Three Campagnolo groups account for most of what turns up when you search eBay for vintage Italian road parts. Nuovo Record is the silver friction-shift group that ran from the late 1960s to 1987. Super Record is its lighter sibling, sold from the mid-1970s to 1987. Chorus, in its 8-speed form of the early 1990s, belongs to the period when Campagnolo moved to indexed shifting and Ergopower brake-shift levers. The first two share most of their hardware. The third is a different system that shares almost nothing with them. Knowing which is which, and reading the stamps, is most of the work.
Nuovo Record: the baseline
The Nuovo Record rear derailleur (catalog number 1020/A) appeared in 1967. Campagnolo released its first Record side-pull brake set, the 2040, in 1968, and by the end of the decade the catalog showed a complete road group: derailleurs, down-tube levers, the 1049 Strada crankset on a 144 mm bolt circle, brakes and Record hubs. The derailleur stayed in production, with running changes, until 1987.
Set your expectations on shifting. It is a friction derailleur with a conventional (not slant) parallelogram, and it does not like large low gears or very small top cogs. Disraeli Gears quotes Frank Berto's verdict that it shifted poorly but was so well made it would keep shifting exactly as poorly forever. That durability is the point: the pivots are loaded in a way that keeps them from wearing badly, and the pulleys run on bronze bushings. A Nuovo Record with obvious slop at the pivots has had a long, hard life.
Most Nuovo Record parts can be dated. The b-knuckle of the rear derailleur reads 'PATENT CAMPAGNOLO' on the earliest examples, 'PATENT' on the late-1960s ones, 'PATENT-70' through 'PATENT-79', then 'PAT.80' through 'PAT.84', 'PAT.11' in 1985, and nothing at all on the last ones. Crank arms carry a date code on the back, and hub locknuts are often stamped with a year. The full key is in our guide to dating vintage Campagnolo and Shimano components.
One date matters for fit as well as originality. In 1978 Campagnolo revised Nuovo Record and Super Record to meet new US consumer-product safety rules (the CPSC changes): a lip on the front derailleur cage, 2.5 mm more clearance between crank spider and arm (with a correspondingly longer bottom bracket axle), curved hub quick-release levers, a domed quick-release cam on the brakes, plastic-coated shoe guides and plastic shields on the derailleur screws. A pre-1978 crank on a post-1978 axle, or the reverse, will not sit where it should.
Super Record: the same skeleton with lighter bolts
The Super Record rear derailleur (4001) arrived in 1973, and the 1974 catalog listed the full group: a rear derailleur with black anodizing and titanium bolts, a titanium bottom bracket axle, titanium hub spindles that were dropped soon after, drilled brake levers and chainrings without the inner web. Disraeli Gears is blunt about the derailleur: the knuckles are Nuovo Record knuckles in the same alloy, the parallelogram is geometrically identical, and the real differences are the two large titanium pivot bolts and a pulley cage with a bigger flange. Expect Nuovo Record shifting with less weight.
Details that trip up buyers:
- A revised Super Record derailleur with a script logo and a different cage appeared in 1978, and Disraeli Gears' 1978 and 1980 examples have 'SUPERECORD' engraved on the inner parallelogram plate.
- In 1978 and 1979 Campagnolo fitted aluminium pivot bolts in place of titanium, reportedly because of a titanium shortage. Aluminium bolts on a derailleur stamped 'PATENT-78' are not automatically a sign of tampering.
- The titanium bottom bracket axle had been dropped by the 1985 catalog, and 1985 brought Super Record cranks without milled flutes and brake calipers with a triangular cross-section and script logo.
- The 1982 catalog showed a "reduced" Super Record group with a Nuovo Record bottom bracket and lighter-spec pedals, so a Super Record bike with a Nuovo Record bottom bracket can be legitimate.
Because the two groups share so much, a "Super Record" label in a listing is a claim to check rather than a fact. Ask for close-ups of the pivot bolts, the b-knuckle stamp, the inner parallelogram plate and the pulley cage, and compare them with dated reference photos. Our guide to spotting reproduction, refinished and misdescribed Campagnolo covers this in detail.
Chorus 8-speed: a different system
The Chorus name first appeared in the late 1980s on a heavy derailleur with an adjustable slant that Disraeli Gears calls a problem nobody had. The part in this catalog is the later Chorus RD-01CH, an early-1990s slant-parallelogram 8-speed derailleur rated for a 26-tooth largest cog. It sits alongside the FC-01CH crankset, which uses a 135 mm bolt circle and self-extracting crank bolts, and 8-speed Ergopower levers. Campagnolo's first Ergopower lever appeared in the 1992 catalog and was used across the Record, Chorus and Athena groups.
Disraeli Gears notes that Campagnolo made a bewildering array of very similar-looking derailleurs in this period, so read the model marking rather than judging by shape. And check the system around the part:
- Campagnolo rear derailleurs of this era are designed to work with Campagnolo shifters, so an Ergopower lever needs a Campagnolo derailleur.
- Campagnolo 8-speed cassettes use a different spline pattern from the later 9- and 10-speed parts, so 8-speed cassettes and hubs do not cross over.
- The Chorus 135 mm crank takes different chainrings from the 144 mm Nuovo Record and Super Record cranks, and its 8-speed hubs are spaced 130 mm rather than the 120 or 126 mm of the friction era.
For an Ergopower lever, ask the seller to shift through every position in both directions on a bike or a video. A lever that skips positions or will not hold a gear needs internal repair. More on mixing generations is in our compatibility guide.
Before you bid
- Get the stamps: the derailleur b-knuckle, the back of the crank arms (length, "Strada" and date code) and the brake arms (2040 or 4061).
- Match the brake reach to the frame. The 2040 and 4061 are standard reach; the short-reach versions are 2040/1 and 4061/1.
- Check rear spacing. Record hubs were made at 120 or 126 mm; 8-speed Chorus hubs are 130 mm.
- Check the freewheel thread on Record hubs. They were made in English/ISO, French and Italian threadings.
- Look for wear: derailleur pivot play, hooked chainring teeth, pitted hub cones and cups. Our inspection checklist goes part by part.
- Decide what "original" means to you. Mixed years are normal on a ridden bike. They only matter when a listing charges for an untouched group.
The sellers worth buying from show the stamps without being asked and describe replacements plainly. If a seller won't photograph a stamp, assume it doesn't say what the title says.
