Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt)
Subject: Re: Does Campy make their own rims?
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 21:50:57 GMT
Lines: 51

Mike Taffe writes:

>> I'm sure they have no aluminum extrusion facility and probably no roll
>> forming plant either because that isn't the way to produce things. 
>> [...]
>> Of course that doesn't answer your question, because I don't know.

> "I'm sure" and "I don't know".  For someone who tenaciously and unfailingly
> flames others for passing off WAGing as factual answers, you surprise me
> Jobst.

Why?  I told you what I know and what I don't.  The way you edited it,
it may seem that these statements appeared in contrast to one another.
They didn't.

> You could at least have gone on the commonly available evidence by
> referencing VeloSnooze's article (maybe a year or two ago) covering
> what they portray as Campy's rim factory.  In that article as well
> as subsequent reviews of rims, VN gives the definite impression that
> Campy manufacturers its own rims.

Well that's even less info than I gave because it left a "definite
impression" what ever that is.  If they said what was in fact made
where you could tell us about it, but you can't.

> I'm not saying VN is giving us the full story about Campy corporate
> structure but at least is is better evidence than "Campy must farm
> out work because HP (or are you talking about Avocet?) does."

Who's talking about "corporate structure" (nice jargon) here?  I am
talking about companies that are making money.  You get parts and
assemblies from people who specialize in such products and don't try 
to make the entire product in-house.

I think what is far more interesting is that Campagnolo doesn't seem
to have any engineers with the vision of the 1960's today as they
wallow around in many component groups (called groupsets in their
catalog) that seem to be a scatter gun approach with no specific
market in mind.  Among their many rim models, there are even solid
cross section heavy clincher rims.  This huge pallet of models comes
in five different finishes.  That makes hundreds of rim types when
you include the various spoke number combinations listed.

They scrapped their flagship Delta brake as if it never existed.  This
brake was so obviously a disaster that any beginning engineer should
have pulled the plug on it, yet they pushed it on pro teams that must
have had many crashes before no one would ride the thing.  That's
pretty rude for Tulio to see from the grave.  That was not the way
things were in his day.

Jobst Brandt      <jbrandt@hpl.hp.com>