New Campagnolo Potenza groupset (and farewell Athena)

doozerie

Review of Campagnolo Potenza groupset: LINK

Some of the interesting aspects of it:
* replaces Athena
* described as “mid-range”, apparently priced at around €850 to €900
* an “all aluminium groupset” though it has some plastic in there too (rear mech and gear paddles)
* available in black or silver
* uses Power Torque Plus, no more need for a dedicated Power Torque crank removal tool
* option of 11-32T cassette (with medium cage rear mech)
* single downshift only

According to the review Campag are aiming this groupset to compete directly against Ultegra, and in particular they are hoping for it to appear on 2017 off-the-shelf bikes. Will be interesting to see how it fares.

…and on a rant-y note, can’t we all just settle on a consistent meaning for “upshift” and “downshift”. In the review above it refers to shifting up or down the cassette, in this other (more critical) review it refers to exactly the opposite. My brain hurts.

koutoubia

Read about this a while back and thought ...Meh! and why? Maybe a gruppo or fully equipped bikes?!?!
If your in the market for a gruppo at about a grand surely scouring the web for a lightly used new style Chorus or Record.
Athena is a more then capable gruppo.
So again Meh!

doozerie

Personally I'd go for Chorus but the Potenza has some interesting merits. That 32T will appeal to some, the fact that it has no carbon will appeal to others, the change from Power Torque to Power Torque Plus may appeal to many that currently use Power Torque, that colour option will have its fans too, etc.

It's certainly a hard sell though, that Campag premium price would be hard to overcome for someone that is used to Ultegra (or maybe even 105) I imagine. Depending on which way you look at it it could be seen either as a useful attempt by Campag to get into a wider market, or as a compromise of their traditional appeal ("quality, handmade in Italy, ..." plus also that exclusivity veneer of course).

koutoubia

doozerie wrote: »

Personally I'd go for Chorus but the Potenza has some interesting merits. That 32T will appeal to some, the fact that it has no carbon will appeal to others, the change from Power Torque to Power Torque Plus may appeal to many that currently use Power Torque, that colour option will have its fans too, etc.

A Sportive gruppo?

doozerie

Sportives would be one market alright, but winter training bikes are another.

As an example, my winter bike currently has a 1999-vintage 9-speed Chorus groupset - I'd like to replace it with 11-speed, to get lower climbing gears as much as anything, but being a winter bike for winter roads I'd prefer to stick with an alloy groupset rather than the carbon of modern Chorus. I'd take the familiarity and well-established reliability of Chorus over Potenza but I wouldn't rule Potenza out either (although I'd miss the multiple downshift of Chorus I reckon).

I've considered Athena before but Power Torque put me off, Potenza goes some way towards addressing that hurdle too.