The Campagnolo Thread

This of course doesn’t only apply to Campag but:

it baffles me how many people insist on trying stuff that goes against manufacturers indications based on whatever they’re told online and when shit hits the fan, blame the product instead of the advice given to them.

Brands spend a lot of time and resources developing new components that are designed to deliver the best user experience if paired together. Whenever you start mixing it might indeed end up “working” but it’ll be a far cry from the performance you could have had.

I’m not saying you should never use anything different from what the manufacturer suggests but some items are essential to remain original in order for it to correctly perform.

Lol - well - check out what this guy did on the paceline forum.

Build notes from him:

Crank: Ekar
RD: Ekar
Cassette: Shimano 11-42 (10 speed)
Shifter: Microshift 11-sp bar end (Friction mode!)
Brake levers: Athena EPS

1 Attachment

Or my super record 11s shifters with a shift mate, deore derailleur and sunrace cassette.

I think the key with mixing and matching is the second part of mori's statement - the 'blaming the product' when shit goes wrong.
There always an element of risk when you go off script, but you need to own it, chalk it up to experience and move on if something goes wrong.
There's an impression that campagnolo is more finicky than other brands, but it's been reliable and versatile in my experience. Because of smaller market share there's fewer examples of homebrew setups, I merely wanted to illustrate you don't need to be limited to the official supported configurations, if you so desire.

yeah, i never blame campagnolo for either my tightfistedness or my hamfistedness.

my tightfistedness or my hamfistedness

These are two of the defining traits on most of my bike builds...

I think @timmah! is right though, in that you can experiment if you want, but those modifications are on you, and don't blame the manufacturer if they don't work.

I'd like to put full, brand new Super Record / Ekar / Dura-Ace / GRX groupsets on all my bikes, but I can't justify the cost when there's a hundred other house/kids/car/life things in line too.

Plus, despite being frustrating at times, it can also be quite fun experimenting and finding out what can work.

(That said, I do also very much appreciate the technical info I get when asking questions on here.)

Don’t get me wrong, I love a of bit of tinkering myself but as stated, you need to be realistic in what to expect from the brand when you’re working outside their indications. :)

I appreciate the effort that’s gone into the build but I’m afraid I’m missing the added value haha.

Haha, yeah, kinda wild. All of his bikes have friction shifting be it at the downtube or bar-end. Not sure why to be honest but he likes it so ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I’m in the market for a chorus or record 10 speed medium cage rear derailleur, as mine is in need of replacement.
Plenty of short cage ones on eBay but medium seems in short supply.
Let me know if you’ve got one you want rid of.
Thanks

BITD I had a couple of 7s Shimano bikes rocking 8s Ergos (the first one was my first brifted bike), with the Campy RD. Third Shimergo bike I've had since '99, 7700 with a Shiftmate.

Only drama I've had was the third bike; the 9s rear lever had some overshift built in by way of a little float between the lever body and the spring cage, which was causing the chain to catch the next cog. I can't understand why the same thing wouldn't have happened minus the Shiftmate and Shimano RD and cassette - it's really strange if you think about it... Anyway, stuck a couple of ziptie offcuts in the shifter and it felt just like the 8s, except the relative crispness of 9s. I love the way G-spring Ergos feel on a Shimano drivetrain.

Been trying to get hold of a 10s index ring for that shifter for ages : (

After some help. Now, I'm no expert, but I've done plenty of bike maintenance, including rear hub/freehub disassembly/reassembly.

I picked up a second hand set of Shamal Ultras a few months. Hardly any wear to brake track, span smoothly etc. Couple of weeks ago I had some instances of where the pawls go 'bang', when they don't quite bite first time. Opened up the freehub to find a broken spring.

At the same time, I took the axle out to clean everything up. Put it all back together, and now I have a very annoying bit of play. Not the sort of play where you can feel it knocking at the rim and just tighten down the adjustable cone, but between the hub and freehub. There's no knocking, but if you pull and push hard enough at the rim you can create the play I mention. Tightening the cone down as far as I can makes no difference, other than a rough running wheel.

I even removed the whole axle/bearings/freehub from an older Zonda that had no play in the wheel at all, and get exactly the same result. So the issue must be something in the hub. Could it be a worn out cup?

The real annoying thing is I'm not certain whether I had this play before I took it apart. If you gently waggle the rim you get no play whatsoever.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Have a vid. Ignore the movement at the rim, it’s hard to try to keep the bike steady when pushing and pulling, so at times the movement is exaggerated.

Toward the end you can see the movement between hub and sprockets. Sprockets remain steady, hub moves.

1 Attachment

• IMG_4525.MOV

here's a special little gem I just received: a Campagnolo High-Low flange hub. I searched a little for extra info that I wanna share with you:

The high-low flange design claimed to made for stronger wheels, it shall counteract the different tensions due to wheel dish and help balance the spoke tensions from left and right (nds an ds sides). this was especially inportant as the rims of that era were typically low profile and not as sturdy as modern rims.
The claimed benefits were strongly debated, some say it made a difference, some say, its so marginal, there's practically no difference.
the earliest run of the campagnolo hi-low ( there were earlier ones made from Fratelli Brivio ) was made in the 70s. Here comes a little myth: it is said that Hugo Rickert, famous german framebuilder, has had a central role in convincing Campagnolo headquarters to actually manufacture the first batch of these hubs for the west-german cycling team, as they anticipated at first.
this would explain, why they never appeared in the catalogues of the 70s, they were a special order piece of eqipment only meant for the best.
The hubs were in the 1982 "olympic"* catalogue once and disappeared after that.
(* in preparation to the '84 olympics)
these infos are mainly from the retrogrouch blog and velobase.
the pictured hub uses the "crows foot" lacing pattern, another way of getting some more lateral stiffness compared to a 2x crossed lacing pattern.

1 Attachment

I can answer my own question ^^

The hub shell had separated from the outer casing on the drive side. Basically the only things holding it together were the axle and spoke tension.

Could possibly glue it, I’d have to line it up bang on due to the spoke holes, but I’d forever be constantly worried of it coming apart again.

Picked up a damaged rear wheel off eBay and rebuilt my rim and spokes onto the new hub.

Campagnolo HiLo was the Holy Grail in the 70s.
Everyone wanted one but nobody had ever seen one. The only place I ever saw them was pictures of German teams.
They must be the rarest Campagnolo component.

Top skills Sam. Both your diagnosis and repair.

Campag 12 owners. Is there a 3rd party quick link that will mesh nicely with 12s chorus?

I used sram eagle, seems fine.

Yes, Eagle is your best option. It’s, I think, 0.04mm wider which is the closest there is in size.

No others come as close. I did snap a link next to the quick link though which really freaked me out and after that returned to peening my chain.

I'm using KMC chains with Chorus 12. They're fine.

+1 from me too on KMC. No problems at all.

Thanks all.

Another twelve speed question - do the ultra torque chainsets come with bearings or not? It’s not clear online.

Also, is it worth upgrading from mechanical Super Record 11 to Record 12? There’s quite a bit of added weight (relatively speaking) though the flexibility of being able to run different sized chainrings on the chainsets and the added capacity of the derailleur is a pretty good improvement. Can’t believe how expensive the cassettes are! Wondering if it’s worth holding on for a while or just pulling the trigger.

Would appreciate any insight here. I’ve never owned a groupset from new, well not since my MTB days in my youth.

Yes they do. And the BB comes with your wavy washer.

Cheers JB! If anyone’s got any thoughts on the question of SR11 vs R12 I’d appreciate them :)