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Is this Campagnolo's new chainset?

Looks like Campagnolo's new carbon chainset was spotted at the Giro d'Italia

Is this photo sent to us by an eagle-eyed road.cc reader Campagnolo’s latest chainset? That it was spotted on a Europcar Colnago C60, a team sponsored by the Italian component manufacturer, suggests to us that it is, despite the lack of any branding.

Campagnolo only recently released their new Over-Torque chainset, their first with a 30mm axle so it’s no longer necessary to use adapters in the large majority of carbon fibre frames, utilising the press-fit 30 standard. It was readily recognisable as Campagnolo, with the same four arm/five bolt spider design. 

This new chainset appears to use a similar four arm/five bolt spider design, but the critical difference is the much larger spider design. The arms of the spider now extend almost to the edge of the big ring, and it looks like both chainrings bolt into the back of the spider, rather than the spider being sandwiched between the chainrings as with the previous chainset design.

They’ve also repositioned the layout of the spider arms, and it’s clear they’ve taken a leaf out of Shimano’s book, as the spaces between the arms are uneven. Shimano say they adopted this design to retain the efficiency of power transfer while reducing weight, taking into account the positions in the pedalling stroke where most power is applied. It would seem likely Campagnolo are using similar reasons with their design.

We asked Campagnolo about this chainset, here's what Press Manager Joshua Riddle had to say.

"At this point in time I cannot say anything more than to simply state that Campagnolo depends on high level feedback from professional riders before releasing new product. In addition to our extensive in house testing facilities we feel that testing in the most extreme testing ground in the real world is an absolute necessity and the products you have seen are developments in the process of being tested by our top athletes in top races. Their feedback will help us further improve existing product in addition to developing new product."

Thanks to @smythy75 for sending us the photo. 

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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11 comments

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Lungsofa74yearold | 9 years ago
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Nick - its 2007 Centaur (i think) which was UT. Bearings rusty as anything after 1 or 2 damp (not soaking) rides only. Quick look on line showed I wasn't alone - lots of unhappy campers. As I say, its a shame as I think they are great cranks apart from that.

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matthewn5 | 9 years ago
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Well I think that's ugly, compared to the current carbon cranks. Too much carbon and too thick. The old one was so elegant.
Sigh.

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Nick T | 9 years ago
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What's wrong with the seals on your Centaur? Never had any problems with any of my UT cranks, with either BSA or seal-free press fit cups. Is that old or new Centaur you've got - the new one isn't UT anymore.

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Lungsofa74yearold | 9 years ago
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Very nice - personally I like the 4 arm design that Shimano and FSA are also using (though I'm probably on the minority here). But I do hope they spend some time sorting the seals on the UT BBs - its shockingly bad on my Centaur chainset. So bad in fact that I recently passed on a bargain carbon one on Merlin. Shame because otherwise they are great bits of kit.

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glynr36 | 9 years ago
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Nothing on the rest of the gruppo too?
Saw other stuff online showing 'new' mechs as well.

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David Arthur @d... replied to glynr36 | 9 years ago
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glynr36 wrote:

Nothing on the rest of the gruppo too?
Saw other stuff online showing 'new' mechs as well.

Unfortunately we weren't at the Giro, so we weren't able to get a closer look ourselves. This photo was sent to us by a road.cc reader though, which is how we're able to report this story, and which is why we can only speculate so much

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glynr36 replied to David Arthur @davearthur | 9 years ago
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David Arthur wrote:
glynr36 wrote:

Nothing on the rest of the gruppo too?
Saw other stuff online showing 'new' mechs as well.

Unfortunately we weren't at the Giro, so we weren't able to get a closer look ourselves. This photo was sent to us by a road.cc reader though, which is how we're able to report this story, and which is why we can only speculate so much

Fair enough!

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Nick T | 9 years ago
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Interesting that it's mechanical rather than EPS. Looks like they've dropped the 5th bolt on the crank arm too.

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Nick T | 9 years ago
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And

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Nick T | 9 years ago
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How bout that.

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Scoob_84 | 9 years ago
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i don't quite get the non uniform spider arm configuration that this and the upmarket shimanos go for. The arm configuration is different in relation to supporting the chain ring when either foot is on the down stroke which i presume is the bit when you lay down most of your power.

This leads me to think its a gimmick, but then why would campag follow suit  39

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