Can I put campag shifters on keeping the shimano front mech?

crazybikelady

Hi,

I am currently facing a dilema... I want to convert my flat bar road bike to drop handlebars at the same time as adding in a few extra gears for hills, but shimano shifters are ~£80 and are sora (which I dont like) or closer to £150 for anything better.

Campagnolo shifters are generally cheaper (£50 upwards) so I was hoping someone could advise me on which of these options might be successful, and how difficult it would be to do myself...

1. Fit 10speed Xenon shifters with current set-up (8speed shimano)
2. Get say 9speed Xenon shifters, a new set of wheels, new 9speed cassette, chain and derailleur
3. Fit a whole new groupset

Option 1 costs ~£50, 2 costs ~£100ish for the gear stuff then extra for the wheels and the cheapest groupset i can find is a sora one (which i dont really want) for £180.

Any other suggestions would also be welcome!

Thanks

bexley5200

i got some second hand tiagra shifters 9 sp cheap £30 ish northampton

redddraggon

Option 1 would work

crazybikelady

thanks... I thought option 1 looked promising, was just slightly concerned about what would happen with the extra clicks...

I might just trek to northampton, it also seems a pretty viable option!

redddraggon

crazybikelady wrote:

thanks... I thought option 1 looked promising, was just slightly concerned about what would happen with the extra clicks...

The Extra clicks are jsut extra clicks, nothing happens.

I have 10spd Veloce shifters with an otherwise Sora Drivetrain on my commuter, and the indexing is better than the indexing ever was with the Sora shifters.

Monty Dog

I would seriously consider Veloce shifters - the metal levers are far better and more durable than the plastic Xenon ones. They'll work your existing front mech fine too.

John C.

Will work but if you can get Centaur levers you can trim the mech up and down, or that's what I was told and why I got Centaur levers. I have no regrets at all in dumping my Sora levers for the campags, much better. and you can change up from the drop position. You can on Sora if you are totally mal formed, fortunatley I am not

John C.

Oh just checked out your spec. the campag levers have to be run with a shimano rear mech.

gundersen

have you thought of getting "super record" shifters - they are much much much better

thel33ter

Keep an eye on ebay and the forums for a while. I found some Shimano 8spd 105's for 50 quid.

k2rider

bexley5200, ill buy your shifters if theyre still for sale

DavidBelcher

crazybikelady wrote:

Hi,

I am currently facing a dilema... I want to convert my flat bar road bike to drop handlebars at the same time as adding in a few extra gears for hills, but shimano shifters are ~£80 and are sora (which I dont like) or closer to £150 for anything better.

Campagnolo shifters are generally cheaper (£50 upwards) so I was hoping someone could advise me on which of these options might be successful, and how difficult it would be to do myself...

1. Fit 10speed Xenon shifters with current set-up (8speed shimano)
2. Get say 9speed Xenon shifters, a new set of wheels, new 9speed cassette, chain and derailleur
3. Fit a whole new groupset

Option 1 costs ~£50, 2 costs ~£100ish for the gear stuff then extra for the wheels and the cheapest groupset i can find is a sora one (which i dont really want) for £180.

Any other suggestions would also be welcome!

Thanks

If you plump for (1) then all should work fine - I have two bikes I race on set up like this with no problems, only thing to watch out for is chain rub if you have the QS style of left-hand Campag lever as this seems, from my experience, to work best with the matching Campag QS front mech. This aside, the rear mech, cassette and chain from your current Shimano set-up will all work smoothly with Campag 10sp levers.

David

STEFANOS4784

Go the whole hog and get this;
http://www.apollocyclesport.co.uk/index ... oduct&p=79
or, even better, this;
http://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=D0023

crazybikelady

Thanks for all your help! I think I'll try and hold out and see if I can get a good deal on some shimano shifters... I am tempted to change to a triple, so this might be a better option... if I get a bit impatient I'll probably give the veloce a go!

gundersen

if your going the SHIMANO way then you have to get Dura-Ace because its much much much better than the others

RedJohn

Just to clarify ...

Are you all saying that Campag 10-sp shifters will satisfactorily operate Shimano 8-sp rear mech and sprockets??

If so, that's ... unexpected ...

crazybikelady

gundersen wrote:

if your going the SHIMANO way then you have to get Dura-Ace because its much much much better than the others

Its also more than twice the price of the bike!!

gundersen

if it was me I would go for option 1 and just change the cassette spacers to fit the indexing

John C.

RedJohn wrote:

Just to clarify ...

Are you all saying that Campag 10-sp shifters will satisfactorily operate Shimano 8-sp rear mech and sprockets??

If so, that's ... unexpected ...

YES and you can run double or tripple up front as well

RedJohn

John C. wrote:

RedJohn wrote:

Just to clarify ...

Are you all saying that Campag 10-sp shifters will satisfactorily operate Shimano 8-sp rear mech and sprockets??

If so, that's ... unexpected ...

YES and you can run double or tripple up front as well

Thanks, that's interesting.
How about 9 speed?

I know you'd need different spacers for 10 sp.

gundersen

its all just a question of spacer width
get the right width spacers and anything is possible

thats why I always keep the spacers from old cassettes
they might just come in handy one day

John C.

RedJohn wrote:

John C. wrote:

RedJohn wrote:

Just to clarify ...

Are you all saying that Campag 10-sp shifters will satisfactorily operate Shimano 8-sp rear mech and sprockets??

If so, that's ... unexpected ...

YES and you can run double or tripple up front as well

Thanks, that's interesting.
How about 9 speed?

I know you'd need different spacers for 10 sp.

For 9 speed you need to 'hubub' the rear cable, this actually is very easy to do and is what Hewett cycles do on there touring bikes, which in my book gives it a gold plated seal of approval. All you actually do is turn the tab washer on the mech round 90 degrees and place the cable around the outside of the tab. once seen it's obvious and easy.
For 10 speed there is only about 2 mm difference in block size so just set the bike up so that gear number 5 is exact and then 1 and 10 will only be 1 mm out of line which is near enough to work.