Campagnolo Centaur Red and Black Groupset??

[Sean Michael1]

Fantastic looking bike Mike! Very well done and done in time for the new year! To say I don't have bike envy would be a terrific lie. I am trying to build up my bike piece by piece aswell and it is not nearly as easy as I first assumed so I take my hat off to you sir!

[Mike the bike]

That will be the day when my lady throws me favours. But you are right Greg, it's set up for the more mature rider, whose bones don't flex as they once did and whose sinews are calcifying rapidly. Most of my rides on this bike will be between 70 and 100+ miles and I want to get home without an aching back. As they say in the army, any fool can be uncomfortable.

[Dave Binks]

Well I just dropped off the bike this morning to the shop and the fella in there said it just wouldn't work with the wheel I have unless I buy a different chain than a Campagnolo chain. I would prefer to have the whole groupset including the chain so I guess new wheels are needed. I was planning on new wheels at some point anyway so this is just the motivation I need to actually get some

Make of chain is totally irrelevant. Only the correct number of speeds is important.
I have ridden every combination of chain make (Campag, Shimano, Sram, Wipperman, KMC etc, etc) with both Shimano and Campag gears and they all work fine.

[Dave Binks]

Haha, oh how I do sympathise with your current plight Mike. But the way you describe the crankset sounds very appetising. I'm definately looking forward to hearing how the rest of the set looks and rides.

And thank you Martin, I'm reasonably new to riding a road bike and there is a lot of details that I find can be pretty confusing. But as long as I know that going with the Camp red and black centaur kit will be a good buy thats all I need. And the cassette is 8 speed, 11-23 (I think) Shimano at the moment. Came with the bike. I definately think I need to go up to 10 on the cassette anyway for longer journeys.

Why?
Many people, including me, do much of our riding on a single fixed.
You can only ride one gear at a time, more gears simply either reduces the gap between the ratios (which is only useful if you are racing to the limit - unlikely in your case) or allows a wider range, but if you already have a fairly wide range all you will do is waste your money.