For years, the Campagnolo shift thumb buttons have been an unmistakable part of the Italian brand’s Ergopower levers. Indeed it has often been a key talking point during passionate groupset manufacturer debates between cyclists for years, but it looks as though that may be about to all change.
It looks as though Campagnolo may have a new Super Record groupset in the works which will ditch the iconic and long-standing thumb shifter buttons, and use wireless technology in the first new groupset for the Italian brand since 2019.
In a story first shared on the internet forum weight weenies, there looks to be evidence that Campagnolo has sought to obtain a licence to market a wireless electrical system in the US. To quote the Federal Communications Commission’s website “The FCC is responsible for managing and licensing the electromagnetic spectrum for commercial users and for non-commercial users including state, county and local governments.” This means to bring an electronic product to market you first need to obtain said licence.
Several documents regarding electrical testing are available to be viewed on the FCC website under the application name: PRJ-330 ERGOPOWER CONTROLS + CALIPERS.
The new pictures clearly show a new Campagnolo shifter, likely to be a Super Record model devoid of any thumb shifter button. There look to be two smaller paddle-style shift buttons alongside the brake lever itself. The shifters look like they will use CR2023 coin cell batteries which will mimic the wireless offerings from Shimano and SRAM.
The pictured shifters also don’t look as tall as current Super Record models with a design that almost looks more in line with Campagnolo shifters of yesteryear.
Campagnolo also filed a patent recently (US 2023/0031666 A1) showing plans for a shifter design using a coin cell battery which would at least show they are looking to develop wireless electronic shift levers.
SRAM and Shimano already have wireless and semi-wireless groupset offerings and with more and more system integration featuring on road bikes, life gets a lot easier, especially in the cockpit area when you have wireless shifters. A range of cabling issues are eliminated and it also opens the door to other design concepts.
Simply pairing wireless shifters to derailleurs makes…
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