# Old Veloce beats new Athena



## Bill Bikie (Jul 24, 2010)

I just bought a BoB Quatro with the Athena group. But I feel that the Athena group lacks the finish or crispness of the veloce group on my 2006 Bianchi 1885. 

Pinarello MosT brakes came on the bike and were awful, and I wanted an all campy bike anyway so we switched to the Athenas. They were as mushy as the MosT brakes.

I looked at the calipers carefully as I worked the levers, and that seemed to be where the most flex was coming from. Obviously pads and cables do contribute.

I love the BoB finish on the Quatro but I feel the black components look cheap and like plastic. There is red PINARELLO script on the bottom of the down tube. I wish it were along the sides instead. 

Also when I want to trim (fine tune) the front derailleur cage it jumps too far when down shifting. I want to go one click, it goes 2-3. Is this some of the 2 down 1 up crap.


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## cs1 (Sep 16, 2003)

Try upgrading to Chorus 11 levers. Things should improve. Good luck


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

Bill Bikie said:


> I just bought a BoB Quatro with the Athena group. But I feel that the Athena group lacks the finish or crispness of the veloce group on my 2006 Bianchi 1885.
> 
> Pinarello MosT brakes came on the bike and were awful, and I wanted an all campy bike anyway so we switched to the Athenas. They were as mushy as the MosT brakes.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a tuning issue. Although I do agree that the '06 Veloce is nice-looking. 

Cabling for 11-speed is more sensitive to kinks and bends in routing. If I were to guess, going 2-3 instead of 1 when downshifting (to smaller cog) is due to having a kink somewhere along the routing, which necessitates adding too much tension on the cable to get up shifts (to the larger cog).


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## Bill Bikie (Jul 24, 2010)

orange_julius said:


> Sounds like a tuning issue. Although I do agree that the '06 Veloce is nice-looking.
> 
> Cabling for 11-speed is more sensitive to kinks and bends in routing. If I were to guess, going 2-3 instead of 1 when downshifting (to smaller cog) is due to having a kink somewhere along the routing, which necessitates adding too much tension on the cable to get up shifts (to the larger cog).


I'm talking about the front derailleur, not the rear.


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## orange_julius (Jan 24, 2003)

Bill Bikie said:


> I'm talking about the front derailleur, not the rear.


Then replace "cog" with "chainring".


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## mackgoo (Mar 2, 2004)

Bill Bikie said:


> I just bought a BoB Quatro with the Athena group. But I feel that the Athena group lacks the finish or crispness of the veloce group on my 2006 Bianchi 1885.
> 
> Pinarello MosT brakes came on the bike and were awful, and I wanted an all campy bike anyway so we switched to the Athenas. They were as mushy as the MosT brakes.
> 
> ...


I'm thinking it"s a braek in issue. The mechanism is just a little tight. Did you shift from the hoods or drops. Try from the hoods as you can better modulate the pressure and see if you can get the one click.


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## DrSpoke (Jun 11, 2010)

orange_julius said:


> Then replace "cog" with "chainring".


How rude! If you reread the original post it's clear he is talking about the front. YOU are the poster that started using "cog."


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## jazclrint (Dec 29, 2009)

Bill Bikie said:


> I just bought a BoB Quatro with the Athena group. But I feel that the Athena group lacks the finish or crispness of the veloce group on my 2006 Bianchi 1885.
> 
> Pinarello MosT brakes came on the bike and were awful, and I wanted an all campy bike anyway so we switched to the Athenas. They were as mushy as the MosT brakes.
> 
> ...


The Athena's (unless '09/'10 model years) are Power Shift models. I believe this is the same type shifting as the old Escape shifters. So yes, 1 click to the small ring and 3 back up to the big ring. You should tune the front derailleur so you can use every cog in the back (accept maybe the largest cog) in the big ring without rubbing. Then, you trim when you are in the small ring. As far as I know, that's how all Campy FDs should be tuned.


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