Daytona: First Look

Road Tester webmaster@campyonly.com has installed his new Veloce gruppo, and has turned in his first impressions. Watch this site for updates as Justin's (and our other road testers') long-term evaluation continues . . .

(Note: "Comments" are from our tech expert Tim Laflin, who is running and monitoring our Riders Like Your™ road testing program.)

Here is the details of my first impressions of the Daytona gruppo:

I am pretty much comparing it to the Record gruppo and the Ultegra gruppo. It went all together pretty nice and easy. The cable fixing points on the brakes are a little flexible when tightening, so I had to be careful there. Definitely the pinch bolt for the cable is not as solid as the Record pinch bolt.

Comment: Several people have commented on this. The 5mm wrench in this pinch bolt with the amount of play it has makes, it feel like it will just rip out. You do not need to get crazy with the force on this bolt and the 5mm wrench is a bit much for the job. I like the more standard 5mm bolt instead of a small 3mm or the like. Just take it easy when tightening it. I have not seen one rip out yet.

The brakes themselves are very solid and attach to the frame solidly as well. Brakes where easy to adjust and tracked well. The levers are really good. They are all metal and nicely built. The right lever is a little stiff (too stiff at first), but seems to be getting better as the bike "settles in". The right lever was stiff in shifting and the more I look at it the more I think it may be the cable routing. It seems to be getting better with each ride. The right lever needed more push on each of the levers than Record....and definitely more so than Ultegra.

Comment: Veloce and Dayton have a bushing design for the bearing in the shifter. It has been very typical for riders to complain of very stiff feel in the lever at first, but after a 500 miles or so it loosens up and works better. Record and Chorus benefit from a ball bearing design and I was really curious to get rider response on the lower end shifters to see if the new helper springs totally masked the internal bearing performance. It appears that it did not. The newer levers seem to have a better feel, but it is not like having a ball bearing shifter like the Record or Chorus.

I routed both the cables in front of the bars.

Comment: Some riders to not have indented bars for double cable routing or old bars without indents. Campy allows you to route 1 cable on the inner part of the bar or both. If you have a double indented bar you can route one inside and one outside. The choice is yours. I personally take the brakes on the outside which seems to be a little easier bend to make for cable routing.

Cranks are pretty spiffy as well, if not flashy, they seem solid and run well. Also, the chainrings seem to be of a good quality, not coated like Shimano. Shifting is crisp and smooth...I would expect no less at this stage. The chain seems like the record chain also, and is covered in a thick goo coating which makes it very quiet.

I am still undecided about the pedals. I found them a little loose, and tightened the settings, but they still seem the same as before. I will tighten them all the way and see what they are like then. Release is still too light for my liking.

Comment: Most riders have complained of just the opposite. Most people can't get out of them. The supplied cleat is the floating with all new pedals. Some of the racers use a non-floating cleat because it feels loose with the floating cleat.

These pedals are weird. They are not what I expected them to be....but I am slowly getting used to them. They are definitely loose in the cleat, which so far is ok....but there seems to be a bit of up and down movement as well, only when pedaling real hard. When releasing on half tension, it doesn't seem as positive a "click" as with the Look pedals.

Getting into the pedals is definitely harder than the looks. I still have to try with the tension set all the way up and see what this is like.....just need a bit more time on them. I like to feel solid on the pedals, and so far...I just don't feel quiet solid enough on these pedals.

Comment: Look pedals have definitely set the mark for ease of entry and exit with a positive snap. I have not ridden anything as good as Look in that respect. I do not like the sloppy feel of the Look floating cleat. The Campy cleat has some slop to the feel and the plastic coupling to your shoe is much thinner than the Look. I think Campy might do well to beef up the plastic a bit.

Good point

Polished aluminum is much more attractive than a coated aluminum finish on some of the Japanese equipment.

Good positive shifting from the levers and derailleurs. Nothing vague or sloppy.

Nice job on the crank. Nice finish and high quality rings.

Smooth strong braking that is easy to modulate and still have good power.

No plastic in levers (except for body). Compared to Ultegra this is a big bonus....they are solid and really nicely finished. Campy is definitely better in the regard that the whole changing lever is metal, not plastic like the inner lever of Ultegra. The tolerances are closer...Ultegra levers can have a fair bit of slop. There is no annoying plastic cap like on Ultegra levers. Daytona levers are nicely polished....not powder coated. They have a much more solid feel, not rickety etc. I also think the shape is better....I like the flatter shape of Campag levers. The shifting is definitely heavier on Daytona though....not necessarily a bad thing though. Ultegra can feel a bit vague at the lever after a bit of use.

Hubs seem almost exactly the same as chorus.

Comment: They pretty much minus the adjusters on the hub being a Delrin (not aluminum) and the skewers these hubs are Chorus. This is probably the best point of the gruppo.

All parts are good quality, mostly metal components. Not a lot of plastic in critical areas.

Bad points

	Not as solid as Record at fixing points for brakes, brake cables.
	Not quite as easy to tune as Ultegra/Record. IE , you can't just throw it at the frame.
	Bolt for tightening levers to bars is hard to get to....compared to Shimano....it might be just me, but I hate having to bend back the hood so far and then struggle to get the Allen key in.

Comment: I agree. The new levers are a little more of a struggle than the older style. You really need a T-wrench to do this job. The new hoods (since '98 are a little harder to sneak the wrench under and tighten. Shimano is a little easier to hit with a wrench here.

B/B requires special tool.

Comment: Tell Campy we don't like this BB. I am calling for all Campy fans everywhere to write to Campy and tell them we want a real bottom bracket. At least give us the Athena that used a cassette tool.

B/B seems a little flimsy and dry. It spins freely, but I reckon I can feel the bearings tracking. Something to keep an eye on as time goes by.

Comment: I agree. The bottom bracket here is a sealed all in one unit and it does not run like a fine Record or Chorus bottom bracket. You can't upgrade this one with Campy. My suggestion to use an off brand if you plan to have a serviceable bottom bracket that runs smooth for years.

Parts are definitely on the heavier side...especially compared to Ultegra.

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