“These Go to Eleven”

Campagnolo is first with 11 speeds

- By Tom Baker

“And these go to eleven”, the idiom that originally referred to volume controls on amplifiers that went to 11 because 10 just wasn’t loud enough, has now found wide usage in the popular culture.  It refers to anything that is pushed to its limit and beyond.  This would seem to be exactly what Campagnolo was trying to do by being the first to offer 11 cogs.

But this is not the case at all, as I discovered in a lengthy conversation with Valentino Campagnolo after the introduction of the new lineup.  He provided insights into the manufacturing and technical challenges of the new 11 speed transmission that will not be obvious to even the most dedicated product reviewer.

The transition to 11 may at first appear to be evolutionary at best, but it is actually quite revolutionary.  More revolutionary perhaps than anything Campagnolo has done since the introduction of the Ergopower controls themselves in the 90s.

Most of the tech reviews that will be written on the new Campagnolo lineup will center around performance testing, aesthetics and weight comparisons.  While all of those are relevant, there’s a much more interesting story behind the new 11speed groups.

This review uniquely offer insights into the business motivations for going to 11 and the remarkable technical accomplishments which made it possible. 

The obvious initial reaction to seeing a manufacturer in the very competitive bicycle component marketplace add an additional cog is that it’s done to draw attention to a new component group in the easiest way possible - by simply upping the ante.  With this in mind, I initially asked Valentino if the motivation for adding the inevitable extra cog was a marketing ploy, so as to draw attention to Campagnolo as a leader in the cycling component business, or if in fact there was a demand from racers for an additional cog advantage that would enable them to say “these go to eleven”. 

His answers were most enlightening because they highlighted the high level of technical expertise now required to move up to the 11th cog and the business decisions that were made to achieve it.  Valentino said, “To be very clear, the racers were not demanding an extra cog, but a cassette with one tooth increments, and we started from this point.  We delivered what they were demanding.”

He explained, “We started with this concept:  Is it possible to deliver what racers ask for without touching the dimensions of the frame and wheels?  OK, the space is fixed, so using the same dimensioned components to achieve the incremental cassette is not possible using the existing technology.”

Simply finding a way to add an additional cog is as Valentino noted, “not in line with the philosophy of the company.”  He indicated that the real question for Campagnolo was, “How can we improve the performance and quality by adding one extra cog?”

So the task changed from creating a one tooth incremental cassette to both increasing performance and quality for the entire transmission.  He made it clear that, “the 11th cog was not the target.  Simply going to the 11th cog would have been a mistake.”  As Valentino discussed the goals of both performance and quality, he noted, “We need to accept challenges and to react.”

Valentino related that the job was incredibly harder and took longer than expected.  While being first to market with a workable system was remarkable, Campagnolo set for itself and achieved another very noteworthy goal.  It was something that is not only unheard of in the bicycle industry, but very rare in any business.  That is, to have production ready and shipments being made at the same time as the new products are unveiled.  This requires a major effort within any company, but is especially difficult when the new products utilize new technologies and a new level of manufacturing processes.  Valentino said, “due to the importance, we needed to deliver to the market a strong statement, not with words, but with shipments.  We needed to deliver an immediate physical asset.”  I asked Valentino if the Super Record name was being saved for a special occasion.  He said, “Yes, Campagnolo was saving it for a brand new transmission system.”

Valentino related that with any new products, initially small quantities of prototypes were built, followed by pre-production.  Prior to and during the Tour de France, pre-industrial production parts were being used by professional racers.  As the product was unveiled, incredibly, shipments were being made to customers!

To understand the challenge that Campagnolo faced, a little history review may be helpful.  Think back to the original Super Record rear derailleur of the 1980s.  This derailleur was simply a Nuovo Record upgraded with titanium hardware, an improved appearance and yet only minor changes to the shifting performance.  It was noted for its need to be overshifted slightly to hit the gears, meaning that for an upshift the control had to be moved slightly past the actual gear shift point to make the derailleur travel enough to center on the cog, followed by a slight return of the control to the correct position.

While easy enough to learn back then, it would be unacceptable today.  However, it sheds some light on how modern shifters and derailleurs operate.

Shifting accuracy becomes increasing critical as the cog spacing decreases and that’s why it was impractical in the early 80s to move from 6 or 7 cogs to 8, with all of the inaccuracies in the manufacturing of freewheels and movements of the derailleurs themselves, combined with the high friction cabling from the down tube shifters. What really sets the modern Super Record apart, not only from its namesake, but also from all the other shifting systems currently on the market is the accuracy of the shifting.  This is the key that makes the transition to 11 possible.

So here’s the technical challenge that Campagnolo solved: 11 cogs in the space of 10 cogs means narrower cogs, a narrower 5.5 mm chain and narrower derailleur cages.  This means that when the derailleur shifts, it must always be exactly lined up on the cog and do so over the full range of 11 cogs.  This implies two components need to have movements that are very precise, more precise than was ever achieved before – the shifting mechanism and the derailleur itself.   They need to be significantly more precise than the original Super Record derailleur and non-indexed shifter.

For the rear derailleur, this seems to be straight forward.  The technical achievement is to make the pivoting action very precise by improving each pivot point and eliminating flex in each element of the derailleur and doing it in production quantities.  On Super Record this meant forging the aluminum upper body, which increased the torsional stiffness by 150%.  Campagnolo achieved this and remarkably also lowered the weight of the derailleur at the same time.

The real challenge was in the Ergopower shifter.  This is where the discussion with Valentino got interesting and where his explanations of not only the technical design challenges, but also the business challenges that were met, led to the observation that the new Super Record 11 is not an evolutionary change, but rather a revolutionary one. 

The entire Ergopower lever has been redesigned, both externally and internally. Comparing the tactile response of the 09 Ergopower with the newly redesigned 09 Dura Ace, the Ergopower offers several advantages, even if only comfort were considered.  The Campagnolo control, with the new hand position will delight those now using the earlier design.  More importantly, the design is easy on the fingers.  The new Dura Ace design has very angular corners around the top of the brake blade and sharp edges that my fingers would focus on while riding.  Campagnolo levers are very smooth and refined.  Valentino noted that while the external look of the lever is certainly different, it’s the mechanism inside that is totally different.  He emphasized totally.

To accurately shift the rear derailleur shifting pulley to given points directly under the desired cog, when the spacing between the cogs has been reduced, means that the tolerances within the shifting mechanism must be significantly improved.  Far more than simply adding another notch on the shifting ratchet for the 11th cog is needed.  In fact, what makes the new Ergopower lever unique, perhaps as much as lever design itself, is the machinery on the factory floor.  Valentino pulled out some paper and a pen and drew a comparison between the tolerance capability of the previous equipment and the new equipment used for the 11 components.  He showed the number of decimal places of the old and the new, and the new was an order of magnitude better.  This applies to the chain, cogs, chainrings, front derailleur and lever.  He noted that the manufacturing process for the front derailleur is also totally different.  These achievements are made doubly difficult, because some products are made in Italy and some are made in Romania.  Campagnolo has made a large investment in new, higher tolerance equipment in order to make the new transmission system possible.  That’s something that the racer will never hear or need to know about. 

Valentino also noted that with the high level of precision now achieved in the Super Record, Record and Chorus equipment, the age old problem of the customer not achieving the true potential of the new components still exists.  This occurs when the finest components are used on, as Valentino calls them, ‘modest’ frames.  If attention is not paid to setting up everything correctly, or the frame itself is inaccurate, then the performance advantage is lost.  It was pointed out that the old Campagnolo catalogs always had chainline diagrams and Valentino pulled out a new Technical Manual and showed the same attention to frame alignment in today’s manual. 

When asked about what the end user would have to learn or do differently when going to 11, he made it clear that the racer using the 10 components of yesterday needs only to use the new products the same today without worrying about what’s inside or how the technology has changed.  Valentino noted, “It is not important to have an engineering degree, it is important to have the correct chainline.”

While the focus here has been on the 11th cog, there is a whole range of improvements in the Campagnolo lineup.  Improvements have been made most visibly in the shape of the Ergopower lever to improve ergonomics and comfort by adding the additional hand position on top of the lever, with an additional 15% of hand contact area between the bars and the top of the hood.  The hoods themselves are made of a different material that is more elastic, stays that way over temperature and is unaffected by UV.  Interestingly, the levers can be extended outward by 10% by adding a spacer between the bars and the lever for larger hands.  Also, the brake pivot points were moved, so that the effort to brake was decreased and with a new double bend in the lever, braking can be more easily accomplished while riding on the tops of the hoods.

The front and rear derailleur improvements have been necessary to improve shifting accuracy.  On the rear derailleur, by forging the aluminum top plate and redesigning the carbon fiber outer plate, the torsional stiffness is improved, while reducing weight.  The front derailleur was also redesigned with the inner cage stiffened and an extra chain clearance curve added to improve the big chainwheel to big cog crossover issue.  The body was also redesigned to make it more rigid and thereby more accurate in shifting, which is the critical issue in using the narrow 11 speed chain.

In Campagnolo’s shifting data, the front derailleur, due primarily to the narrower chain and cage, shifted in a shorter cage throw distance than previously.  Remarkably though, the effort required to shift is reduced.

The cassette was also redesigned to increase torsional stiffness with a new lightweight frame for the largest 6 cogs.  Campagnolo now calls the top line drivetrain Ultra-Shift, whereas the previous name was Ultra-Drive.  The cogs themselves, while thinner, are actually significantly stiffer, which is helpful when staying in gear in an explosive sprint really punishes the cogs.  The chainrings have a new hard-anodized surface treatment, which looks to have a higher durability than the previous anti-friction coating.

The Super Record bottom bracket uses proprietary FAG ceramic bearings in conjunction with Cronitect chromium stainless races and is called CULTTM (ceramic ultimate level technology).  This is unique in the industry and eliminates the issue of corrosion in the races when grease is replaced with oil in the bearings.  The combination of ceramic bearings and stainless races provides the highest performance standard for low rolling resistance, longevity and corrosion resistance.  The Record bearing system is different.  These are also ceramic bearings, but without the stainless races.  These are called USB (ultra smooth bearings).

There are also many improvements throughout the component lineup, like the 11 speed chain which is made of a new steel alloy and is 20% stronger and an outer link that offers faster shifting.  Improvements are also the result of the ceramic bearings in the rear derailleur pulleys and the design of the chainwheels.  

This passion for achieving the highest level of performance possible has reached a new level in the 2009 Super Record 11 speed equipment.  Those who are fortunate enough to use Campagnolo’s latest offerings can do so without ever having to consider the manufacturing achievements that made it possible.

So, the real story behind the11th cog is not about the 11th cog at all, but how it was achieved and the performance and quality improvements that came with it.  On roads far from the factory floor where the technical revolution occurred, we’ll be enjoying that extra cog and pointing out, “and these go to eleven”.