Which Campagnolo Grouppo?
 

With the deals to be had on Campag I figure its time to take the plunge. After some quick research looks like Chorus is the best deal, but its hard not to go the extra 500 and get record. I am putting it on an EVO that is currently equipped with SiSl cranks. I was thinking of going with the Record or SR cranks. If anyone has experience with the BB30 cups I would like your thoughts. I heard they might be noisy? So any thoughts from the Campag die hards would be helpful on grouppo choices.

Before you chime in on the spelling in the topic I KNOW :P

Record with the Hollowgram cranks.

All of the above.

Chorus is the best bang for the buck.

That said, it doesn't get along so well with BB30. The cups will have to be fixed in with a very strong loctite, or they will come loose. Not may come loose. WILL come loose.

FWIW, I will never again get a BB/PF30 frame if I'm planning to put a Campy crank on it. They do not get along at all.

I built up my De Rosa Merak(pf30 bb) with Chorus 11 and almost 1900 miles later, no issues with the PF30 campy cups. I used loctite 7649 primer and loctite 609; same mix on the S5(BBright) I first built up that needed loctite and also used on the Noah Pro(pf30).

My friend's EVO is built up with Record 11. He's using Praxis Works rings with the SiSL cranks and it works flawlessly. I'm using the same rings on a Rotor 3D+ crankset w/ SR11 and will be using the same combo on my Noah Pro/SR11-EPS build.

I don't see any problem with it. ;)

Except 'grouppo'. See Pet Peeve thread.

Joel...you have to live and learn. BB30 framesets can be sleeved with a alloy BSA (english threaded sleeve) which evolves BB30 to
a threaded BB making Campy plug and play. Campy cranks were designed for a threaded BB.
You are quite right about the performance of Campy press on cups...they work like crap. An alloy sleeve loctited in place is rock solid however.

OP...go mechanical Record 11s...likely best pricing out of the UK to America. Save for it and enjoy it for years.

Turning a PF/BB30 BB into a threaded just seems kludgy to me. Until there's a solid solution that doesn't involve gluing in a fix, I'll stick with a threaded BB.

That bothers me as well but that one isn't for me to change without being asked.

I believe all carbon frames have their BB shells glued in.

Not all methods of wrapping in an aluminum BB shell are equal. But if they fail there is warranty to fall back on. That's not the case with BB/PF30 shells.

The actual differences between Record and Chorus are usually limited to styling flourishes and a negligible amount of weight. If you crave those flourishes the way a woman wants shiny jewelry go for it (I admit to owning 10 cog Record Titanium derailleurs for that reason - the hardware does a nice job color coordinating with my titanium frame)! If you're just looking for performance differences don't bother.

Chorus Ultrashift and Record Ultrashift levers are internally identical and weigh the same 337g per pair. Record just adds two sexy cut-outs at the top of the brake blade and red "11" logo. Super Record adds a third sexy cut-out and lighter rear ratchets which save 7g per pair.

Chorus and Record cranks are both carbon sharing the same hidden fifth chain ring bolt. Record does save 40g with hollow arms; although as a 140 pound (appropriate for a 5'10" climber) atop a bike approaching the 15 pound UCI minimum that only nets a 0.05% speed increase up the steepest hills or 2 seconds on the chasing peleton for each hour you spend off the front headed to an up-hill mountain finish (the effects are proportionally less for heavier riders).

I have no clue how either would interact with a BB30 frame.

Etc.

When you're buying from an on-line UK source you're paying close to US wholesale but aren't getting a discount for buying a whole group, and will do well to make substitutions only where you want the differences.

Record dual pivot brakes come with ball thrust bearings on the pivots. I'll probably try a pair some time.

Record level hubs have grease ports which officially double (unofficially some people go decades periodically injecting fresh grease until the dirty black gunk stops coming out) the disassembly interval. Go for it - I paid extra for all my three pairs of Campagnolo hubs for that reason.

Perhaps to you. Carbon shell framesets that are threaded have a threaded sleeve glued in. My '12 Robuaix SL3 is a threaded BB. It is effectively a BB30 shell with insert molded alloy threaded sleeve. The best solution for those that love Campy cranks that own or are considering a BB/PF30 frameset is sleeving the BB with either Sram or C-bear alloy sleeves...or equivalent. This makes Campy cranks rock solid unlike other solutions which btw exist other than press in Campy cups which work awful. Specialized for example offers a solution to remove Campy bearings from their cranks and space the Campy cranks retaining BB30 or PF30 bearings. This works well also..but still is susceptible to BB/PF30 short comings which many are fine with.

Sticking with threadless BB only frameset's severely limits frame offerings...most top end frames are now BB/PF30...and no reason to forego excellent Campy UT cranks if you want or own one.

Praxis needs to come with one of their creations with a campy BB.

I suppose, but both my road bikes are custom. So I'm not really limited at all. Incidentally, I've tried that SRAM/Truvativ solution. It's not so solid.

What frameset did you install the sleeve in? What kind of BB? Why wasn't it solid?

I believe you will see one. Praxis mentioned they are working on more options for converting BB30 and PF30 and believe it is likely Campy is on the table. Specialized as discussed has converted Campy cranks with their adapters...very similar to adapting Shimano cranks to BB30 with Wheel Mfg. adapters.

It was a Guru with PF30. It came loose after about 1 test sprint on the street outside my house. I was able to remove it by hand. Guru said the frame was in spec even though 3 different mechanics at 3 different shops weren't able to get it secure. The only solution was some sort of epoxy/glue/loctite to affix the cups in the frame. I really didn't want to do that as there are potential maintenance pitfalls down the road. Guru was good enough take it back and build me a replacement with a threaded BB shell. They have a heavily knurled Al shell that they are able to wrap in in such a way as it is highly unlikely to ever break free.

I recently bought a steel framed Cyfac and, after my previous experience with press fit (and getting similar feedback from several local shops, including a Sarto dealer and another custom frame builder) decided to just go with threaded and avoid all the potential trouble.

Here is a case of the blind leading the blind. You don't work on your bikes and you are relying on guys at the bike shop who don't have a clue.
The best solution of sleeving a PF30 bike is a sleeve like C-bear designed line to line with the 46mm ID carbon shell. It requires no loctite or adhesive. Pure press and is rock solid. C-bear sells hundreds of them and they are popular on the pro peloton for those racing Campy cranks on PF30. Pressing a 42mm OD BB30 alloy sleeve like you did...into a PF30 BB with delrin bushings in place is an accident waiting to happen. The whole achilles heel of PF30 is their delrin bushings and a sleeve will squirm in delrin bushings almost as bad as all the complaints about BB30 bearings moving around in PF30 plastic bushings.

We tried the SRAM/Truvativ sleeve with no better results. This is the first I've heard of C-bear's solution. Had I known about it at the time, I probably would have tried it. But it's been about 9 or 10 months now since the problem came up.

SRAM sleeve is the wrong sleeve for your application.

Please change :) Live and learn?

There are.

I was at this crossroads a few months ago. I went with Chorus, lowest level where 5 up and 3 down shifting is available.