Garmin Connect, Strava, SRM – Forget about riding to feel, analysing your ride has never had so many options. And now with the launch of ‘MyCampy’, Campagnolo have created an app that won’t just be breaking down your performance into tangible figures, it also demonstrates space age levels of intelligence and connectivity.

No one knows you better than you know yourself, right? That’s why we hear so many proclamations from riders such as: ‘Nah, I never cross-chain,” “I always ride in the right gears,” or “I always know when I need to change a part on my bike,” – but let’s be honest, we’re often kidding ourselves with this mindset. We’re happy to dish out tons of money on kit and components, swan off on training camps and go in-depth into our own riding performance on Strava, but perhaps we haven’t quite got our cycling as under control as we like to think. That can now change though, thanks to the MyCampy app from Campagnolo. It doesn’t just analyse your ride, but also keeps you informed and in the loop with your bike’s condition while boasting an innate ability to predict the future.

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The digital Stone Age

There is now a seemingly endless array of electronic components available to cyclists, but the actual advantages, over and above their mechanical predecessors aren’t always made clear. Think about electronic shifting: the higher level of precision, often easier to install, identical shifting and the ability to customise your shift commands are great advances thanks to technology, but on the flipside there’s the fiddly nature of charging the battery and waving goodbye to easy repairs. However, the true benefits found in these new smart components come from their interconnectivity – with information being collected and passed on, providing the rider with easy to understand results. This is where the MyCampy app comes into its own and the good news is that it’s not limited to Campagnolo products.

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What needs servicing and when? What’s my shifting behaviour? Is there anything I can optimise? What gear did I change into when I hit that super steep climb at 97 km on my last ride? How often do I actually use the bikes in my garage? When does my chain need replacing? Do my hub bearings need a look at? All these questions and many more are answered with this new app, keeping you in the loop regarding when you should next service your bike, as well as being able to automatically order replacement parts from a trusted dealer.

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What’s in your garage?

The first step to all this data is setting up your ‘My Garage’ by inserting information about your bike/s step by step, selecting all their specific components such as drivetrain; shifters, wheels, cranks etc. You can even insert your whip’s nickname and add a few choice photos as you do this. The choice of parts is not exclusively limited to Campagnolo products either. During the Campagnolo press camp on Gran Canaria, we trialled a beta version of the app, and the set-up was intuitive and simple. Once your garage is full, you’ve got a great overview of your steeds, and can track the mileage, keeping an eye on the wear and tear of your bike/s and their individual parts. Using the web version of the app, you can get an even more in-depth look at the data.

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On the road

On the ‘My Sessions’ section you get an overview of all your completed rides and the option to choose which bike you’re about to ride. The app works with your Garmin or the GPS function on your phone. If you’re using a Garmin Edge 1000 or 520, you can get real-time gearing information – providing you’ve got EPS shifting, bringing us tidily onto the next issue.

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My EPS

Happy owners of Campagnolo’s EPS shifting are about to get even happier: the MyCampy app delivers an advanced analysis of your drivetrain, battery life as well as current gearing, but you can also dial in your own customized shifting, adjusting the shift settings, multi-shifting and its sensitivity and the shift assist. If you’re petrified by the many adjustment options then just choose one of the three Performance Presets: race, sport or comfort. Fine-tuning the shifting system is a simple process. Only the fortunate riders with EPS W3 have access to the ‘My EPS’ function – but the good news for those with earlier versions of EPS is that you can render these compatible by upgrading your battery and interface, which will not cost you much.

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Our impression

Even though the app was in its beta version when we tried it, we were impressed with its usability – certainly high praise coming from digital natives. Adding our bikes into ‘My Garage’ was easy, as was linking up the app to our Garmin and customizing our shifting. In fact, we were pretty taken aback by just how easy customizing your shifting behaviour proved to be. The differences between the three presets are vast, making it faultless and reliable, in true Campag-style. Should you want to adjust anything on the fly, then prepare to be impressed once again. During a long 35km climb on Gran Canaria, the Shift Assist turned out to be the only point of criticism due to its slightly slow performance. In case you haven’t heard of Shift Assist before, let’s explain this theoretically clever feature: Shift Assist will automatically up- or downshift gears on the cassette to even up the ratio and thus your cadence when you change chainrings. Even though it’s largely intended for more leisurely long rides, the gear changes take too long as the rear derailleur starts shifting only once the front derailleur has completed the shifting.But that’s exactly why the ability to customise to such an extent is a worthy one – Chapeau Campy.

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Our conclusion

The launch of MyCampy is yet another technological breakthrough for Campagnolo, seeing them utilize state-of-the-art technology to improve your riding, and it’s the first step from a component company towards becoming an intelligent service provider. Given the increasing number of sensors and electronic parts, it’s now up to manufacturers to keep our bikes kitted out with smarter, more efficient and more customizable parts to make the most of the data. Even for the most hardcore opponent of technology on bikes, the MyCampy app is a sign of where cycling is headed, with software taking on more and more responsibility in the future. Not just for users but for manufacturers, technology is the new selling point for getting the most out of our bikes. Naturally, the MyCampy app is going to be kept at the pinnacle of technology with regular downloaded updates.

R&D looks likely to see teams consisting of much more than just product designers and bike developers, seeing them welcome software engineers to the mix. Just like iPhones and Android systems, it’s the software not the hardware that splits the wheat from the chaff. So it’s fortunate that MyCampy isn’t going to discriminate and will be available for both iPhones and Android systems.

More information can be found on the MyCampy Website.

Text: Robin Schmitt Bilder: Pablo Moreno / Campagnolo


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