Campagnolo brings the 12-speed road tech of current world champ Alejandro Valverde down to a more accessible level with the addition of Chorus 12 mechanical groupsets for rim & disc brake bikes. And in their ever expanding evolution, Chorus 12 brings a wider range cassette & sub-compact crankset (with new BCD!) offering all-road gearing that we expect to cross the lines onto gravel as well…
Chorus 12, 2×12-speed mechanical road bike groupset
With the addition of a Movement 12 Chorus road double drivetrain, Campagnolo now offers four 12-speed performance road bike gruppos across a wide price range – including Super Record 12 EPS (SR12 EPS), Super Record 12 mechanical (SR12), Record 12 mechanical (R12) & Chorus 12 mechanical (C12). Chorus is certainly not a budget groupset, still selling for much of the price of other companies premium kit, but the performance is almost indiscernible from even Super Record. So if you are looking for premium carbon gruppo made in Europe at more attainable pricing (less than half of EPS), Chorus 12 might just be the ticket with only a slight weight penalty.
Plus, with the addition of a smaller Chorus 12 chainring set pairing, and larger range 12-speed cassette, we expect to see a number of custom all-road and gravel bikes get built up with the latest Chorus 12.
Chorus 12 component tech updates
The core component technologies of Chorus 12 are pretty much the exact same as we saw introduced last year for Super Record 12 & Record 12 mechanical. As is generally the case, Chorus still features carbon components, but ceramic bearings shift to steel balls, small bearings shift to bushings, titanium parts & bolts shifts to steel, and the hollowed out weight savings elements get dropped adding a few extra grams here & there.
Chorus 12 Ergopower shift/brake levers
All of the same ergonomic updates to the new Chorus 12 Ergopower shift/brake levers carry over, including the newer double curve levers, the outward slant to the brake levers with a higher pivot location for increased leverage, vibration absorbing Vari cushion rubber hoods, and larger up & down shift levers. The levers become simplified in alloy and keep Camp’s Ultra shift mechanism, allowing up to 5 downshifts or 3 upshift in a single throw of each independent lever. They also use the same updated shift internals as SR12 that reduced free cable movement for faster shifts, and get identical SR12 slick cables & housing for longer-lasting shift performance.