# Veloce, Centaur or Athena



## dasho (Apr 8, 2002)

I'm going to build up my LOOK KG281 - I've had it in storage for a few years and miss riding it. I previously had a Shimano DA 9 speed grouppo on it but decided to try out Campy this time.

I was looking on Shiny Bikes and noticed the 3 grouppos mentioned above are at reasonable if not excellently priced. I want to get some opinions as to which would give me the best value. I'm not a racer. I ride 2 or 3 times a week to maintain fitness.

I don't care if it's a 10 or 11 speed as I am riding a 9 speed DA presently on my Giant TCR and am perfectly happy with it. I want reliability and durability and would like it if broken parts can be replaced instead of having to toss them as I did with my DA shifters. 

Any advice as to which you feel is the best deal or fit for my needs would be appreciated.

Thank's in advance!


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## captain stubbing (Mar 30, 2011)

in recent times, campy has dumbed down their veloce, centaur and athena ultra shifters to power shifters....so ultra shifters are now only available from chorus upwards.

so i'd perhaps go athena but get the chorus shifters and at least u can then upgrade any bits and pieces to chorus, record etc if that is your want.

alternatively, you should be able to source some veloce/centaur ultra shifters from somewhere....nothing wrong with those groupsets....i have 2009 veloce that is still going great.


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## headloss (Mar 3, 2013)

Unless you want 11speed, I can't see any reason to pay more for Centaur (the FD is different but everything else looks identical to Veloce) or Athena (better FD and better quality chain rings). Each is a _little_ better, but the price difference doesn't accurately reflect the marginal improvement in quality.


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## humanbeing (Dec 4, 2009)

I purchased an Athena gruppo piecemeal from Shiny Bikes including Chorus shifters and 2010 Athena Ultra Torque cranks for only a little more than the price of a complete Athena gruppo.
Sweet!
Have a great ride,
Peter


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## headloss (Mar 3, 2013)

Be sure to check out the thread I started in hot-deals sub-forum... amazon has been having some great prices on individual 2012 athena components.

Given the current prices at Amazon, plus the $104 that I paid for ergos a couple of weeks ago... you could have a group for roughly $400 if you don't mind black.


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