Free Cyclopedia by William Fotheringham

high-end equipment was moving to the Far East.
    By the 1980s the most radical road developments no longer came from Campagnolo. Shimano raced ahead, first with indexed shifting, in which the derailleur clicked into predetermined positions so that shifting was no long a matter of guesswork; that in turn led to gear changers that were integrated into brake levers, the Shimano STI. Clipless pedals were produced by the French companies Look and Time, while Shimano and SunTour dominated the mountain-bike
market. It took several years for the Italian company to catch up, and in the meantime it brought out abortive products such as various unwieldy mountain-bike groupsets, the bizarre Delta parallelogram brakes, and heavy clipless pedals.

    Campagnolo Time Line
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    1930 —
Tullio Campagnolo patents quick release hub.
1933 —
Campagnolo srl founded, first derailleur patented.
1943 —
Campagnolo logo featuring winged wheel appears for first time.
1948 —
Gino Bartali wins Tour de France using a cambio corsa derailleur.
1949 —
Parallelogram Gran Sport derailleur appears at Milan trade show; the definitive design appears in 1951.
1953 —
Fausto Coppi wins world championship using Gran Sport derailleur. Range now includes four rear derailleurs and two front, bar-end and down-tube shifters, hubs, dropouts, and various tools.
1958 —
Record name appears on five-pin cotterless crankset and hubs; soon features on track and road component groups. The range expands through the 1960s.
1966—
Self-centring wine bottle opener patented.
1974 —
Super Record road and track groups appear, with titanium beginning to feature.
1980 —
Tullio Campagnolo oversees his last project, the Campagnolo freewheel.
1982 —
Range now includes Super Record, Nuovo Record, and Gran Sport, plus BMX componentry and promotional items including corkscrew and nutcracker.
1984—
Seven-speed freewheel introduced.
1987 —
Last year Super Record produced until 2008.
1989 —
Mountain-bike groupset appears.
1992 —
Ergopower handlebar shifters introduced.
1994 —
Campagnolo leaves mountain-bike business.
1997 —
Nine-speed shifting brought in.
2000 —
Ten-speed shifting appears.
2004 —
Compact drivetrain brought in, featuring small chainrings, for cyclosportive events.
2008 —
Top-end groupsets now feature 11 sprockets.

    Campagnolo was revitalized in the early 1990s by the invention of the Ergopower handlebar/ brake lever gear changers that took Shimano head-on. The rise of CYCLOSPORTIVE events in that decade also put the focus back on the road; in 1994 Campagnolo abandoned mountain-biking. Since then it has not attempted to take on Shimano in a straight fight, but has carved out its own niche, pushing road racing technology forward with the extensive use of carbon fiber, a move to 11-speed gearing, and compact gearing, which enables very low gears to be used in sportive events.
    Campagnolo initiated the move to factory-built wheels with its groundbreaking Shamal although it appears to have fallen behind Shimano on electric gear-shifting. Its core value, however, remains its relationship with professional cyclists; one company insider estimated that 50 had been consulted before new 11-speed Ergopower changers were produced in 2008.

    CAMPIONISSIMO Italian term meaning champion of champions, coined in 1919 when Costante Girardengo won the GIRO D’ITALIA, taking 7 stages out of 10. The runner-up commented, “I’ll never be a campionissimo but the names of a few pretty girls are etched on my heart.” The second campionissimo was ALFREDO BINDA—five times a Giro winner, with a record 12 stages in 1927—but most often the term is used to refer to FAUSTO COPPI, although Italians would also use it when talking about EDDY MERCKX.

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