touring bike upgrade/refresh

MichaelW

My 1995 tourer is showing its age with the Campy Mirage 8-speed being all but obsolete but how to upgrade.
I like the Mirage ergolevers, esp the micro-shifting left/front . The hubs are still good and the freewheel is hewn from solid stuff but sprockers are only by Miche with max 28t and replacement 135mm axles unavailable. The rear mech is wearing out and there is no simple replacement.
What to do?

1. Tiagra/deore mix like a galaxy
2. Bar end shifter and anything
3. Keep my left egrolever and replace the right with Tiagra
4.???

What is a good, reliable touring wheel. Is Deore OK, is SLX/LX better. Is XT still viable or has it gone all ultralight?

Im heading out on a 10-week North Sea Coast epic tour soon so I need something suitable.
Any ideas?

CiderMartin

Probably the best bet if you like the functionality of Campagnolo is to get a pair of 9-speed Ergolevers (should not be too had to get a pair of Veloce, for example) and mate them with Shimano rear. Shimano at the rear gives you so, so many options including 135mm axle, choice of ratios and quality. I am slowly coming to this conclusion myself as Campagnolo focus more on high end 11-speed components

I know little about the actual quality of the Shimano family but it is logical to presume that the more you pay the better the quality.

There are threads aplenty re use of Campagnolo levers and Shimano rear end, look some up or some kind person will elucidate for you!

andymiller

Deore hubs are OK. XT sealing may be better - but I wouldn't want to swear to that.

XTR hubs have hardened bearing races. Whethercthat justifies the price, I don't know.

A jtek shiftmate may be the best solutuion to pairing campagnolo and shimano bits.

MichaelW

From what I've read, the new XT and XTR hubs have fat 14mm aluminium axles. Something has to make room for the axle, is that the bearing size? The best Shimano hub with std steel axle is LX.

Ive also been hearing a lot about freehub failures on new hubs after 1000miles or so. Is this a real concern ?

andrew_s

My reaction on hearing of the aluminium axles on new XT was to get a couple of spare old XT hubs.
I'd go for steel axle LX unless you can find NOS old XT. XTR has always been lightweight racing kit rather than reliable touring kit.

If you like the ergolevers, 10-speed ergos will work an 8-speed Shimano rear end perfectly.

MichaelW

Useful info so far.
One bike shop recomended Hope for touring hub. Is this a sensible/reliable think to use?

andymiller

MichaelW wrote:

Useful info so far.
One bike shop recomended Hope for touring hub. Is this a sensible/reliable think to use?

When people say things like that it's always a good idea to simply ask 'why?'.

I've done a lot of miles touring on my Hope XC hubs. I've never had any trouble with the bearings but if they did need to be replaced it's not a job you could do by the roadside while replacing and regreasing the bearings on a Shimano hub is very easy.

Hope hubs have aluminium axles. I've not managed to bend one myself but I did buy some secondhand wheels which turned out to have a bent rear axle. I have incidentally managed to bend a steel Shimano axle.

I don't know whether replacing sreel with aluminium axles would lead shimano to change the bearing size, but you can easily check for yourself in the technical documenrs section of their website.

MichaelW

I checked the Shimano bearing size for modern XT, reduced from 1/4" to 3/16" .

ride_whenever

Eeeerm you couldn't do hope bearings by the roadside, but you could certainly do it in a tent with no tools.

The best bit about the hopes is the service, they'll post you spares overnight if you really need them, and small parts are usually free if you phone them up. Try to get a steel freehub as the alloy one is a bit soft.

As for bending the axles, Very uncommon in hope hubs, i'd gesture more bodies have cracked than axles bent, and the bodies very rarely crack.

andymiller

ride_whenever wrote:

Eeeerm you couldn't do hope bearings by the roadside, but you could certainly do it in a tent with no tools.
.

hmm. You're either a mechanical genius, or you haven' t done a bearing change recently.

satanas

IIRC, most of the Campag ergo levers use basically the same internals. It should be possible to just buy a new RH cam (9 or 10 speed: try these guys: http://branfordbike.com/articles/campag ... 7-pg71.htm). 10 speed ergo has the same cable pull as Shimano 8 speed, so you could get a Shimano rear hub, derailleur, 8 speed cassette and chain and it should all work fine. If you want 9 speed, you'll need to use a shiftmate or the hubbub mod to get the right cable pull; you'd need a shiftmate for 10 speed, but there's no point really for touring, since no suitable cassettes.

Re hubs: I'd give up on the Campag hub for touring. This is a market Campag have never shown any commitment towards, and with the advent of 11 speed they are now trying to do away with triple cranksets, and triple-compatible levers too; lots of propaganda on their website re this recently. As you've noted, cassette choice is poor, and this is extremely unlikely to improve.

I'd be wanting to use the trad style (steel axle) XT hubs myself. Don't get anything lower than LX, as bearing and seal quality is much worse from there down. It will still usually do the job, but more frequent maintenance will be needed than with XT. IME, XTR hubs are fine, with the only real difference between them and XT being lighter Ti cassette bodies on the newer ones, rather than steel as per XT; they should be no less reliable. Older XT hubs used steel bodies, and I've taken a set of these to the Himalaya twice now with no issues.