Campag gear compatibility-8spd

shaw8670

I have an 8 spd set up at the moment and am changing to a triple. I have tried using the short cage mech that I have already, but lose the use of too many gears. I am told a 9 speed medium mech will have a 39t capacity, which is spot on, but which mech would work best, pre or post 2000, as the geometry changed about then?

pliptrot

At the risk of being absolutely no help at all, I had an 8 speed set up -52/39 front and 12/26 rear, with a short cage rear mech, all 8 speed (Chorus, if that matters). I put on a front triple, 32/42/52, and it worked a treat. Now, I've always been careful about chain line, so I avoided the extremes, but even when I messed up in this respect, I never had any problems. So suck it and see?? The manufacturers have always been very conservative with their advice on gearing capacity.

Rob Sallnow

In theory the post 2001 mech should work very well according to Branford Bikes and that made me buy the rear mech first when I went from 8 speed to 9....my experience wasn't that good and I bought the Ergos a lot quicker than planned.

Monty Dog

What typically defines the number of useable gears on a triple is chainring rub - which is more to do with chainline and chainstay length than the ability of the rear mech to take the slack. I've quite successfully used a short-arm mech on a triple and apart from small sprockets on the small chainring, it all runs fine.

geoff_ss

I had a Campag Mirage 8 speed Ergopower set up on the 653 audax bike I built up in 1995. I found the short arm rear mech coped perfectly well with a 50/40/30 Campag chainset coupled with a 12/26 block, which was about the widest range Campag supplied at the time.

Mont Dog is quite right, gear capacity is a function of the rear mech's capability of absorbing the tooth difference range combined with chain rub/alignment problems of the chain set.

I've since replaced the Campag chainset with a Shimano 44/32/22 one and the rear mech still copes perfectly well,. though the indexing is no longer effective as I also fitted flat bars and Shimano shifters at the same time.

Geoff