Campy claims that their new Ekar 1×13 is the lightest gravel groupset on the market. Well, besides riding it for the last month, we always like to see how those weight claims stand up in the real world. So, we broke down the new Campagnolo groupset piece-by-piece to get a closer look and to see how much it really weighs – also comparing to the best on the market from Shimano, SRAM & Rotor…
Campy Ekar 1×13 component breakdown – Actual Weights
Ditching the front derailleur, one of the chainrings, and the shift internals is a good way to save some weight. So even though this new group is a fraction of the cost of Campagnolo’s most expensive groupsets, if you try to make a more apples-to apples comparison against the wider range disc brake variants of Chorus 2×12 or even Super Record 2×12, Campy Ekar 1×13 comes out pretty light. And just a shade lighter than sub-compact Chorus, Ekar is truly Campagnolo’s lightest complete gravel-ready group.
Totaling up all of the Ekar components on our test bike, our real gravel 1×13 group added up to 2741g in all. Unfortunately it wasn’t a huge surprise to see that real number come in more than three hundred fifty grams more than Campagnolo’s 2385g claim, which tends to factor in the smallest cassette option, smallest chainring, shortest cranks, no oil in short hoses, no brake mount adapters or bolts. Of course, pretty much every company does that when making weight claims.
In any case, that real 2741g weight includes all of the components on this 8.6kg complete 3T Exploro, broken down below. To put it into context, that’s sixteen grams less than the real 2757g sub-compact Chorus 2×12 on my current gravel bikepacking bike (48/32 x 11-34T) and one hundred eighty-one grams more than the 2560g compact Super Record 2×12 on my all-road bike (30 50/34 x 11-32T).
You can compare that to our real weights of Force AXS Wide 2×12 or mix & match parts with Eagle AXS & a 1x Force crank (hint: both of those options are over 2.9kg, so Ekar is lighter.) We haven’t had the full GRX or Rotor components on our scales yet for those real breakdowns, so we’ll defer to comparing claims to one another.
Campagnolo Ekar 1x crankset
The carbon Campy Ekar 1x crankset shares much of the same styling & construction as the Chorus crank, but dropping the big ring saves an easy hundred grams, even with the plastic protectors on the arms. This 172.5mm crankset with guards, bearings & a 38T chainring weighs in a 624g (615g claimed). There’s still plenty of room to shed more weight here though, if Campagnolo ever wants to take gravel to SR-like levels with ceramic bearings, ti hardware & lighter carbon construction.
Campy Ekar 13-speed cassette
The new 13-speed Ekar cassette shares similar mono-block construction to their modern 12-speed cassettes. The 9 biggest cogs are machined out of a single chunk of steel, mounted to an alloy carrier. The 4 smaller are also machined from a single piece of steel, and capture the modified long lockring that makes it work on the N3W freehub body that is backwards compatible with all current Campy groupsets.
This 9-42T cassette is the widest range on offer at a 467% gearing range, and sits in the middle of three at 392g (390g claimed). Campagnolo calls this the ‘gravel race’ option as opposed to their ‘endurance’ 9-36T or ‘gravel adventure’ 10-42T cassette.
Campagnolo Ekar 1×13 rear derailleur
Probably the most unique new component out of the group for Campagnolo is the 1×13 Ekar rear derailleur at 274g (275g claimed). A mix of carbon-reinforced composites & two aluminum alloys, it’s the addition of the non-adjustable clutch that keeps tension on the 1x setup for proper gravel use.
Campy Ekar 1×13 Ergopower levers & brakes
The new Ekar 1×13 Ergopower lever & brake setup is a bit heavier on the shifting side than Chorus, Record & Super Record which all add up to almost the same 410g per side – while the brake only set is un surprisingly lighter. The Right-hand shift + brake setup weighed 482g with the new Ekar caliper. And the Left-hand brake-only setup was just 339g.
Campagnolo Ekar rotors & brake hardware
Ekar actually gets a heavier rotor than what we saw previously, with a move to a steel carrier. At 156.5g each for the 160mm AFS centerlock rotors (157g claimed), you could always save an easy 37g by using the alloy carrier road rotors instead. Unlike the Campy Road Disc groups, the gravel group shares a single flat mount caliper front & rear, which means you’ll need various adapters & bolts depending on the frame & fork you use. On our Exploro that amounted to 51g of brake hardware, but some installs could use less than half that weight.
Shift & brakeset weight claims are a bit more tricky to compare, but Campy claims 420g for the pair of Ergopowers, plus 110g & 95g for front & rear calipers, including adapter kits – a total of 625g. Along those same lines, our scale says 482+339+51g – or 872g, quite a bit more. I assume our setup adds a bit of extra weight for the extra rear adapter & bolts to run 160mm rotors, plus the shift housing, wire & oil that Campy may have overlooked?
Campagnolo Ekar 13-speed chain & BB
The new Ekar C13 13-speed chain is thinner than ever, and sheds some weight in the process. Our build used 110 links (the same uncut length as Chorus 2×12) out of the max 118 links that come on the Ekar chain. Pulled off our bike, it was 226g (pretty much spot on to the 242g claim for the full 118 links).
Ekar uses a new bottom bracket that gets a sealed composite tube inside the frame to protect against water & grit, and the bearings that are pressed onto the cranks are said to be extra sealed. But the BB cups themselves are essentially unchanged at 40g (minus the 10g internal tube, not shown), exactly as claimed weight-wise.
A complete Campy gravel race groupset
If we set aside the discrepancy in the shift/brake setup weights that probably overlooked some hardware, the actual individual component weights that Campy claims for the new Ekar groupset seem spot on. Of course an extra 250g that creeped in there isn’t something that should be overlooked when we are talking about a complete real world build, but the components & group do still seem to be lighter to other real world gravel builds we’ve gotten our hands on.
And at a complete retail price of 1700€, it’s still not even close to the expensive of the electronic shift groupsets of Campagnolo’s big competitors. At a real 2751g total that it took to build up our ‘gravel race’ build, the resulting Exploro has served well with wide ranging gearing for big gravel days, and even hauling a bit of ultralight bikepacking gear.
Want the full tech details on the complete new gravel groupset? Check out our in-depth Campy Ekar coverage here. And keep an eye out for our first riding impressions of the new groupset, coming soon!
