Wild sheep are not hard to dodge on the gruellingly steep climb from Astern to the Mynd.
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New Campag Groupset – Potenza

A full new groupset dubbed Potenza, meaning Power, will be Campag’s top end aluminium offering designed to slot into their range fourth from the top below Super Record, Record and Chorus. It was created reacting to Shimano’s very popular Ultegra drivetrain with “very good potential to fight with Ultegra… but with more soul”.

A more affordable option in this space, it’s hoped Potenza incentivise bike brands to spec the Campag gruppo as Original Equipment and bring the Italian brand back into the mass arena.  

Shifting is slick and smooth with actuation that will allow you to downshift up to three gears at a time. Upshifting (to a smaller cog) is still done via the thumb shifter and just one cog at a time.

The top of the hoods themselves has a slightly flatter peak for more comfortable aero positioning if you prefer to drape your hands over the hoods.

While higher spec groupsets feature carbon fibre levers the Potenza brake lever is made from alloy.

Embrace technology is what Campag calls their way their chain wraps further around the cassette cogs for a greater percentage engagement than previous iterations. It’s optimised for 11-32 cassettes and will work seamlessly with their long and short cages. 

The crank is an alloy unit with a four arm spider that is compatible with all chainring sizes, and the bolts of which have been moved closer to their outer diameter for better stiffness.

Riding the Potenza gear with compact cranks and an 11-32 cassette we took on the hills around the event venue. Initial impressions were that the gears are extremely quiet, and very smooth running. Long-time fans of Campagnolo form will appreciate that the Ergopower levers have an almost identical shape to their carbon siblings.                            

The full Potenza set weighs in at 2303g; just 9 grams more than Ultegra.  Pricing is expected to also be marginally more.       

 

 

 

 

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Wild sheep are not hard to dodge on the gruellingly steep climb from Astern to the Mynd.

Start Your Day Right!

Wild sheep are not hard to dodge on the gruellingly steep climb from Astern to the Mynd.

Campag’s New Shamal Ultra