8 speed and 9 speed Campagnolo

I have got some 8 speed Ergo`s to go on my bike 531(it was secondhand when I bought it 30 years ago) I will need to cold set the drop outs to get to 130
I currently run a freewheel set up but would like to go down the Ergo route.
If i get an 9 speed wheel it would appear I can space it using 8 speed spacers, is that so?
I have also read that Campagnolo changed the 9 speed hub at some point so that the earlier 9 speed to not work on the later, is that so?
Did Dovers Hill climb with Evesham Wheelers on Wednesday, what a stupid thing to do!
thanks in advance for your help
Andrew

I have had 2 pairs of 9 speed wheels and 2 pairs of 8. On all of them the 8 and 9 was never interchangeable. There are plenty of 8 speed wheels/ hubs just get the right ones for the group.

campagnolo 8 speed is like a lonely orphan

Campy 8: 5mm, being sprocket 3.1mm, spacer 1.9mm

Campy 9: 4.55mm, being 1.75mm and 2.8mm

8 speed Campy cassette**s are no good ** on newer 9 and 10 hubs.
9 & 10 cassetts no good on 8-speed hubs.

If you can find them, you can put new bodies (i.e. 9/10 compatible) on the 8 hubs, but they are, in my experience, like rocking horse poo.

All that said, set up from the middle of your cassette, and you may or may not find that you can live with the shifting performance.

Thanks for the info.
What I really want to know is can I use a 9 speed wheel with 9 speed sprockets (with one taken out) with 8 speed spacers.
cheers
Andrew

Yes you can. I have run 9 speed sprockets spaced as 8 speed on a 9/10 speed hub.
'Wheels Manufacturing' or Campag make (or made) spacers for this job. They are blue plastic.

Fab,
Thanks for that.
Best get myself a rear wheel then.
cheers
Andrew

I have a couple of pairs of 8speed wheels if you are interested drop me a pm

There's actually at least five types of Campy freehubs.
There's two types of 8 speed ones (I'm excluding the very rare Ti one). They are quite similar, the only difference is that the 2nd gen. had a narrow spline, while the first gen. had all the splines similar.
8 speed cassettes came in 2 generations either, the first one (Exa-Drive, with the letters on the back) will fit only on the 1st gen. freehub; while the 2nd. gen. (Ultra-Drive) WILL fit on all Campy
freehubs.
Therefore, all the Campy 8 speed cassettes sold today are U.D. and they have one narrow notch taht will make them fit even on the actual 9/10/11 speed freehubs. Fact.

To make it clear:

L->R: Ultra-drive 9/10/11sp; Ultra-drive 8sp; Exa-Drive 8sp

UD 8sp sprocket on ED 1st. gen freehub

UD 8sp sprocket on UD 9/10/11sp freehub

Am i correct in thinking that the cogs will dig in to the freehub doing this ?

yes it fits, but isn't usable in an appreciable way. Shame really.

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Am i correct in thinking that the cogs will dig in to the freehub doing this ?

yes it fits, but isn't usable in an appreciable way. Shame really.

Yes and no.
Yes, because the splines are shallow, meant to be used on the I/II gen 8sp that were made out of steel (170gr). No because when moving to 9/10/11sp freehub (alloy, 80gr.) Campy made deeper splines (they saw/thought what happens with the alloy Shimano ones), still mantaining compatibility with IIgen. 8sp cassettes. Then whole thing then can be assumed as a temporary thing (as, in fact is).
It certainly works better with "old" style 9/10sp. freehubs, which had more than the actual 4 notches:

But we're going away from our friend's problem :)
He'll be fine with 9sp UD sprockets on any 9/10/11sp freehub, with 8sp spacers

awesome info.

Fantastic information.
I popped into Wilson`s in Sheffield ( a fantastic bike shop, the chap was very very helpful) apparently I cannot get my very old frame to cold set out to 130 as it is a 120 5 speed frame and apparently I will need to get the brake bridge replaced, which means getting the frame resprayed, which all of a sudden makes it all too expensive at the moment.
I have however got the Ergos to work on my six speed freewheel by following the advise on the Highpath Engineering website.
Cheers for all the comments what a fab website.

Andrew

can you run a 9 speed rear derailleur, 9 speed chain, on a 8 speed rear cassette, 8 speed front derailleur ( friction ) and 8speed front chainrings ??? all campagnolo.
odd combination but is it ok ? or what has to change, its what i have, but no dosh !!

can you run a 9 speed rear derailleur, 9 speed chain, on a 8 speed rear cassette, 8 speed front derailleur ( friction ) and 8speed front chainrings ??? all campagnolo.
odd combination but is it ok ? or what has to change, its what i have, but no dosh !!

Yes you can. Just do it. Other way round, problemo, your way, no problemo.

Edit - that said, for quids few, you might wanna bung an 8 speed chain on. Stronger.

Only thing I'd change if you could would be the chain-9spd spacing is a tiny bit thinner so might be a bit snaggy, but apart from that you should be grand.

Sheldon Brown website has lots of good info on this.

+1 for an 8 speed chain

what are your shifters?

what are your shifters?

They are a device manufactured for the purpose of allowing alteration of drive ratios in order to facilitate the selection of correct gear-inch for terrain and cadence. Why?

+1000000 for 8 speed shifters

down tube 8speed indexed, campy

i was worrying about running a 8 speed chain in a 9 speed rear derailleur ?

Your absolutely fine. If it was the other way round you may have probs as a 9 speed chain is slightly thinner than an 8 speed one so a 9 speed chain may not fit the 8 speed jockey wheels causing it to jump off and generally be a bit shit, hence why folk are telling you to run an 8 speed chain rather than a 9 speed one on your 8 speed cassette, hope this helps and good luck with the build.

bernhard and bigtwin,
many yo's !

apologies, I double-checked my 8-speed cassette, and the 9-speed recently bought... they are Exa-Drive!
The 1st gen. of 8-speed had no particular name (AFAIK), while the 2nd. gen. 8-speed + the 9-speed cassettes where Exa-Drive.
Ultra-Drive came in only on the 10-speed cassettes...

Would be interesting to search around for the Shimano cassette types, starting from the very early 6-speed Uniglide.... :)
But we'll be OT here ;)