Yes, Campy’s new ultra-premium Super Record electronic groupset is new totally wireless – Campagnolo Super Record Wireless. And those thumb shift levers are gone. But equally big news may be the fact that Campy has gone the sub-compact route of SRAM and paired smaller chainrings to a smaller 10T cog out back, for what claims to be improved gear ratio steps with bigger range.
A whole lot has changed besides the very obvious lack of wires. Let’s dig into the details…
For decades Campagnolo has been first to market among the big drivetrain behemoths at many road groupset milestones – like 1st 10sp, 11sp & 12sp groupsets… plus 1st 13-speed if we want to include gravel and ignore Rotor. They even went back and forth with Shimano, then Campy, then SRAM for electrifying 10, 11 & 12sp. But like their delayed adoption of road disc brakes, wireless has been a long-time coming.
Interestingly enough, we pretty much had a drawing of this new Super Record Wireless derailleur on our homepage more than a year ago, as Campagnolo was hyped on Ekar success and the wireless next-gen of their road racing groupset was a hot topic in the rumor mill. We’ve been speculating about this gruppo for three years now, based on our patent patrol finds.
Now, we’ve got our fingers crossed that it will be as solid a performance as that late disc braking!
What’s New?
First off, it’s completely wireless. Replaceable batteries in each shifter, different rechargeable batteries in each derailleur that can be charged on or off the bike.
There are also all-new 2-button fingertip shift controls, wider grip ergonomics, smaller compact crankset gearing that takes advantage of smaller cogs on their N3W freehub, new smaller 12-speed cassettes with 10T smallest cogs, a power meter-ready carbon crankset option, and even some upgraded brake pads.
Plus, there’s plenty of known and trusted Campy tech – modern angular aesthetics mixing Super Record and even Ekar heritage, tons of carbon, plenty of titanium, machined aluminum & steel, ceramic bearings, the same 12-speed spacing you already have (even if Campy doesn’t suggest any mixing-and-matching), and some of the best-performing disc brakes on the road.
Tech details: New Ergopower levers
Let’s start with the Ergopower brake levers & shifters (claimed 745g , pair). Gone is the long-running thumb downshift lever and the ‘One Lever, One Action‘ ethos (and Campy’s technologies page that explained why that was more intuitive to use). Instead, you get 2 shift buttons behind the brake lever that look a bit like Di2-style, but with some extra spacing in between them and a different tactile finish on each to make it harder to accidentally hit the wrong lever.
The new levers are said to be easy to adapt to, shifting the upper button with the tip of your index finger, and shifting the lower button with your middle finger. Campagnolo says they moved away from their classic inner thumb-shifter design to appeal to a broader pool of cyclists, some who had trouble operating the inner shift lever, especially those with smaller hands.
Looking both from the side profile and head-on, it’s clear that these new Ergopower hoods are both wider and larger volume than previous generations of Record & Super Record.
Presumably, that was a conscious decision to create a more comfortable place to rest your hands based on Campy’s first comments to us, since we’d expect electronics to take up less space inside than mechanical shift internals. But, compared to the EPS system – now Campagnolo Super Record Wireless levers have to pack processing power, Bluetooth communications hardware, and the replaceable CR2032 battery into the same where there was just a switch before.
And it’s really more than just a few simple switches too…
On the back sides of the new carbon brake levers, Campagnolo hides a lot more tactile tech.
More than just a button under your fingertip though, the paddle with a hole in it (backed by the closed black pod that has the shift switch in it) all pivots along a metal lever that extends back up the brake lever blade for a more natural motion following the sing of your finger. The motion (from right to left, above) moves several mechanical springs, levers & other elements in the shift so that you get a real positive feedback as you change gears.
Back to the extra controls on the insides of the new Ergopower levers…
Up top is a Mode button that is designed to be used during setup and diagnostics. Below is the Power or Wake-Up button that again has a mostly setup & adjust function. But Campagnolo has mentioned that it is possible to customize at least one of these buttons on each shifter to control a connected Garmin GPS device.
We asked if it could be configured as a shift button to replicate classic Campy shift dynamics, but Campagnolo managed to not give a definitive answer.
The other dot there is a LED indicator that will flash red warning of low battery when there is <15% charge remaining. Campagnolo says that in regular use, riders should get 1.5-2 years of battery life out of the non-rechargeable button-cell battery in each shifter.
MyCampy in-app shift customization
Of course, one of the biggest benefits to electronic – and even more so, wireless – shifting is the ability to customize its controls. Campy didn’t share much about the new functionality of the updated MyCampy app other than to say that you can customize shift dynamics.
Standard factory settings do use the idea of the right lever controlling the rear derailleur, the left lever controlling the front derailleur, top buttons to a harder gear, bottom buttons to an easier gear. But it is up to you.
A couple of screengrabs from Campagnolo’s Super Record Wireless presentation suggest some curious combinations. That one on the right looks like it might recreate the One Lever, One Action concept with the right levers making gears easier, and left levers harder? And the image on the left looks like it might be Goblin Mode, just push shifters and hope for the best.
New battery-powered wireless derailleurs
OK, so new wireless Ergopowers are key, but they have to control something, right? Now they talk directly and independently to two new battery-powered wireless derailleurs.
Which also happen to light up the little winged Campagnolo logo on top of each derailleur with every shift!
The Super Record Wireless rear derailleur (claimed 295g) is mostly carbon as we’ve seen before from the Super Record level, with its electronic motor and removable battery tucked underneath the parallelogram – just no more wired connection.
It also features an unlocking mechanism, so it can be moved back-and-forth manually.
The new derailleurs are waterproofed to the high IP69K standard, because Campagnolo knows someone will be cleaning it off with a pressure washer – pro team mechanics, we are looking at you.
The rear derailleur gets a shapely new cage – steel on the inside, carbon on the outside, and spins the two 12T pulleys on ceramic bearings. There’s just one cage length for all cassettes, and while Campy officially says it’s for the biggest new cassettes (29T), they suggested that there’s enough cage length to go a couple of teeth bigger too.
The front derailleur (claimed 160g) is much the same with a similar electronic motor up top and a removable battery on its front – no more wires.
An important note here is that both use different batteries, and both have a different mechanism to secure the battery in place. This was apparently a direct workaround SRAM AXS patents.
The big innovation here though, is that Campagnolo includes charging contacts for a magnetic USB-powered charger so you can either charge the batteries on the bike, or quickly pull them off and charge them on your desktop. And each battery includes LEDs clearly indicating the power remaining.
Quoted battery life for the derailleurs is >750km for a race-level user, or more than 1000km for a regular cyclist. Recharge time is said to be super fast too, so something like a 75% recharge from flat in 30 mins.
New compact crankset sizes
The new Super Record Wireless crankset (claimed 585g, 172.5×45/29T with bearings) doesn’t look super new, but there’s plenty of new bits tucked inside what is essentially a cosmetic reshaping that combines the big ring reinforcement of the previous Super Record with a slightly flatter, more angular aesthetic inherited from Ekar.
The big shift though is to small rings.
The cranks now are available with 50/34T new road, 48/32T new semi-compact, and 45/29T new compact gear ratios. That of course coordinates with the new 10T cog giving you the same top speed that you could have reached only with a pro-only 55T big chainring.
Campagnolo says they measure the additional friction loss due to the smaller cogs (comparing 55×11 to 50×10) to be just 0.1W energy loss in the lab with a +/-0.4W margin of error. So their feeling is that the gains from improved shifting and cadence will outweigh any extra drivetrain drag. Campy did suggest this is why Super Record Wireless didn’t go to the smaller 9T like Campy Ekar. And it was the improved small gear steps that convinced them to stick with 2×12 on the road vs. 1×13 on gravel.
Of course, new small chainrings means a new bolt circle diameter. #groan. This one is now an all-new asymmetric 121/88mm BCD meaning only Campagnolo chainrings for the time being. The Ultra-Torque cranksets with titanium spindles are available in 165, 170, 172.5 & 175mm arm lengths with 147.5mm Q-factor.
Also of note even though we don’t have any official details or confirmation here… there’s a new flat spot on the back of each arm of this hollow carbon crankset. Campagnolo confirmed that there is not a powermeter in this crankset, and power is not a current option. But Campy are working on a power meter, and we’re pretty sure that’s where it is going to go, likely in 2024.
New smaller 12sp cassettes with 10T cog
With new small chainrings comes new smaller gears – with optimized gearing steps, and revised tooth shaping for quicker, smoother gear changes around the new, more compact chainlines.
Campagnolo will offer three new 12-speed cassette options with the new Super Record Wireless gruppo, all featuring a 10T cog made possible by Campy’s latest N3W freehub body innovation. The smallest 10-25T (claimed 210g) will be for flat landers and road purists, 10-27T will be an in-betweener, and 10-29T will offer the widest range.
That 10-29T is wider than previous 11-32T cassettes, and with one 12-speed derailleur designed to work well with all three variants, we think the 10-29T will be the most popular.
Like the current 12-speed cassettes (which share the same 12sp spacing but not the new tooth profiles, so are not technically compatible), these new Super Record Wireless cassettes are all machined from steel in a multi-gear cluster for the biggest cogs, then a few loose cogs in the middle, topped off by a monoblock of 3 smallest cogs shared by all cassette sizes and designed to mount over the trimmed down N3W body.
Carry-over chain & brakes
One thing completely unchanged in the new group is the R12 (that’s Record 12sp) chain that debuted with the mechanical Record & Super Record launch a few years back (claimed 228g, 114 links). New Super Record Wireless does add the more recent one-time-use quick-link though for improved usability.
The new group also carries over the same Pro-Tech extra sealed bottom bracket tech from Ekar.
Hydraulic disc brakes are unchanged too. The single universal master cylinder inside the new Super Record Wireless Ergopower levers and these new brake calipers (claimed 118g, 140mm caliper) are actually the subtle rolling update that debuted with Ekar, and will carry on to other groups. This is the latest evolution of Campagnolo’s excellent hydraulic disc brakes are now entirely developed in-house (separate from the original Magura cooperation), and made by Campy.
One new bit here though – peeking out of the calipers above – Super Record Wireless debuts a new Campagnolo crake pad with a lighter aluminum backing plate that Campy says dissipates heat even better than before. The 30% lighter alloy-backed pads are compatible with all Campy brakes and can be retrofitted to any other groupset when you need to replace your pads.
The heat-dissipating, semi-floating disc brake rotors are also unchanged – available in 140mm & 160mm diameters with stainless steel braking surface and aluminum centerlock (AFS) carriers.
Claimed weight – lightweight or ultralight?
In the end, Campagnolo Super Record Wireless claims to effectively weigh the same as the outgoing wired Super Record EPS at 2520g for the complete setup. Campy has not yet clarified to us what that includes. It is lightweight, but essentially the same as the top Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 or SRAM Red AXS groups which have all coalesced around that same real 2.5kg weight target in their latest iterations.
Are you ready to rethink Campy shifting? Wireless electronic shifting is only available at the Super Record level for now (this year?), but Campy effectively confirmed that they are working on bringing wireless electronic shifting to other groupsets, as well – an important shift from the previous generation of EPS that abandoned electronic shifting at Record & Chorus levels.
Fingers crossed that Ekar Wireless will be next!
2023 Campagnolo Super Record Wireless – Pricing & Availability
Officially the new 2023 Campagnolo Super Record Wireless gruppo goes on sale today for $5400 / 5200€ for a complete 2×12 wireless-shift, hydraulic sic brake groupset with your choice of gearing. Campagnolo assures us that the new Super Record Wireless group is actually available starting today, and there will likely be a number of complete bike from brands including Canyon, Pinarello, Specialized, Wilier, and more that are available to order starting today.
But beyond the high pricetag of the new group which will likely limit the number of people who can afford a new Super Record Wireless setup, Campy says the new groupset will be available in relatively limited numbers as production ramps up fully to meet demand.
