# Athena or Chorus for CX bike?



## Donn12 (Apr 10, 2012)

I read a review by bike radar and they stated that 11speed campy needed to be tuned way to much to recommend for CX. I may do a couple of races but I love to rack up the winter miles on the C&O towpath. Will I need to adjust shifting on athena or campy too much? I have SR EPS and I really like the shifter layout and want to put campy on all my bikes


----------



## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

> I read a review by bike radar and they stated that 11speed campy needed to be tuned way to much to recommend for CX.


That's complete bs. There is nothing that's any different. Whether or not you need 11 speeds for CX is another question.

11-spd setup and operation is no different than 10-spd.


----------



## cathyandrob (Jun 15, 2006)

If you can afford it, get Chorus.
Better shifters and BB set up.


----------



## bigbill (Feb 15, 2005)

Velo Mine has alloy Athena 11 groups with 2010 UT cranksets. My red GT has that setup that I bought from them. You can probably work with them to get what you want. Their prices were close enough to overseas not to matter. I have two bikes with Chorus and Record and the third with Athena. The lack of the ability to dump a cassette with one shift on the Athena hasn't really bugged me but it's really flat around here.


----------



## bikerector (Oct 31, 2012)

I think 11-speed would be just like 10-speed. Set and forget it. It will be a long time before they need more adjustments. For CX, only reason I can imagine frequent adjustments is from dirty cables but that will affect any speed group, except for ss.

Chorus is nicer but costs more and CX has a tendency to be hard on moving parts. So does winter riding (assuming you're in an area that gets snow).

If it's the shifters you like, consider getting just the shifters (10-spd) and either converting to cable pull with a shiftmate for shimano derailleurs or just enjoying the new levers if running sram derailleurs. It could save a lot of coin.


----------



## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

OP, I have both an Athena and a Chorus 11-spd bike. In all honesty, the ability to execute mutiple upshifts with Chorus is nice, but hardly a deal breaker. It amounts to either hitting the button once or a couple of times for a double shift. The other components are very comparable in function with small weight differences. Campy offer CX specific cranksets and BB's Groupsets - Components Cyclocross - Campagnolo - The official Campagnolo web site - Bicycle Parts and Components Cycling


----------



## pigpen (Sep 28, 2005)

I have two cross bikes set up with Campy.
One Chorus the other Athena.
The Athena shifters were purchase prior to the downgrade (single gear shifts).

I for one cannot tell a difference while riding. Especially offroad.
When it gets rough it is possible to dump too many cogs thus i think that the newer version of Athena might be a good option.

Chorus has more bling if you are into that.
Why not go Record...


----------



## mikerp (Jul 24, 2011)

pigpen said:


> I have two cross bikes set up with Campy.
> One Chorus the other Athena.
> The Athena shifters were purchase prior to the downgrade (single gear shifts).


yep, the work around is buy Chorus shifters and Athena for the rest. Unless of course you can find one of the pre downgrade groups.


----------



## charlox5 (Jan 31, 2011)

i pieced together an athena-chorus group buying individual pieces from ribble. 

chorus shifters and BB (though UT Athena BB crank would accomplish the same thing) and everything else athena. I did use centaur brakes because they're cheaper, and I like centaur brakes on my centaur bike so i couldn't justify spending more for better brakes.


----------



## Donn12 (Apr 10, 2012)

sorry - what is the downgrade? it used to do double shifts and now does one at a time or the other way around? can you tell by year or appearance?


----------



## headloss (Mar 3, 2013)

Donn12 said:


> sorry - what is the downgrade? it used to do double shifts and now does one at a time or the other way around? can you tell by year or appearance?


The new style shifter came out in 2009, with the more ergonomic shape. When the new style initially came out, all of the shifters from Veloce and up had the ultra-shift internals. The 2009 models of Veloce and Centaur were too light in shifting feel (you can find old threads if you search). Mid model year, there was an extra part released to upgrade the 2009 Veloce/Centaur with a firmer feel. The 2010 Veloce/Centaur already had this improvement. There was no change to Chorus/Record. I think 2010 is when they released the eleven speed Athena group which also had the ultra-torque setup (for 2010). From 2011 on, Veloce/Centaur/Athena all had the power-shift* mechanism.

*i.e. one gear at a time.


----------



## Donn12 (Apr 10, 2012)

thanks headloss


----------

