Why so few stock Campagnolo bikes?

People keep talking about a shortage of Shimano parts for new bikes
coming out, but I still don't understand why none of the big companies
(Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) don't carry at least one model that
has Campagnolo as an alternative. I'm not trying to start a Shimano
vs. Campagnolo debate (I have a mix of both on my bike and think they
both make fine components), but I have to wonder if the big bike
companies have special "exclusive" contracts or something with Shimano.
Offering one or two bikes with Campagnolo components would be a good
thing and way to distinguish themselves from the crowd of Shimano bikes
that are more or less the same bike with different paint jobs and
logos.

Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?


--
sfcommuter

On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 02:35:45 +1000, sfcommuter
wrote:


People keep talking about a shortage of Shimano parts for new bikes
coming out, but I still don't understand why none of the big companies
(Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) don't carry at least one model that
has Campagnolo as an alternative. I'm not trying to start a Shimano
vs. Campagnolo debate (I have a mix of both on my bike and think they
both make fine components), but I have to wonder if the big bike
companies have special "exclusive" contracts or something with Shimano.
Offering one or two bikes with Campagnolo components would be a good
thing and way to distinguish themselves from the crowd of Shimano bikes
that are more or less the same bike with different paint jobs and
logos.

Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?

Dear Near-Silicon-Valley,

There may be an economic parallel to a certain industry in
which a roughly similar proportion of stock machines do not
come with Apple hardware.

Carl Fogel

wrote:
On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 02:35:45 +1000, sfcommuter
wrote:


People keep talking about a shortage of Shimano parts for new bikes
coming out, but I still don't understand why none of the big companies
(Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) don't carry at least one model that
has Campagnolo as an alternative. I'm not trying to start a Shimano
vs. Campagnolo debate (I have a mix of both on my bike and think they
both make fine components), but I have to wonder if the big bike
companies have special "exclusive" contracts or something with Shimano.
Offering one or two bikes with Campagnolo components would be a good
thing and way to distinguish themselves from the crowd of Shimano bikes
that are more or less the same bike with different paint jobs and
logos.

Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?


Dear Near-Silicon-Valley,

There may be an economic parallel to a certain industry in
which a roughly similar proportion of stock machines do not
come with Apple hardware.

Campy parts are about the same price as Shimano (at least for retail)
unlike with Apple kit

So I speculate that the lack of Campy equipped bikes might be related to
how easy - or not - Campagnolo are to do business with.

Any of our bike shop people know if this is the case?

Pete

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:07:34 GMT, Ningi
wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 7 Aug 2004 02:35:45 +1000, sfcommuter
wrote:


People keep talking about a shortage of Shimano parts for new bikes
coming out, but I still don't understand why none of the big companies
(Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) don't carry at least one model that
has Campagnolo as an alternative. I'm not trying to start a Shimano
vs. Campagnolo debate (I have a mix of both on my bike and think they
both make fine components), but I have to wonder if the big bike
companies have special "exclusive" contracts or something with Shimano.
Offering one or two bikes with Campagnolo components would be a good
thing and way to distinguish themselves from the crowd of Shimano bikes
that are more or less the same bike with different paint jobs and
logos.

Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?


Dear Near-Silicon-Valley,

There may be an economic parallel to a certain industry in
which a roughly similar proportion of stock machines do not
come with Apple hardware.

Campy parts are about the same price as Shimano (at least for retail)
unlike with Apple kit

So I speculate that the lack of Campy equipped bikes might be related to
how easy - or not - Campagnolo are to do business with.

Any of our bike shop people know if this is the case?

Pete

Dear Pete,

I scarcely ever buy either brand, so I flipped open a
Nashbar mid-summer catalogue #194 to see what things cost.
The first thing that I saw was the road brakes section on
page 71.

The Shimano calipers run from $40 to $126.

The Campagnolo calipers run from $82 to $170.

There seems to be a considerable price difference.

Carl Fogel

sfcommuter wrote:

Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?

IANA Bike Industry Guy, but consider this:

Campagnolo 2000 annual revenue: 88,000,000 Euro
(http://www.campagnolo.com/company.php).

Let's take that as a rough equivalent of dollars given the exchange rate
at the time. At current exchange rates that would work out to about
$105,000,000 or so, if you like.

Shimano 2003 annual revenue from bike components: $991,525,000
(http://tinyurl.com/4gqtt)

Strictly on a revenue basis, Shimano is about 100 times the size of
Campy. If you look at production (ie, how many brake calipers did each
company produce) the disparity is probably even greater. "Shortage" is a
relative term - even if shimano can't supply the xx,000 units you want,
that doesn't mean Campy could do any better.

Shimano offers more product lines at a broader range of price points and
has vastly greater production capacity than Campy. Shimano produces
parts in locations where a lot of bicycles are produced, or at least are
much closer to Taiwan than is Vicenza. In general, Shimano components
work well and cost less than their European counterparts. If I were a
bicycle product manager at a high-volume company such as Giant, Trek or
Specialized, all of those factors weigh pretty heavily in my decisions.
I'd probably have a Shimano rep's number on my speed dial. If I only had
to hang parts on a few hundred high-end frames a year, for customers
that had very high standards for both form and function, I'd probably
order Campy through a distributor.

I view Campagnolo as fairly similar in attitude to their automotive
compatriots at Ferrari. Ferrari isn't interested in putting a cavallino
in every garage. They're interested in winning races and building road
cars that incorporate racing technology and have tremendous sex appeal.
So what if they cost six figures and we only sell several hundred every
year? They're "the best" and there's always a market for that. Campy
occupies that same niche in the bicycle world.

JLS
--
James "Easily distracted by shiny objects" Scott
www.jls.cx

James Scott wrote:

Strictly on a revenue basis, Shimano is about 100 times

That should be ten times, of course.

--
James "no excuses" Scott
www.jls.cx

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 11:19:54 -0600, carlfogel wrote:
Snips a load about not many campy equipped bikes.
On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:07:34 GMT, Ningi
wrote:

Campy parts are about the same price as Shimano (at least for retail)
unlike with Apple kit

The Shimano calipers run from $40 to $126.
The Campagnolo calipers run from $82 to $170.
There seems to be a considerable price difference.

I've not bought any new kit for 2 years now, but brake calipers are the
only Shimano parts on my bike now, as the Campy calipers were so expensive.
Otherwise, for most of the other parts, Campy was equal or maybe cheaper
than equivalent Shimano parts the last time I upgraded, here in the UK.USA
prices may be different - Italian sourced Campy parts are more expensive
than UK sourced parts.
Alan.

--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.
http://www.dvatc.co.uk - Off-road cycling in the North Midlands.

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 19:03:07 +0100, "A.Lee"
wrote:

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 11:19:54 -0600, carlfogel wrote:
Snips a load about not many campy equipped bikes.
On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:07:34 GMT, Ningi
wrote:

Campy parts are about the same price as Shimano (at least for retail)
unlike with Apple kit

The Shimano calipers run from $40 to $126.
The Campagnolo calipers run from $82 to $170.
There seems to be a considerable price difference.

I've not bought any new kit for 2 years now, but brake calipers are the
only Shimano parts on my bike now, as the Campy calipers were so expensive.
Otherwise, for most of the other parts, Campy was equal or maybe cheaper
than equivalent Shimano parts the last time I upgraded, here in the UK.USA
prices may be different - Italian sourced Campy parts are more expensive
than UK sourced parts.
Alan.

Dear Alan,

Given the interest, it's time to go back to the same
catalogue and research some more. Let's see . . .

road brake calipers
Shimano: $40 to $126
Campagnolo: $82 to $170

road brake/shifters
Shimano: $110 to $431
Campagolo: $145 to $270

road front derailleurs
Shimano: $13 to $93
Campagnolo: $40 to $85

road rear derailleurs
Shimano: $20 to $115
Campagnolo: $60 to $180

road cranksets
Shimano: $50 to $410
Campagnolo: $110 to $190

road bottom brackets:
Shimano:$25 to $40
Campagnolo: $20 to $60

Of course, these are raw figures with no adjustment for what
can be mixed and matched, nor for claims of quality.

But the Shimano cheapest-parts total is $258.

The Campagnolo cheapest-total is $457, about twice as much.

There's more to it than that, but I think that economists
would find these differences significant.

Carl Fogel

In article ,
says...

People keep talking about a shortage of Shimano parts for new bikes
coming out, but I still don't understand why none of the big companies
(Trek, Specialized, Giant, etc.) don't carry at least one model that
has Campagnolo as an alternative. I'm not trying to start a Shimano
vs. Campagnolo debate (I have a mix of both on my bike and think they
both make fine components), but I have to wonder if the big bike
companies have special "exclusive" contracts or something with Shimano.
Offering one or two bikes with Campagnolo components would be a good
thing and way to distinguish themselves from the crowd of Shimano bikes
that are more or less the same bike with different paint jobs and
logos.
Anyone in the bike industry know why 98% of all stock bikes are
Shimano?

Shimano probably discounts their components more than Campagnolo. So
it is cheaper to build with Shimano.
------------
Alex

wrote:
road brake/shifters
Shimano: $110 to $431
Campagolo: $145 to $270

Maybe Nashbar doesn't even offer the cheapest Campa component groups? Which ergos
cost $145? The cheapest would be Xenon, which costs about 60 euros (~$75) in Europe.
That's way cheaper than the Sora STI's.

Juho