Veloce: First Look

Road Tester Justin Dodd 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 . . .

All right ladies and gentlemen, I just received the Veloce gruppo about 2 weeks ago and I would like to share my initial impressions with all of you. Take in mind that I have not put enough miles on the parts to give a proper review, so don't take this information too seriously.

When I opened the packages up all the parts seemed to be well built and there was nothing cheap looking. Tim Laflin built up a great pair of wheels, built with Mavic Open Pro rims. The front wheel spun in smooth Campy fashion with no drag. However, all was not the same with the rear hub. The bearings felt smooth but there was definitely some drag present. I found this a little odd but I didn't give it any further thought (I'll get back to it in a few minutes though). If you purchase this gruppo don't expect it to have the refined look of Chorus or Record parts. The Veloce gruppo looks just fine thank you, but remember, that Record gruppo may be a work of art, but you have to pay a price for all the trim and polish.

Putting the bike together was a fairly simple matter with a few exceptions. The bottom bracket required a special tool, which needless to say, I didn't have. Hmm. . . what to do, what to do. Well I just decided to use my regular tools and suffer the consequences. It worked out OK and I managed to get to bottom bracket tight enough but I think its probably smarter to just give in and get the proper tool or get the LBS to put it in.

Comment: Campy took the Veloce bottom bracket and kept it for 2000 for Veloce and Daytona. I hate it and it would be a simple mater to have used the old Athena bottom bracket that uses a cassette tool instead of this stupid design. Campy should either use the standard BB wrench or go back to the Athena! I think that this design is unnecessary because it offers no advantages and just creates hassles because a unique tool is required. However I have to say that despite this drawback, the bottom bracket seems to have a lot less drag then the ones that Shimano makes. The other problem I had was with the cable system. For some reason I could only fit the supplied ferrules on the derailleur housing. Instead of wasting time trying to force the ferrules on to the brake housing, I just decided to use my old ferrules. This really isn't a big deal and it could very well be incompetence on my part, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

Comment: This is causing a lot of builders some confusion. Campy is only including ferrules for shift cables and forget the brake cables. If you like the show you can add ferrules on the frame stops, but the brake adjusters are a little tight depending on the ferrules you use. You will of course not need them at the Ergo lever, because it is not visible and if you get a fat ferrule it might prevent the cable from full insertion into the lever or get stuck down the road.

After putting in a few rides I have come up with the following:

The bad (I'll get it over with first so I can start raving about how good the gruppo is):

	On the first few rides the shifting took too much effort because the shift levers were very stiff. However after this small time period, the shifting began to feel perfect.
	The chain is not as smooth or as quiet as I am used to. The shifting is very crisp and accurate, but it lacks the smoothness that Shimano seems to have. If this is the price of durability, I gladly take it, but I believe that Campy offers a smoother, quieter chain on the higher gruppos that is just as durable.
	Remember when I mentioned that the rear hub seemed to have some drag? Well Tim informed me that the rear hub no longer uses the cup and cone design. It seems that the hub is sealed and not user serviceable. While the hub has not given me any problems at all, I am a big fan of loose bearing hubs because 5 years down the line you can just replace any worn parts and put the hub on that cross or commuter bike you scraped together from old parts. Maybe the hub will be bombproof, but I keep thinking that if it was really that good, it would be showing up on the higher gruppos. Time will tell, I guess.

The good:

	I was very impressed by the new ergo power design. I loved the shape of my old Chorus levers, but the new shape is 100 percent better. The hoods are slimmer and more comfortable and it is much easier to reach the shifters.
	The brakes worked very well and had a consistent feel and the perfect amount of power.
	Unlike Shimano, the Veloce 9 speed components don't feel like they're going to fail when you go powering up a hill. They somehow managed to keep the solid feel of the old 8-speed stuff while adding the extra cog.
	As far as the pedals go, I haven't had a chance to use them. I have to wait till Christmas for some road shoes. Until then I'm stuck with SPD, but I'll let everyone know what I think of the pedals in my next review.
	After the shifting loosened up, everything has been absolutely flawless so far. The parts work so well that I seem to forget about them and just enjoy the ride. I got stuck in some nasty weather the other day and despite all the grime on the drivetrain, the performance never suffered. So far I am very impressed.

Winter break is coming up and now that I have somehow managed to lose the girl of my dreams, I have plenty of time to get in some serious miles and release some of my frustration. -Sorry but I just had to get that off my chest, I hope everyone understands- Anyway, I'll make the assumption that the Y2K bug will not destroy the Internet or civilization, so you can expect an update as soon as I get a sufficient amount of miles on the bike.

Email Justin with your questions and comments

Read Justin's Second Installment