zencadance

If you notice I said WOMEN I KNOW not all woman.

DMF 

or personality...

Kommisar89

For my 2 cents, go with Shimano. And I say that as a die-hard Campanista. Campy makes great stuff but you will not find any significant performance difference between the two (or SRAM) at the same price level and you'll find Shimano much easier to live with if you want to customize things or if you break something and you're not near a high end "Pro" bike shop. Campagnolo is beautiful, has its own mystique, and is a powerful draw on those of us of a certain age who began cycling when all good bikes were tout Campagnolo, mid-priced bikes had French components, and only low-end department store gas pipe junk came with Shimano.

There was a time not so long ago before Camrys ruled the highway and Hondas had the best reliability that "Made in Japan" had the same sort of deragotory conotation that "Made in Taiwan" or "Walmart bike" has today. Back then nobody ever heard of Taiwan and the only Chinese thing you bought was take-out food. If you wanted quality you bought European. The Japanesed started to turn that all around in the 70's and flipped everything on its head in the 80's. Riding Campy today requires that you be willing to put up with a industry completely dominated by Shimano and Shimano compatible clones and is probably not the best choice for someone buying their first road bike.

aballas

or if you're a careful ebayer as I am you can come out ahead with better components...

I bought the bike knowing fully that i intended to dump the shimano for campy...did so, and went from 105/ultegra to Chorus....AND came out a few $$$ ahead in the deal....