Campagnolo Athena Review

Not only is the Tiagra groupset heavy, but things have moved on since 2009 and a triple isn’t necessary anymore. There is nothing wrong with a triple. Many people seem to swear by them, but it’s heavy, can be finicky when shifting, has more gear overlap and requires being more aware of what your front derailleur is doing to avoid cross chaining. It’s also a bit wider, although, I can’t say that was ever much of a concern for me as I seem to be pretty adaptable in terms of Q factor.

There was a time when many people took all of those drawbacks in stride. Lots of people wanted the huge range that triples can provide. The drawbacks were overlooked. You could even find higher level groupsets available as a triple. But today, with compact cranks, 11 speed cassettes and more rear cassettes options available, it’s no longer necessary. Today, all the advantages of a triple can be had with the right double.

The Campagnolo Athena chainset in a hill friendly compact version

With all that in mind, it was time to look for an update. I’ve definitely lost time in races trying to figure out what chainring I’m in, why it’s making noise and where I need to go next.

I do appreciate the wide range that the triple provides, though. The whole point of this project is a bike that fills a lot of needs and that means not being a purpose-built racer designed only for the flats.

I’d need something that would work for any hill I might encounter. I’ve done more than one hill climb race this year, as well as pulling a little one in a trailer on whatever road might present itself. Put an extra 60lbs on the back of the bike, and you’ll be happy you aren’t stuck with 39/25 gearing.

The 12-29 cassette and compact chainset should get you up most hills

I knew I wanted Ultegra level because I find this to be the sweet spot between price and performance. It’s got all the performance and durability that most people need and I find that above Ultegra, the price/performance ratio starts to drop off. Not to say that the higher level groupsets aren’t great, they definitely are, but you pay a lot for the performance you get.

The story is similar for electronic shifting. It’s fantastic, but it’s also expensive. That left me with a choice of Shimano Ultegra, SRAM Force and Campagnolo Athena. I’ve always ridden with Shimano and while it’s completely capable and often the cheapest, I find it to be the least exciting of the options.

This might be a ridiculous reason to factor in when choosing a groupset, but let’s be honest, any modern groupset is going to get the job done. You need to start differentiating based on something and I’d say the feeling you get from seeing it on your bike is as good a reason as anything.

Josh is a big fan of the Campagnolo Athena lever action and shape

I’m also not a big fan of the moving brake lever that Shimano uses. I find that when shifting on long hills when I’m tired, or when I’m down in the drops, I often catch a little bit of brake at a time when that’s the last thing I want to do.

Shimano does have the advantage of being everywhere. It’s in every bike shop, and you’ll never have a hard time finding someone who knows how to work on it or has parts for it. That’s nice although, again, boring.

SRAM force is less boring and I like the shape of the hoods, but I was never fond of the double tap thing. SRAM seems to be popular in the CX crowd and that’s a big contingent in Portland, Oregon, so it’s certainly something you see around. It’s also the lightest of the options, but I kept going back to my dislike of the double tap.

Campagnolo uses a thumb shifter for moving down the block,which is Josh’s preference over the Shimano and SRAM methods

That left Campagnolo. For those of you that aren’t reading this in the United States, Portland, Oregon is one of the biggest cycling cities we have. It’s constantly being ranked the #1 best cycling city by various cycling magazines and although it’s bike infrastructure is laughable when compared to some European cities, it’s pretty good compared to most cities in the United States.

Despite this, it’s essentially impossible to find a bike in a local shop that has Campagnolo in it. I called around and didn’t find one until I hopped on a trainer at a local shop to test some shoes. I realized the bike had Super Record and they responded that they’d forgotten about that one. Not only does no one have bikes with Campagnolo, but when I talked to the people manning the shops, many of them had never even seen anything other than Super Record or maybe Record.

Occasionally, I’d find someone who had some experience with Chorus. In fact, it turns out my uncle rides 10 speed Chorus, but Athena? I’ve yet to meet someone who has it and it’s rare that anyone even knows about it. When I discuss it though, it’s not that people don’t like Campagnolo. In fact, everyone I’ve talked to about it has an incredible reverence for it. People talk about it like it’s made of Unobtanium. Every time I’d interact with someone about the project, they’d get hushed and speak of Campagnolo with admiration.

A rare sight in Portland, a Campagnolo front derailleur

That admiration would be quickly followed by two critiques, though. It would go something like this; “Oh man, Campagnolo is amazing. Tough to work on, though, and damn it’s expensive.” Now, this is a groupset that sets the heart on fire! It’s gorgeous to look at, I love the shape of the hoods, and people admire it while thinking they can’t have it. I knew Campagnolo was what I wanted on this bike and I also knew I wanted to prove it both wasn’t hard to work on, and it wasn’t overly expensive.

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