Having given competitors SRAM and Shimano a few years’ headstart with their newest generation flagship products, Campagnolo’s new 12-speed Super Record Wireless road-specific groupset brings the Italian brand into line, albeit at a markedly higher price.
Many areas have been brought up to speed. The bulky electronic elements from Super Record EPS are now gone, as are rim brakes and the iconic thumb shifters, which Campagnolo says were creating ‘a split in its community’ – signalling the brand’s move to the centre ground. Up front, the hoods have had an ergonomic overhaul and chainrings and cassettes have shrunk thanks to the inclusion of a 10-tooth sprocket made possible by the switch to the N3W freehub standard the brand’s Ekar gravel groupset introduced.
There is continuity too. The well-regarded brakes are mechanically unchanged, as is the carbon crankset, while Campagnolo has stopped short of moving to 13-speed, as debuted on Ekar.
It’s certainly a forward shift from the Super Record EPS that it replaces, but SRW doesn’t push the innovation envelope in the way Campagnolo groupsets have done in the past.
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Campagnolo Super Record Wireless: Out with the bold
Campagnolo was/is known for its thumb shifters, and those have been exchanged for a pair of drillium-friendly buttons behind each brake lever. Yes, this removes one reason to avoid Campagnolo but at the risk of alienating previous fans – idiosyncrasies such as this are what made Campagnolo so popular in the past. Though not a big fan of the thumb shifters’ looks myself, the simplicity of the shifting motion eradicated unintentional gear changes.
‘We adopt the one-lever one-action concept because it reduces a rider’s mental workload,’ a Campagnolo source explains. ‘After a few rides you get used to the layout.’
However, even with bare hands these vertically separated buttons are counterintuitively hard to distinguish, notwithstanding the subtle ridged texturing. When previous Campagnolo groupsets were so specifically set up to assign functions to different levers, this seems like a break with the brand’s own mantra and it actually increased my mental workload on the bike.
Once located, the levers’ ergonomics and the feel of the buttons are great: the shifting click registers every bit like the sending of a digital signal. This is nicely offset by the mechanical clunk across the block.
Mis-shifts were less frequent when riding sedately, but on occasions when I was door-stopped by an unexpected rise, the chance of me hastily stabbing the wrong button was still high even after a month of riding.
Campagnolo Super Record Wireless: Under the hood
With SRW’s wireless technology removing the need for cable ports and streamlining hardware, the contours around the control bodies are now less dramatic and the bump accenting the transition from hood to bar has been removed. The profile has been resurfaced to include additional grip and cushioning while the brake levers are noticeably rippled for improved traction – a detail I found added comfort during long rides.
With quite big hands, I didn’t find it an issue that only the reach of the shifters can be modified, not the brake lever’s throw, but it’s one to consider. Viewed in profile, the deep U-shaped channel atop the hood bodies of the EPS shifters has been levelled to a slight dip for SRW, a new shape that’s well suited to riding on the tops.
Unfortunately, in the 90° gap underneath where the hood body meets the brake lever, rather than smoothing and thickening the thin edges as SRAM has done, Campagnolo has left them sharp and exposed. This is normally where I rest my middle finger, so if I compressed the brake with my index finger, an unpleasant guillotining effect was possible. A bizarre piece of design on what are otherwise aesthetically flawless controls.
Campagnolo Super Record Wireless: It’s electrifying
Like SRAM Red AXS, Campagnolo’s SR WRL is totally wireless and therefore that bit easier to install – differentiating it from Shimano’s Di2, which still uses some battery wiring. Without the signal-receiving grommets and the seatpost battery required for Super Record EPS, SRW does look very neat and tidy – save for the bulked-up derailleur bodies, which I think – much like SRAM's – conflict with the sleek forms of many modern frames.
With SRAM's battery design patented, Campy has used non-interchangeable batteries. A less versatile solution perhaps, but they can be plugged into a USB powerbank either on or off the bike.
Unlike the effortless locking in at the front, the degree of force needed to reseat the rear battery occasionally misaligned the derailleur, and sometimes I was still unsure if it was securely connected.
When I put this to Campagnolo, the brand’s R&D department said that, ‘Some initial production batches had a very tight assembly bay for the battery and subsequent batches won’t be affected.’
The 750km range of the Campagnolo batteries is modest and lags behind SRAM's 60 hours (~1,500km) and Shimano’s 1,000km. Campagnolo disagrees. ‘With the most demanding conditions in mind – namely pro riders racing - we deem this battery capacity appropriate.’
The MyCampy 3.0 app was disappointingly clunky, especially when compared with the excellent app integration provided by Shimano and SRAM. It’s the second test SRW groupset I’ve struggled to sync to my phone. Serial numbers went unrecognised and the frame QR codes were too small for my phone camera to register.
The disc brakes brought over from the previous Super Record, that include new rotors with a patented profile and lighter brake pads, are rightly well-regarded and provide a notably different (and better) braking sensation than those of SRAM or Shimano.
Pulling on the levers feels like you’re gripping something incredibly tightly with a cotton-wool-lined hand, firmly but calmly compressing the disc rotors until they ease to a stop. Campagnolo calls this ‘instinctive modulation and progressive feel’, which feels quite accurate.
Campagnolo Super Record Wireless: Gearing
In a change from the 11t Super Record EPS cassettes (11-29, 11-32, 11-34), Campagnolo has trimmed the smallest cog on the SRW cassettes (10-25, 10-27, 10-29) to 10t. SRW chainrings (50-34, 48-32, 45-29) are on the small side compared to Super Record (53-39, 52-36, 50-34).
Although the cassettes now have 10t, smaller chainrings mean the range of gearing hasn’t increased. With single-tooth progressions for the bottom seven sprockets carried over from EPS, gear jumps haven’t changed either. It’s hard to argue that it’s an improvement on the Super Record EPS gearing. This alteration is deficient in other ways too, as it reduces drivetrain efficiency and significantly increases component wear – bearing in mind that a replacement cassette costs £319.99.
Clearly, Campagnolo has rethought these shortcomings in its recent launch of the cheaper, matt black Super Record S Wireless, offering an additional 11/32t cassette and three larger, pro-friendly chainrings (54-39, 53-39, 52-36).
The 2,520g weight of the SRW is on par with the 2,505g Super Record EPS (both claimed) as well as SRAM and Shimano. To accompany the groupset, Campagnolo has now launched an HPPM crank-based power meter that uses an increased number of strain gauges, 16, said to produce market-leading accuracy. This is an eye-watering £1,949 add-on to an already expensive £4,499 outlay, however.
Campagnolo Super Record Wireless review verdict
Viewed in isolation, Campagnolo’s SRW provides several performance and usability benefits over the Super Record EPS that it has superseded. However, Campagnolo is still playing catch up with Shimano and SRAM – something that’s made more stark by its lack of presence in the 2024 WorldTour.
Does the SRW offer enough innovation, practicality or increased performance to have appeal beyond just Campagnolo aficionados? I’m not so sure it does. Equally, for a groupset that’s been developed with pros and the Campagnolisti in mind, the lack of bigger chainrings and the loss of iconic design features seems strange. Market-leading brakes ported over from previous Super Records might not be enough.
There is a case to be made for the new, separate release of the Super Record S Wireless that, alongside wider gearing and a lower price of €3,990 (approx £2,860), comes in just 150g heavier thanks to the use of some less premium materials. Since it borrows all the SRW technology and makes only small changes to the lever shapes and aesthetics, it might actually be more things to more riders than the premium SRW.
Having ridden Dura-Ace Di2 (£3,631) and SRAM Red AXS (£4,090) almost side-by-side, the SRW has simply produced more issues on a ride-by-ride basis. The two-button shifting arrangement isn’t as ergonomic as Shimano’s version or as intuitive as SRAM's eTap layout, the battery-life is sub-par, the app is clunky, there are fewer and less practical gearing options and, personally, I can give or take loud shifting.
Once you factor in a power meter to an already expensive groupset, you’re looking at a £6,500 bill. Campy says the price reflects the longer life span of components and more sustainable practices, as well as manufacturing being based in Vicenza, but while those may have been deciding factors when Campagnolo held more unique appeal, I’m not sure I remain convinced that this is enough in this day and age.
For more information on Campagnolo Super Record Wireless, visit campagnolo.com
Campag have really missed the mark with this groupset, which is a real shame. It lags the competition in performance (except the brakes), it’s bulky, awkward looks don’t live up to the elegance of previous Super Record offerings (and are, IMO, significantly worse than SRAM or Shimano), and yet it is 20% more expensive. Difficult to see who this groupset is for, other than die-hard Campag fanboys. The argument that ‘Campag wears in, Shimano wears out’ is a lazy stereotype that no longer holds water. Not just because it isn’t really true, but also because now we’re in an era of electronics, very few people buying halo groupsets like this are going to be keeping them for long enough for ‘it will last 20 years’ to make a difference.