Your Campy Only webmaster occasionally tries out the latest from Italy--here are the results of our personal test of the new Record hubs and Campy's Montreal rims.  Since our tech expert Tim Laflin has done an excellent job summing up the technical attributes of Campagnolo's latest hubset, we'll focus here on some of the more aesthetic and esoteric aspects . . .

Updated May 23, 2000: Rear Rim Problems

The Hubs

Straight out of the box, Campy's new hubs are quite striking.  Their anodized finish certainly sets them apart from the hubs of old.  There's no need to worry about polishing these guys, but they also lack that highly polished shine that many of us have come to expect from Campy.  However, given that many of Campy's new wheels come with a (yuck) black finish, we should be thankful that the Record hubs are at least aluminum colored.  (Note:  Tech editor Tim Laflin reports that he sent a pair of Record hubs to a polishing shop to get a mirror shine put on them.  They came back shiny, but less so than the hubs of old; he theorizes that the new alloy Campy is using doesn't take a shine very well.)

A couple of nit-picky items:  First, the Record hubs continue the tradition of providing oil holes in the middle of the hb body (and on the freehub).  That's fine, but Campy is still using last year's spring clip to cover the hole in the hub.  Because this year's hubs have a larger diameter cross section, those little clips are barely holding on--they just make it around the hub.  Ours haven't fallen off, but perhaps they'll make clips to actually fit the new hubs next year.

Second, the adjusting collar on the rear hub is proudly anodized with "Campagnolo Record."  Great for the guy behind you to look at.  But the front hub's adjusting ring, inexplicably, does not bear the Campy name.  That nags me, especially since the rings appear to be the same part on the front and rear.

The Rims

We chose the Montreal rims for their apparent combination of strength and semi-aero profile, seeking to build up a set of rims strong enough to train on, yet light enough to use in ultramarathon events.

Like the Record hubs, the Montreal rims have a clear anodized finish.  That took a little getting used to--for years, I've been riding on dark anodized rims, and the Montreal rims looked to me a little like whitewall tires at first.  I've gotten used to it, but they are much flashier (?) than most rims.

Now for the nitpicking:  The machined braking surface on the rims is great, but it has two drawbacks.  First, it wears down your brake pads much faster than Campy's HPB finish.  Second, the machined area is about 2-3mm shorter than the contact area on the brake pads.  Even if you adjust the pads to hit as close to the tire as possible, the bottom of the brake pad is hanging out.  Combine that with the rapid wear noted above, and you now have a small section of unworn brake pad that's slowly moving toward the rims.  I had to take a light file to mine after about a month of use to remove the excess material before it started marring the non-machined part of the rim.  

This may or may not be important to you, but be warned that these rims are tough to clean.  The anodized surface (not the braking surface) is fairly rough, and if grease or bits of cast-off White Lighting get on the rims, they're a pain in the a** to get clean.  No big deal, but it bugs me, since I like to ride a clean machine.

Finally, the rims--despite what you'll see in Campy's catalog or on their web site--have a single eyelet design.  That means that the reinforcing eyelet is anchored only in the very bottom of the rim, rather than extending to the inner surface.  The "double eyelet" system shown for this rim has been used for years; the theory is that spreading the load from the spokes to the inside of the rim makes it stronger.  It also makes the eyelets bigger and heavier, and perhaps that's what Campy was trying to avoid.  See our May 23 update--we are having eyelet problems!

The Wheels

We took the rims and hubs to a LBS in Sacramento for building.

Since the goal was to build a strong but light set of wheels with more emphasis on strength and durability, we made only a few concessions.  The front wheel has 28 spokes, compared to 32 in the rear, where more strength is needed (I weigh about 175 during the cycling season).  I went with a standard 3-cross spoking pattern, but used DT Revolution spokes in the front and standard DT double-butted in the rear.  The front wheel uses alloy nipples; in the rear, the nipples are brass for greater strength.  All in all, the wheels weigh about the same as a set of Mavic Heliums, but they cost less (about $400 retail, including wheelbuilding) and more durable and easily serviced.

As far as performance goes, I can honestly say that they compare very well to my Proton wheels.  Despite the very normal spoking pattern, they feel as light and lively, and climb just as well--and they appear to be much more reliable (we've had several problems in the past with Protons breaking spokes in the rear wheel, although our latest wheel has been trouble-free).  I think this year, I'll be taking the Record wheels on my long distance events to see how they perform.

May 23, 2000 Update -- In keeping with our policy of full disclosure, we must report an apparent problem with our rear wheel.  The bike was up on the stand for a serious cleaning, and in wiping down the rear rim, we noticed that every single cassette-side spoke eyelet had developed a pair of hairline cracks.  The cracks run in the direction of the plane of the rim, and extend about 2-3 mm on either side of each eyelet.  We are advised that this is most likely due to the wheel being too tightly built--it could be that the spokes are simply pulling the eyelets out of the rim.  We'll be getting a new rim from Branford Bike soon and trying with a new wheel build. In the meantime, we would advise paying close attention to spoke tension on drive-side rear wheel spokes.