Galen Poole wrote: "Now we have a choice of Shimano or Campagnolo, and not all the catalogs even bother to carry Campagnolo. No wonder they sell so many shirts and shorts. Sic transit gloriam mundi."
I was talking to the owner of an old local bike shop. He believes a major reason for shimano's dominance is campagnolo's unwillingness to deal with smaller distributers or individual bike shops that want to try their hand at distributing locally. He said back in the 70's you could easily place a $1000.00 order with campagnolo directly, not chump change back then but still managable for a good number of shops. Today he says campagnolo won't even pick up their phone unless you have at least $50,000.00 to spend. So, of course you have to go through a distributor now, of which there aren't enough to offer alot of competition, which means prices are high and that keeps campagnolo out of alot shops. Just figured I'd pass along these thoughts.
marc garcia
chicago IL