After Tullio died (and actually a little before), Valentino wanted to start competing directly with the Shimano threat. Good or bad, that's what he's done ever since that time. That's one of the reasons we revere the stuff from Tullio's era: he competed with no one except his own standards! Of course, that also made him a bit stubborn (read: headsets, crankarms) in updating designs sometimes, but that just adds to the mystique and rarity of some of the parts. He was the Enzo Ferrari of bikedom.
Greg "Super Record still rules" Parker
-------------Forwarded Message-----------------
From: INTERNET:Wornoutguy@aol.com, INTERNET:Wornoutguy@aol.com To: , INTERNET:classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Date: 3/27/2001 7:54 PM
RE: [CR]Re: Classicrendezvous digest, Vol 1 #425 - 16 msgs
To Tom Dalton the reason Shimano did not sue over ramped cogs is that the Patent had expired - the cogs are a copy of Shimano. Campagnolo did have to play catch up to the Japanese and yes the Japanese are great engineers - I hate to say it but Record and Chorus are beautiful but the lower grade stuff can be junk - You all exist to discuss the classic bike - Campagnolo (at least in my opinion) always made a quality product until the introduction of Ergo and the competition from Shimano. It is good and bad if they were not trying to compete they might have gone away then what would we have. Sam in Ca