The story
Founded by Tullio Campagnolo in 1933, in Vicenza.1
History
Founded by Tullio Campagnolo, the company began in 1933 in a Vicenza workshop. The founder was a racing cyclist in Italy in the 1920s who conceived several ideas while racing, such as the quick release mechanism for bicycle wheels, derailleurs, and the rod gear for gear changing. Campagnolo has been awarded more than 135 patents for innovations in cycling technology.
At the end of the 1950s, Campagnolo started to manufacture magnesium parts such as wheels for sports cars like Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maserati and built chassis for NASA satellites in 1969. In 1963, Campagnolo produced a disc brake for the Innocenti Lambretta TV motorscooter - the first two-wheel production vehicle with such a brake. In the 1970s they also supplied wheels for Ferrari's Formula One cars.
Campagnolo worked with the manufacturer Colnago and racer Eddy Merckx and produced lightweight parts for the bike he used to beat the world hour record in 1972. Merckx used Campagnolo exclusively and was a friend of Tullio Campagnolo.
Following Campagnolo's success during the 1970s and '80s, innovation lagged as rival SunTour developed indexed shifting, Shimano combined shifter/brake levers (Shimano Total Integration), and FSA introduced compact chainsets. An unsuccessful foray into mountain biking, the overbuilt and heavy Euclid, Centaur and Olympus groupsets contributed to the company's decline during those years. By the time the expensive Record O.R. (off-road) and Icarus MTB groupsets made it to the market, Campagnolo's reputation was firmly cemented as a road bike brand. As a result, Campagnolo pulled out of the Mountain Bike market in 1994. Despite its struggles, Campagnolo introduced its ErgoPower combined shifter/brake levers and renewed its focus on high-end road cycling components.
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Campagnolo's increased use of carbon fibre and titanium parts in groupsets and the development of wheelsets. In 2004, Campagnolo introduced a complete Compact drivetrain with smaller chainrings, to give lower gears than traditional drivetrains. Other innovations included a Hirth-joint engineered Ultra-Torque external-bearing crankset and G3 spoke lacing for racing wheels. In 2008, Campagnolo introduced 11-speed drivetrains with Super Record, Record, and Chorus groupsets. Campagnolo has released an electronic version of its drivetrain. In April 2018 Campagnolo launched 12-speed Record and Super Record groupsets, and in 2020, the company launched Campagnolo Ekar, a 13-speed groupset aimed at gravel riders.
Campagnolo has focused on road cycling and track cycling. The teams it sponsored for multiple years in the UCI ProTour were Lotto–Soudal, AG2R Citroën Team, UAE Team Emirates and Cofidis, but Lotto-Soudal moved to Shimano for 2022, UAE and Cofidis made the same jump a year later, and in 2024 AG2R jumped across to Shimano leaving Campagnolo unrepresented in ProTeams. However, in 2025 Cofidis switched back to Campagnolo, with the partnership continuing through 2026
Timeline (bicycle parts)
1901
Tullio Campagnolo is born on 26 August in the eastern suburbs of Vicenza, Italy
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1922
Tullio Campagnolo begins his racing career
1930
Campagnolo patents the quick-release hub
1933
After fabricating parts in the backroom of his father's hardware store, Tullio starts Campagnolo SPA with production of the quick-release hub
1940
Tullio hires his first full-time employee
The derailleur enters production, enabling gears to change without removing the wheel - the pieces are still handmade
1949
Campagnolo introduces a parallelogram rear derailleur, the Gran Sport
1956
Campagnolo introduces a parallelogram front derailleur
1963
The Record rear derailleur (chromed bronze) is introduced
1966
The Nuovo Record rear derailleur is introduced
Eddy Merckx uses it for his first four Tour de France victories
1973
The Super Record Road and Track groups are introduced Learn more about the Super Record Road group.;
1983
Tullio Campagnolo dies on 3 February
Anniversary groupset to mark 50 years of Campagnolo bicycle parts
1985 Campagnolo creates Delta brakes, with a parallelogram linkage to actuate the calipers
1986
The re-designed Record road and track groupsets (also known as C-Record) are introduced, replacing Super Record as the top of range
1987
The last year of Super Record until 2008
1989
Campagnolo introduces a mountain bike groupset, though heavier and less advanced than those by Shimano and SunTour
1991
8-speed shifting components are introduced
1992
The ErgoPower levers are introduced, which combines brake lever and a shift lever to answer Shimano's STI levers
1993
Delta brakes are discontinued
1994
Campagnolo leaves the mountain bike components business
1995
Group names on components are introduced
1997
9-speed shifting components are introduced
1998
Next generation Ergo Levers
1999
Record Carbon Ergo levers, Daytona group, and for the Record, Chorus and Daytona groups new hubs (much lighter than the old ones, axles made of aluminum alloy) are introduced
2000
10-speed shifting is introduced
The ErgoBrain cyclocomputer compatible with the Ergo shifters displays cadence, gear, and the normal functions of a cyclocomputer
2001
Carbon-fiber shifting levers for Record group
2002
Former Daytona group is renamed "Centaur"
2004
Carbon-fiber cranks for Record and Chorus groups
2005
10-speed Centaur and Chorus shift and brake levers are introduced for flat bar road bikes
Fulcrum Wheels, a company owned by Campagnolo, produces wheelsets compatible with Campagnolo and Shimano cassettes
2006
Hollow external bearing crankset is announced
2007
10-speed Mirage and Xenon component groups and new Ultra-Torque components are introduced
Record hubs are now black, 20 g lighter and don't have grease ports any more
2008
11-speed Record, Super Record, and Chorus groups are introduced
2009
Re-introduction of Athena as an 11-speed component group below Chorus in product line
2010
Bora One wheels are introduced
2011
First electric 11-speed Super Record group was used at the Tour de France by Team Movistar
2012
Bora Ultra 80mm wheels are introduced
2013
80th anniversary groupset made
2014
Super Record RS groupset introduced following input from professional team riders
2015
Athena EPS discontinued and Chorus EPS introduced
Chorus, Record and Super Record groupsets are overhauled with a 4 arm, 8 bolt chainset introduced
Bora 50 and 35 wheels become available in Clincher and adopt a wider rim profile
2015
Potenza group is introduced
2017
Centaur group reintroduced as Campagnolo's least expensive 11-speed group
2018
12-speed Super Record and Record mechanical groups are introduced.(for disc and rim brake)
Bora WTO (Wind Tunnel Optimized) wheels are introduced
2019
12-speed Super Record EPS, and mechanical 12-speed Chorus groups are introduced. Chorus will have an 11-34 cassette option and a 96/123 mm BCD with sub-compact 48/32 gearing available
2020
13-speed Ekar group are introduced
2021
Bora Ultra WTO (only for disc brake) wheels are introduced
2023
Super Record wireless groupset is introduced
2025
Record groupset is retired
13-speed Super Record groupset is introduced
13-speed Super Record 13x all road and gravel groupset is introduced
2026
13-speed Record groupset is introduced
From Wikipedia’s article on Campagnolo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4