reliability. In the 70's and 80's if you could afford Campy you had a bike that would last and was reliable. Then bike shops were not on every corner and mail ordering parts could take over a month. People placed value on knowing their bike would work every time it was needed.
Beginning in the 80's company's like Shimano began to innovate and improve certain parts of the bicycle. Today we are much better for it.

We love Campy like we love all things Italian.

If you don't love Colnago, Ferrari, Pinarello, Maserati, spaghetti, Columbus, Cinelli, Bocelli, Lamborghini, lasagna, Pavorotti, Alfa Romeo, Vespa, Sinatra, Picasso, Ducati, Sophia Loren, or yes, Campagnolo, then I don't know what to say....

Ben detto mio amico...cuore Italiano!

+1 on the aesthetics argument. Who but Campy would sculpt this beauty just to make it look "right"?

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Like DIM I really like the 7700 series of DA components, but for me that was the last time Shimano really cared what their parts looked like. It's a very rebuildable series (the miniature bearings in the brakesets are awesome to behold), but as said above they'll be getting scarcer. Since then they really cut their finishing costs with the machined or black coating, and that huge crank would be a visual sin to put on a bike with normal sized tubes. Campy still puts out all-aluminum stuff that looks great hung on steel frames.

+1 Poprad - it just has an elegance...even the stuff that doesn't work well.

My favorite component groups of all time are Campagnolo C-record era groups, Campy had the aesthetics down as well as old school mechanics.
For daily riding, nothing tops Dura Ace 7700. It's the perfect balance of function and looks!

Campagnolo tools are hard to beat.

7700 suffers in comparison to 9sp record IMO.

First subjetive:

1. It's good looking for Shimano - but that's a low bar. It still isn't close to the beauty of campy.
2. The levers/hoods aren't as comfortable as campy.
3. I prefer Campys QR on the lever.
4. I prefer Campys shifting locations...the STI blade movement never appealed to me.

Objective:

1. The front trim isn't nearly as good.
2. The hoods feel cheap and are much thinner
3. Ergo lasts longer.
4. Ergo was rebuildable, STI wasn't
5. STI gums up more easily and more often.
6. Octalink has compatibility issues.
7. Name plates get lost and scuff.

STI's advantage -

1. Cheaper
2. More precise indexing.

Picasso? Spanish, no?

I'm of the opinion that it's like the old design adage, "form follows function". They function perfectly, and that beautiful form is what makes it function perfectly. I've had about 20 bikes this year, sold all but a handful, and I've ridden every one of them a lot. I buy and sell low-end bikes, selling in the $100-$150 range, and when I've reconditioned them, they get ridden, and ridden, and tweaked, and ridden, and cleaned, and final tweaking before they're sold. They all have their noises and whirring from cranks and bearings and chains and spokes, but when I ride my Campy bike, it's silent. Don't hear anything, just the wind going by me. Other riders pass me and I hear them coming a hundred yards back. I pass somebody, they never hear me. The quality means that the parts fit together seamlessly, and that shows up in that quiet ride.

Actually, my friend has a ten speed cassette, and an XT RD, tattooed on his leg.,,,,BD

He Must have been drunk.

Seriously, the initial post when it used the term obsession brought me to dismiss the inquiry of much seriousness.
With that out of the way, if one became aware of serious road cycling in the later 80's or beyond the respect Campagnolo achieved over the decades prior probably appears vacant.

It is too bad Suntour missed their chance to stay relevant. Competing can be done, SRAM started way late and has become a contender, thankfully.
I like what they have done, even though I do not like the shift action they came up with to dodge the prior patents. The one piece cog set is a machining tour de force. Shimano almost achieved "world domination", almost.

Most of my bikes are Campagnolo equipped. I grew up in the period where Campagnolo was the choice of the serious racer. As a bike shop mechanic it was a pleasure to work on, even more so if you had access to a Campagnolo tool kit. Perhaps the bike boom of the early 70's was good and bad for the Big C. They had to spend much effort to just keep pumping out product, if things had been of a more normal pace perhaps Tullio would have spent more time being creative.

Actually, that's one thing I always liked about my 6400 gruppo (I still have the wheelset): it was so quiet that while riding home at night, I actually startled cats.

I can't really argue with that, since the only Campag on my bike is a pair of QR skewers. Ha!

When I came to resurrecting my classic steel bike with the aid of modern equipment I started with the rather simplistic mantra of "Campag = beautiful" in my head, but ended up surprising myself by getting a SRAM Force group. I honestly find the brakes and levers more aesthetically pleasing, and they're a joy to use. Maybe no better than Campag, I don't know, but I definitely think it's a more level playing field between the main manufacturers in the carbon age. Even Shimano cranks are getting less ugly, although they've still got a way to go!

Holy smokes! Are there any other threads that got to three pages faster than this one?

I will offer two bits. One, Campagnolo was so dominant during their golden era that their connection schemes became de facto standards, even in some of the smallest of areas. Obviously, we have Signore Campagnolo to thank for the quick release, but think downtube braze-ons and derailleur hangers (and the location of the stop). Two, as to the cult status, for better or worse, I think that is true. (I may have mentioned this story here before. Stop me if you've heard it.) When I first got into bikes in the early 70s, one of our group of riders had a nice bike. I don't remember what anything on it was, except... She couldn't afford Campy bits (she was a starving student like the rest of us, but unlike the rest of us had the good sense to buy what she could afford), but she had to have something Campagnolo on her bike, so she got a set of Campy brake cable clips. I am often reminded of that these days as I scour Ebay for a set of such clips for anything less than $25/set.

It's a Campy thing, you wouldn't understand.

Why I ride Campagnolo:
Quality of fit and finish is the best, always has been.
Functionality is excellent outside of the Syncros era, always has been.
Durability is unrivaled, always has been.
Aesthetics are excellent, always, and not exclusive to the top tier product.

Why I do not ride Shimano:
Shifter feel is too mishy-mashy. Not mechanical enough, doesn't tell my hand the thing has made a positive shift.
Shifter throws are too long, and hood ergos are really messed up.
Neon green grease.
Looks like crap.
Too common.
No real price advantage considering Shimano's short comings.

Why I don't ride SRAM:
Because I ride Campy!

As much as I love working with Campagnolo tools, Park, VAR, Cobra and others will work as good or better. Don't get me wrong Campy tool kits are wonderful.

+1

I'm good friends with LBS owner, a while back he let me ride his top of the line Specialized carbon whatever it was. Full shimano Dura ace with $$$ ZIP wheels. I was not impressed, bike, wheels and the crappy shimano shifting system.

Why I like campy.....I know...it's a mystery to me too.....

I love this. Best sentence in the whole thread!

Agreed.