Advice for New Project - Campag Compatibility

Sergeant Rock

Hi

Possible slightly different take on a question which has been asked before. I am resurrecting my first proper race bike, a 1977 Harry Quinn, and want to fit it out as a 'Retroish' time trial bike. I'd like to put Campag Centaur components on, rather than go full 1970s, with other selected modern components but without the black anodized finish.

To keep build costs down I am going to compromise on the wheels and want to use a set of silver Shimano Ultegra wheels which I already have.

My question is: will a Campag Centaur groupset, using Campag bar-end indexed shifters, work acceptably with a Shimano wheel and cassette? I know for Ergolevers working with Shimano mech's this might be a problem but is this true for the scenario I have suggested.

I guess I could use friction bar-end levers but I imagine indexed ones are significantly better?

If anyone can suggest a way of being able to use a Campag drivechain (with bar-end shifters) with a Shimano cassette and wheel I would be very grateful as I don't think Shimano mech's would suit this build.

Also if anyone knows where I can lay my hands on natural alloy finish tri-bars and extensions, again in a modernish shape, please let me know.

cooper.michael1

For 10speed i've used an all campag groupset with a shimano cassette and it works fine.

You just have to set to the rear mech so it is perfectly aligned on the middle sproket, this evens out the marginal shifting error across the whole cassette.

if all else fails conversion cassettes are £30 here:

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/17 ... sette.html

Monty Dog

I expect you realise you need to cold-set the rear drop-outs to accommodate the wide rear hub? In terms of tri-bars (which weren't invented until 1987) you could try and find a pair of silver Cinelli Spinaccis which are quite low key, but don't have arm pads. You could always strip and polish an existing tri-bar?

Sergeant Rock

Thanks for the replies guys.

Setting the rear mech up on the centre spocket sounds favourite at the moment as I will use the Ultegra wheel in a SRAM drivetrain on my road bike from time to time. I imagine that a universal cassette which fits both a Shimano and Campag freehub will then give me an indexing problem on both bikes.

Thanks Monty Dog for the point about cold setting the backend. I'm going to get this done when I have the frame resprayed.

Anyone got any feed back on using friction bar-end shifters as I beleive this might solve my problem but would it be really fiddly to operate?

John.T

No problem at all using friction shifters. They just take a while to get used to. I raced on these in the 1960s as did many others. You can go for 8, 9 or 10sp cassettes with no problem other than the 10 may a bit more fiddly.

blackhands

You can also get an Ambrosio cassette which fits Shimano splines but has Campag spacing - Surosa Cycles used to sell them.

http://www.surosa.co.uk/104/Cassettes_a ... ckets.aspx

second one down.