I built an Open U.P. with Ekar a couple of years ago during the pandemic. I have both the 9-36 and 10-44 cassettes with a set of the Shamal Carbon wheels. I absolutely love Ekar. This is my first Campy group, but if Record is just as good then I will be converting my road bike if my DA9000 group ever dies.
I originally planned for this bike to be an allroad bike and gravel bike with me switching tires and cassettes depending on what I was doing at the time (700x32 road tire + 9-36 cassette for allroad, 700x38-40 gravel tire + 10-44 cassette for gravel) but honestly I just leave it setup for gravel now. The 10-44 cassette is great and the Open really is more fun to ride with bigger tires. Lots of reviews talk about the Open being a great road bike - I’d say its a great endurance road bike, but lacks the same sporty feel of a true road bike. When I had the bike setup for road, I always missed the snappiness of my road bike and that ultimately led me to just leaving the Open in gravel mode. I’d say this is more a product of the frame design and has less to do with the groupset though. I might swap my knobby tires (Rene Herse Steilacoom endurance casing) for a set of slicks I have already (Rene Herse Barlow Pass Extralight) once spring rolls around just to enjoy a smooth sofa like ride on poorly maintained roads just for fun, we’ll see.
Anywho, a few notes:
Rear derailleur setup takes a little more time during install since there 13 gears back there. A good hanger alignment tool and some patience are required here. Once it’s setup you’re good to go, assuming you don’t crash and bend the hanger of course.
The gearing is what really sold me. I was running a Sram AXS mullet setup on a previous bike and just never really liked the gear steps on the fast end of the cassette. Sram tried to address this with the XPLR cassettes, but I think Campy still did a better job. The 9-36 cassette with a 40t chainring has just as much spread as a road bike with a 50/34 and 12-25 (maybe 12-28, I forget) with similar gear jumps on the fast end of the cassette. I really noticed the difference and really appreciate it.
The brakes are fantastic - some of the best if not the best drop bar hydro brakes out there.
Any other questions let me know, but suffice it to say I’m pretty sold on it.
@Rpweis Very helpful — the notes about the fast end of the cassette in particular. Thanks!
@Power13 genuinely curious about this — is it Campag in England and and Campy here? Because everyone I worked with in the industry here in the States called them Campy but maybe that’s a different thread haha.
My bike fitter has solved a similar problem of ridges/lumps under a shifter hood for me using an unused foam shoe insert cut in a crescent moon shape then held in place with finishing tape. This gave me a very smooth transition of bar to shifter hood and a bit of cushion as well.
The 9–36 cassette has a range of 400 %, which is way larger than 50/34 coupled to a 12–25 cassette (306 %) or a 12–28 cassette (343 %). It corresponds to a compact chainset coupled to a 11–30 cassette (401 %). You are getting way more range on 1x than you are giving it credit for.
I only tried a hydraulic Campy groupset on a demo bike for a few meters and hated it. On the other hand, I have had all sorts of issues with demo bikes, on some the bolts affixing the stem to the steerer tube had not been tightened. On another, the Di2 shifter had not been set up correctly, etc. However, Ronald Kuba pointed out that they need breaking in (no pun intended), and then work superbly. Has that been your experience, too?
Looks like you got me on the gear range - I haven’t looked at it in depth for a couple of years.
Anywho, on the brakes I found them to be no different than any other as far as setup and bedding in goes. The pad clearances may be a tad tighter, not sure, but it definitely took me a couple of iterations before I had them perfectly centered and square. Once the calipers were aligned, I bedded them properly and they’ve been quiet and powerful ever since. Honestly I found them no more difficult to set up than any other hydro disc brake.
but maybe that’s a different thread haha.