is centaur the same level as ultegra

wilmar13 said:

105 blows... Ultegra is the lowest component group that isn't heavy as hell and designed for fat guys on touring bikes... campy is only for racers 😄

Let's see... I have a riding partner with a 105 equipped LeMond, while I built up a Trek frame with Campy Chorus. He pretty much wipes me out on rides. If 105 blows, it's blowing him to faster speeds...

cydewaze said:

I found another pic, though you can't see the bike very well.

best. post. ever.

JohnO said:

Let's see... I have a riding partner with a 105 equipped LeMond, while I built up a Trek frame with Campy Chorus. He pretty much wipes me out on rides. If 105 blows, it's blowing him to faster speeds...

el Inglés said:

................ bollocks .....

Sarcasm is wasted on some people for sure... 🙄

Once you get into 105/Daytona level components there is little difference in terms of performance and reliability as you upgrade. Duh!

JohnO said:

Let's see... I have a riding partner with a 105 equipped LeMond, while I built up a Trek frame with Campy Chorus. He pretty much wipes me out on rides. If 105 blows, it's blowing him to faster speeds...

Haven't you heard about the motor?

It's too bad that some of you have bought into the marketing hype, as well as the original poster's LBS not knowing WTF they're talking about. It's not as simple as "Record=DA, Chorus=Ult", etc.

I am no expert on Campy but I do know this:

Centaur is a least the equivalent, if not better than, Ult. Some 2nd-tier pro/Cat. 1 teams that use Campy use Centaur on their training bikes, because it works just as reliably and well as Record but doesn't have all of the fancy bits, and costs a lot less.

Shimano has recently raised its prices considerably on the DA & Ult 10 line, to try to make those groups the equal of Campy's 2 top groups in the mind of the average cyclist. However, Record is almost at a level of its own, because that's usually the group where Campy does their cutting-edge innovations, which eventually trickles down to Chorus and Centaur.

There isn't much of a difference between Record/Chorus and Centaur. Mainly, the differences are:

1. The bearings in the Rec/Cho shifters, where the Cent has bushings, making the Rec/Cho levers a bit easier to shift. But once the Cent levers get broken in, there is very little difference in the feel.

2. Rec/Cho has slightly different pulley wheels on the rear derailleur than Cent, which supposedly makes it a bit "quieter".

3. Cent's brake calipers since about '03 are the same as what the Record calipers were back in '00, when Rec 10 first came onto the scene. But now the rear caliper on Rec/Cho are the "Differential" units, which is basically just a bit lighter weight caliper because it's single-pivot instead of dual-pivot.

4. Another example is the current Cent front & rear derailleurs. They're the same as the older Rec/Cho derailleurs.

5. Cent cassettes have pinned Al spacers holding the 2 largest cogs together, (eg: 25-23) where Cho has pinned Ti spacers for the 2 largest pairs of cogs (eg: 25-23 & 21-19). Rec cassettes are the same as Cho on the pinned spacers, but have either the largest 4 cogs made of Ti, or all cogs of Ti. Otherwise, the steel cogs for ALL Campy cassettes are exactly the same, made of the same steel, same ramping/machining, etc. Even Veloce and lower cogsets are identical, except they have no pinned spacers on the largest cogs, but have separate spacers between all cogs.

6. Record has some carbon and Ti bits that Chorus doesn't. Otherwise, Chorus is identical (except as noted on cassettes).

7. There are a few differences in the cranksets, hubs, BBs, headsets, pedals, but mainly just weight from the use of steel, Al, Ti, or CF. Functionally, except for Cent's 111mm. BB spindle compared to Rec/Cho 102mm. spindle, the 3 groups are the same. For example, Cent hubs have basically the same guts as Rec/Cho, but Rec hubs are only about 16gm. lighter than Cent, due to Rec's use of Ti pawl carriers and Cent's steel pawls. And Cent Al cranksets (strangely enough) are actually a bit lighter than Cho Al cranksets.

So I would (very roughly) rank Campy and Shimano groups thus:

Veloce = 105; Centaur = Ult; Chorus = DA; Record in some ways slightly above DA.

I have avoided making this statement, because it has little to do with the topic directly, but much to do with it indirectly. Although niether Shim or Campy are polar opposites in this respect, but in general: Campy focuses more on margin, and Shimano focuses on volume for their respective business models. It is one more thing that makes direct comparisons difficult at best.