Review of Campagnolo Record 10 Shifters

This thing was going for around £100 (plus P&P) on eBay and considering that I would need to dish out another £25-30 for the Campag cable pack, I just decided to get it new for a cool discounted price  of £183 from CRC. It arrived in 48 hours as usual for the excellent CRC delivery service.

Of the big three: SRAM and Campag use dedicated brake lever and only Campag allows multiple upshifts and downshifts with the QS quickshift. (The new Powershift has single downshifts). The Record shifter is pre-Ergo update so has a straight and smaller front tip rise. My Veloce Ergopower shifters sport the new ergo design and it never really felt right with the big curvy dip and tall inward tip.  The little bump creates a pressure point that bothers me. So I do like the flatter hood of the Record.

Actually the whole thing is quite petite and I cannot imagine anyone with big hands finding it a good fit.In some ways this is the only place were the gamble has not quite paid off completely. The hood in even shorter than the Veloce, somewhat limiting hand positions. 

On the other hand, shorter hood means I am not too stretched out and allows me to use a slightly longer stem. In my case, I use 100mm stem on a 52cm c-c top tube and SL70 bar.

The thing I miss about Shimano STI is hood grip - it is long, fat and wide, offering different grip options. But I feel the brake lever leaking power from the hood position and running away from me due to the heavy dual-axis pivot and long levers. For that I prefer the single plane single pivot brake lever of SRAM or Campagnolo. The brake lever is also shorter but it is not a problem since the shallow bar allows my forefinger to actuate the really smooth brake. Carbon lever is a real bonus without gloves of course as it does not get slippery or cold.

Upshifts gives a reassuring "click" but I still accidentally shifts by two some times. Downshifts button could be smoother though as it requires more effort and positioned a bit too far back. Together with the Chorus RD, the overall downshift still feels slicker than the Veloce.

Note this release of Record 10 shifters includes cables and casings, albeit only 4 gear casings and no (!) brake casings.

The actual weight is 336g on my scale vs claimed 324g.