Bisogno cambiá qualcossa de drio!

"Something must change in the rear!"

I beg your pardon!
No, I am not talking about your rear. If you have problems in that department you are not riding enough. Ride more or go see Dr. 90210.

These words were muttered by Tullio Campagnolo during a snowy bike race in Italy in 1927, and changed cycling technology forever. At that time racers could only change gears by removing the rear wheel and flipping it around to use the cog on the other side. This cumbersome process was made worse by the fact that the rear wheel was held on by screwing down two large wingnuts to hold the wheel in the frame. If the wingnuts got frozen in place by something like snow you couldn't change gears or fix a flat tire. Tullio got fed up and developed the first quick release lever. Great you say, but the gear change is still a real kludge. Tullio got fed up with that too and developed the first derailleur. These two ideas are arguably some of the most important in modern bicycle design.

For a complete history of Tullio Campagnolo surf on over to campyonly.com, and find the links to Campy history. They also have a great timeline and catalog archive. This site has more info than you can shake a stick at, and is a must read for the Campagnolo aficionado.

For an excellent resource for NOS Campy bits & pieces be sure to check out campyoldy.com. Need rubber friction shifter hoods, CROCE d'AUNE Delta brakes, or record titanium cassettes? - campyoldy.com is the place for you my friend. Be sure to check out the repro Gios with super record - that bike was every cyclists wet dream back in the day.

For the latest shiz direct from the source, visit the shrine campagnolo.com.

Ciao!

A Giant Sucking Sound

Do you hear that? Ross Perot was wrong. That giant sucking sound you are hearing is not the sound of jobs going to Mexico, it is the sound of U.S. cycling interest being sucked into some giant, frigid, black hole in deep space, now that Lance (like Madonna or Prince you don't even need to specify a last name anymore) has retired. More power to ya' my brother! After killing myself on a bike for 14 years, I would want to plant my ass on a beach and drink some beers for a while too. I hope that the interest in cycling that Lance Armstrong helped generate among the U.S. public stays high, but I have my doubts. His against all odds story and his absolute supremacy in le Tour commanded respect, but there are other interesting cyclists to follow folks. OLN has already started planning on scaling back coverage now that it is just a bunch of fer'ners in tight biker pants. Now that they don't have "the story", it's back to huntin' & killin' shows full time...yee haw!