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TECH NEWS
2021 Campagnolo Ekar 1x13 - 1Campagnolo to launch Ekar 13-speed gravel groupset
Italy's Campagnolo looks set to launch a new 13-speed gravel groupset called Ekar soon. It is specced on complete model year 2021 bikes.
Rumours have been circulating after a retailer website listed – and swiftly deleted – Campagnolo Ekar 1x13 build options for a Wilier Jena gravel bike last week (below).
Now, if you go to the Jena page on Wilier's website you'll see Campagnolo Ekar 1x13 listed on two complete bikes: with Miche Graff Alu wheels for € 4,700 (about £4,280), and with Campagnolo Shamal Carbon C21 wheels for €5,600 (about £5,100).
Click on those options and you're led to these individual components:
Campagnolo Ergopower Ekar 13S shifters
Campagnolo Ekar brakes
Campagnolo Ekar 13S RD21-EK13 rear derailleur
Campagnolo Ekar 40-tooth FC21-EK13 chainset
Campagnolo Ekar 13S 9-42T CS21-EK1392 cassette
Campagnolo Ekar CN21-EK13 chain
The brakes in question are disc brakes, of course, using 160mm Campagnolo AFS rotors.
The most interesting information here is that the sprockets range from 9-tooth to 42-tooth. Yes, 9-tooth.
Bear in mind that the smallest sprocket available for Shimano's GRX gravel groupset is 11-tooth, and it's 10-tooth with SRAM.
Your complete guide to Shimano’s GRX gravel groupset
With the Wilier Jena's 700c wheels and 38mm Vittoria Terreno tyres, the 40-tooth chainset and 9-42-tooth cassette would give you a gear range of 26in to 121.4in.
For comparison, a 42-tooth Shimano GRX chainset (the largest 1x chainset you can get with GRX is 42-tooth) with an 11-tooth sprocket and the same wheels/tyres would give you a 104.3in gear.
With SRAM you could have a 42-tooth chainring and a 10-42-tooth cassette (or even a 10-50-tooth cassette). Your largest gear here, again with a 700 x 38mm tyre, would be 114.7in.
We told you last week that Campagnolo's new Shamal Disc wheels hinted at suitability for gravel gearing. Campagnolo said that it's new N3W freehub “prepares us for the future”.
The N3W freehub has splines that are spaced like an existing Campagnolo freehub body, but the length of the freehub body has been reduced by 4.4mm.
We reported, "Campagnolo says that this makes the freehub lighter, but it’s not a stretch to imagine the real reason being that 10, or even 9-tooth cassette cogs are on their way from Campagnolo."
The N3W freehub is backwards compatible with current 10, 11 and 12-speed cassettes using an N3W adapter.
Campagnolo dropped another hint that a gravel groupset is on the way when it described the new Shamal disc wheels as being “gravel ready”.
Fitting 13-sprockets on to that freehub is going to involve some interesting jiggery-pokery (it's a technical term) in terms of spacing. The smallest sprocket(s) will almost certainly need to sit outboard of the freehub body.
Thirteen sprockets would trump gravel groupsets from other brands, Shimano currently offering a maximum of 11-speeds with GRX and SRAM giving you 12-speed options.
Campagnolo's own Super Record top level road groupset is 12-speed with an 11-tooth smallest sprocket. The brand hasn't offered mountain bike groupsets for years so expanding into the gravel market is a significant step.
One other thing to bear in mind is that there's no mention of EPS (Electronic Power Shift) electronic shifting in anything we've seen, implying that all of these parts are mechanical. We don't know for certain, and that's not to say that an EPS version of Ekar won't be available as well.
In terms of pricing, the Wilier Jena with a Campagnolo Ekar groupset and Miche Graff Alu wheels is a little more than a model with the same wheels and a SRAM Force eTap AXS (electronic) groupset – €4,700 versus €4,400.
Seeing as the Italian bike industry usually shuts down for pretty much the whole of August, an official announcement could be a while off. Mind you, this has been an unusual year to say the least, so who knows? More info when we get it.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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21 comments
Someone sell me on 9-42 vs 10-46 or even 11-50. Is that last smidgen of added range (4.67 vs. 4.6 vs. 4.55) it? Are we weight weenying above all else once more? Does it make the rear mech's life that much easier?
Increased range is better for off-road surely, and the 9T and smaller chainring means the fat end of the cassette doesn't need such massive jumps to get that range
Looking forward to seeing this. I've been riding mixed terrain since 2016 and using Campag all the way. In my view the only thing Campag lacked already was a really low gear, the shifting and braking is already sorted, but they've not been seen as a provider of gravel kit. That's about to change.
Given that 10 tooth sprockets are mechanically inefficient as the chain is wrapped tightly around a tiny sprocket surely a 9 tooth one will be even worse?
I've used 10 tooth sprockets before and didn't like them, it looks like pro teams have also been avoiding the 10 tooth sprocket:
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/01/bigger-chainrings-for-trek-segafredo-but...
That's on a road bike setup. This is an off road groupset, 10 tooth cassettes have been proven off road already
Mechanical efficency matters whether you're on or off road.
When I used a 10 tooth cassette it was on a gravel bike with a 42 tooth chainring and an 11 speed 10-42 cassette at the back.
The only time I used the 10 tooth sprocket was on tarmac, transitioning between off road sections as I personally never needed a gear that big off road.
I never enjoyed using the 10 tooth sprocket and it felt very inefficent to me, the jump from 10 to 12 was also horribly jarring.
If I designed my own 13 speed off road drivetrain based on my own experiences, I'd have a 42 at the front with a 11-42 cassette and look to make some of those gaps smaller.
Maybe you don't like, want or need a 10 off road, but many people do. I don't really want an 11 on the road with a standard chainring, but I can accept I'm in the minority
90% of that is in your imagination, the only thing that you can concievably feel is the cadence and effort jump between 12 to 10.
Show me the actual effeciency numbers for 9t vs 10t vs 11t then we can have a sensible discussion.
My guess is that for all other cases except racing its marginal gains/losses territory.
Running 9t rear for the last 2 years btw
How you get on with the e*thirteen?
Nothing like as exotic. Sunrace make 10 & 11 speed hubs and cassettes using Shimano's old Capreo 9t 'standard' body for . My Birdy folder came with the 10 speed version and I upgraded to the 11 speed cassette later.
parts are only available direct from the Folder company or one web shop in the US.
Please read the link I provided above, it has some data for you there.
I was writing about my own experiences, sure you may have had different experiences but there's no need to respond in such a condescending tone.
We all ride in different ways, I personally ride at a high cadence. Different things will work for different riders.
I didnt see anything in those articles which talked about the efficiencty of a 9 tooth cog, do I need to read it again more carefully or do you need to post another link or think a bit more carefully about your comment?
Sorry but I call that BS, maybe if u were a pro rider u would feel the difference between an 11 and 10 but it's so small that I don't believe u at all!
Also that "jarring" difference between 10 and 12 is because normally u don't have that big difference in that part of the cassette!
https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/cs-xg-1150-a1
10,12,14,16,18,21,24,28,32,36,42
Teams in road cycling are notably conservative/luddite - I wouldn't take too much notice of what they're doing. And in any case, this is looks like a gravel groupset, which can require a different set up.
Honestly I've been using a 10-42 and now 10-50 on my MTB for years and I don't have that experience! I agree that on road it can be a bit less efficient (but us mere mortals can't feel that, trust me), but on gravel or mtb it isn't noticable!
Hang on a minute…the naysayers (aka Shimano owners) have been banging on about how Campagnolo must be on the verge of going bust and have failed to produce anything remotely innovating since the quick release.
Poor Shimano. They’re really trailing now!
OTIO
To be fair, other than electronic shifting, none of the big 3 have done anything all that innovative for years, they've just added more and more gears to the cassettes and refined down the shifting. Not that this is a bad thing, although it does lead to deliberately tiered levels of equipment.
September 24th launch apparently
9-42! That's agressively modern for Campag. You'll be able to have some wild gearing with that. Chapeaux