Campagnolo is again with a next-gen Ekar GT gravel bike groupset, bringing their in style 13-speed made-in-Europe drivetrain down in worth because of a swap to extra aluminum instead of carbon. Similtaneously reducing prices, it will get a number of upgrades and tweaks for higher chain retention and wider gearing vary choices. You save 15% on the value tag, and it’s solely a pair hundred grams heavier, making it nonetheless lighter and extra inexpensive than different second-tier gravel teams…
Oh yeah, new inexpensive alloy Zonda GT gravel wheels, too!
Campagnolo Ekar GT is a extra inexpensive alloy 13sp gravel group
Campy’s most profitable all-new product launch in years had been their Ekar gravel groupset. Debuting Campagnolo’s first 1x groupset and first fashionable drivetrain not centered on street racing, Ekar’s gravel 1x 13-speed setup was an enormous departure for the Italian firm. However with mechanical simplicity, benchmark light-weight, dependable braking, aggressive pricing, and actual made-in-Europe building, the gravel area of interest ate it up.
Now Campy is again with a brand new Ekar GT that’s much more accessible. Swapping in an aluminum crankset, alloy brake levers, and a simplified rear derailleur, they handle to drop greater than 2 hundred euros off the value, whereas solely including 300g. It’s nonetheless competitively as mild or lighter than Shimano or SRAM’s second-tier teams, whereas being cheaper, and EU-made.
So what’s new?
The obvious change is the brand new easy solid alloy crankset – now with 151mm Q-factor. It nonetheless shares the identical proprietary 4-bolt design as the unique Ekar, however provides a fifth, smaller chainring measurement for using steeper terrain.
Decide from 44, 42, 40, 38, and now additionally a 36T chainring. You don’t even need to take away the cranks to swap rings. It includes a basic Campy Extremely-Torque BB spindle, break up within the center with half of the axle part of every crank arm.
The brake levers additionally shift to alloy lever blades to decrease prices. However they maintain the identical confirmed Campagnolo Ekar ergonomics, together with the thumb upshift lever and attain adjustability. The rubber hoods are barely reshaped nonetheless for higher grip when using up high.
Out again the Campagnolo Ekar GT group includes a new rear derailleur. This up to date design is usually the identical as the unique however simplified building of its non-adjustable clutch. Plus “improved sturdiness”. It strikes to extra standard engineered plastic knuckles as an alternative of the carbon-reinforced parts of unique Ekar. It additionally swaps to derailleur pulleys with bigger window cutouts to cut back mud clogging, and make it simpler to scrub.
The brand new Ekar GT additionally will get revised cassettes. They now get a couple of extra free cogs to avoid wasting prices with extra shared elements. However additionally they add a brand new wider 480% vary 10-48T cassette. Along with the unique Endurance 9-36T (400%), Gravel Race 9-42T (467%) & Gravel Journey 10-44T (440%).
The whole claimed groupset weight is now 2700g (That’s up from 2385g claimed for the lightest unique Ekar configuration. However our gravel race construct had a actual 2741g complete weight, anyway.)
New Zonda GT wheels too…
Along with the brand new GT gravel group, there’s an identical set of extra inexpensive GT gravel wheels too. With a lot of strong Campy wheel tech, the 1690g Zonda GT wheels are 23mm inside with a tubeless-ready rim mattress devoid of spoke holes (or the necessity for tubeless tape. 24 spokes in G3 groupings promise equal spoke pressure and long-term sturdiness, plus milling between the spokes to shave a couple of grams. The 29mm deep Zonda GTs include an N3W freehub prepared for Campy 13-speed (or 10-12sp) and AFS centerlock disc brake rotor interface
Campagnolo Ekar GT & Zonda GT – Pricing & availability
The brand new ‘winged-wheel’ emblem Campagnolo Ekar GT gravel groupset formally retails for $1600 / 1490€ (examine that to 1700€ for the unique.) Campy has been quiet about real-world availability up to now, though now we have been advised that it is best to have the ability to order full bikes constructed up with Ekar GT this week. We’ve additionally not had it in our palms but, both.
The brand new alloy Zonda GT wheels are additionally comparatively inexpensive at $750 / 690€.
Traditionally, Campagnolo has solely launched new groupsets when the merchandise had been already in outlets or in-transit on the way in which to retailers. Thus far we haven’t heard of anybody with them in inventory forward of the launch.
However fingers crossed that Ekar GT can be out there very quickly, at the very least in restricted numbers at first.
Ekar was a game-changer for the legacy Italian drivetrain maker. And a extra inexpensive model solely compromising a bit on weight looks as if it gives a variety of potential for Campy Ekar GT to carry 1×13 mechanical simplicity to much more gravel bikes.
