One year after its unveiling, Campagnolo has decided to expand the family of 11s groupsets, introducing the Athena 11s, an alu-style 11-speed groupset. Campagnolo’s objective is to make the performance features of its 11s project accessible to the largest number of people, with Athena 11s positioned as a mid-range offering.
Athena 11s is fundamentally an extension of Campagnolo’s 11s project. The design and technical solutions are the same as those of the other three 11s groupsets: Super Record, Record, and Chorus.
The Athena 11s groupset is part of the company’s 2010 range and will be available in the standard version or with an optional carbon fibre crankset; with an impressive weight of 2.352g in the standard version and 2.239g in the optional carbon cranked version.
Athena 11s controls are Ultra-Shift and feature a body with asymmetrical design that follows the natural form of the hands. The brake lever is in carbon fibre with an aluminium core. According to Campagnolo, this ensures reliability over time, stiffness, mechanical resistance and corrosion resistance, a long life cycle, and an aggressive ‘racing’ look.
The lever hoods incorporate Vari-Cushion technology developed by Campagnolo, which gives a different consistency depending on the point: softer where it serves to dampen vibrations, firmer where the hands need to have greater sensitivity and grip.
The mechanisms of the controls are made of special low friction polymers that make shifting very light and maintain high precision over time.
The Athena 11s front derailleur also incorporates all the characteristics of the 11s groupsets and utilises Ultra Shift 11s geometry. The special design of the inner cage increases the swiftness of shifting under stress, and thanks to the ‘funnel’ shape, in the resting position it allows the most extreme chain crossing without annoying friction.
The heart of the groupset and its key player, the rear derailleur is also constructed along the main 11s engineering lines. According to Campagnolo, here the utilisation of both rear derailleur bodies in aluminium, translates into greater stress resistance, reduction of play, and increased shifting precision.
The Athena 11s groupset will employ the Ultra-Shift 11s sprocket set of its ‘elder brother’ Chorus. The sprockets are steel with Nickel-Chrome surface treatment, which considerably increases the life cycle; while the lockring is in aluminium and engineered to give the maximum rigidity to the assembly.
According to Campagnolo, the chain is hands down one of the most challenging components to engineer and requires design choices that are often not evident. The Athena groupset will use the Chorus 11s chain, which is 5.5 mm wide and uses a new steel for the outer links. Campagnolo took advantage during the original launch of the 11s to develop a new steel that is 20% stronger than the one used for the 10s chains.
The Athena 11s crankset makes use of the Campagnolo Ultra-Torque system and in the standard version it is aluminium. The chainring has a new design that increases its rigidity for greater power transfer.
