Campagnolo shifters, the 'wrong' way around?

[megaphone]

The Bianchi bike I'm rebuilding has Campy shifters, are they the opposite way around to what I'm used to on my sram MTB shifters? It appears the rear shifter is on the left and the front on the right. Can anyone confirm?

[anonymous-user]

Should not be that way round. Campy right ergo shifts the rear mech.

I have in error wired Campy shifters the wrong way round, and believe me, you will not get them to shift properly.

ETA: the older style had 10s on the ergo that shifts the rear and QS on the ergo that shifts the front Thumb buttons should be on the inside of the handlebars: I guess if you were to mount the ergos the wrong way round so the thumb buttons were on the outside, you could get the ergo that shifts the rear on the left.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 10th January 14:08

[anonymous-user]

European bike brakes are the opposite of UK, right shifter will operate front brake here and rear on the continent.

[megaphone]

Yes the thumb buttons are on the inside, bike is circ 1998. The left shifter appears to index 9 times where as the right does not, hence my question, I've cabled up the left to the rear mech and it sort of works. strange.

I'll swap them around and see what happens.

[anonymous-user]

megaphone said:

Yes the thumb buttons are on the inside, bike is circ 1998. The left shifter appears to index 9 times where as the right does not, hence my question, I've cabled up the left to the rear mech and it sort of works. strange.

I'll swap them around and see what happens.

If you have them working, leave them as is is my call. Having tried to index a rear mech with a front shifter, it was not a happy process!

[gazza285]

If they are old Campag shifters the left has many "click" positions, but does not actually index, you shift it until the chain has moved onto the other chainring, then adjust the trim with the other available "clicks". How many "clicks" does the rear have? It might only be 8 speed if it's a 1990s groupset.

[bbc]

The left hand shifter on early Campag Ergo levers does not have a two or three position shift like Shimano stuff as they couldn't obtain the movement accuracy required, so they went with a multi position lever which is what you will have. The right hand shifter is for the rear, the left for the front. You are right to swap them around. The front may be only 8 speed, so may only index 7 times.

Eta Gazza beat me to it....

Edited by bbc on Friday 10th January 18:05

[gazza285]

Guess who has 90's Campag on his Vitus?

[bbc]

gazza285 said:

Guess who has 90's Campag on his Vitus?

Not me, but I have got early Ergo power on my 70's Mercian....

[gazza285]

Then we'll both be in trouble on Retrobike!

[megaphone]

Thanks for all the advice, yes you are correct. After switching the cables over both mechs are now working correctly. The front/left does indeed have multiple clicks to shift between the twin crank. The rear/right does appear to be an 8 speed, I needed to confirm this before I purchased a new cassette and chain.

So now a few more bits to buy and I should, be on the road.

Can I use a 9 speed chain on an 8 speed cassette? Looking at the chain that came with the frame, it looks identical to the 9 speed chain I use on my MTB. I have a spare 9 speed chain so it would save me buying one.

[gfkvelo]

Hi all, this is my first post here so a couple of words of intro:

My name is Graeme Freestone King (feel free to Google me) and I am head tech and owner of Campagnolo's main UK Service Centre at Velotech Cycling - basically we look after dealer technical education and service / warranty issues and are the point of reference in the UK for technical queries on Campagnolo product.

I see Campag queries on this forum from time to time and it's a self-imposed part of what I see as our role for me to try and give good advice on Campag product wherever I can ...

Commercial & validation of information offered over!

So, ref the thread above, if you have a 9s system and you have 8s levers there are some compatibility issues that you need to be careful around.

An 8s cassette will fit directly onto a 9/10/11 hub with a spacer behind it and the 9s chain will run OK on the 8s sprockets (the difference in width between an 8s and a 9s chain is all in the outer plates and the flush-ness of the riveting). Make sure though, that you really do tighten the lockring to the full 42 nm (wet) as the 8s sprockets were designed for a steel cassette body so have really shallow splines - the 9/10/11 speed body is aluminium alloy and part of the reason for the recommended torque setting is to prevent fretting of the sprockets on the splines of the body - the 9/10/11s sprocket sets also have deeper splines to reduce the pressure per unit area of the leading edge of the sprocket on the cassette body so this problem is less in the case of a 9/10 or 11s cassette.

Genuine 8s cassettes are available in 12-21 and 13-26 teeth, still - 8s was discontinued by Campagnolo some 7 or 8 years ago, though so they are no so easy to find. We'd suggest Geoffrey Butler Cycles (0208 688 5094) as your most likely source.

Another alternative might be to look at converting the levers to 9s (or possibly 10s to future-proof yourself as much as possible) but the viability of doing that will depend on the version of the lever that you have. PM me or contact me off-forum via our website and I'll advise on that.

Regards all
Graeme




[Mod edit] Good to have you here Graeme. I have just trimmed your post slightly to remove any direct advertising/web links which are not allowed under the posting rules. I'm sure if anyone needed more info they will pm you or, use the power of Google

Edited by burriana on Monday 13th January 11:55

[gazza285]

Hi Graeme, glad to have you aboard.

I'm running Campagnolo shifters and mechs, but I use mine with Shimano cassettes. The eight speed indexes perfectly well on the "wrong" cassette and opens up a much larger choice of ratios with much better availability. The Shimano hubs aren't as shiny though.

[Herman Toothrot]

I was pleased to find today that campagnolo cassettes are loose sprockets unlike SRAM or shimano, as a result I was able to bastardise two cassettes to get the gear range I wanted very good :-)

[DB531]

Only at the lower end of the price range.