Advice on replacing Campag bits

jonny_trousers

Hi. I bought a second-hand 2008 Condor Fratello last week, which I have subsequently booked into Condor for a service. At present it has a Centaur chainset and the rest is Veloce. I will probably want to swap the cassette and, as the other Veloce bits are looking a little tired, I was thinking of going fully Centaur. I don't particularly want to pay Condor prices for the bits, however, and as there are bargains to be had online, I was thinking of picking them up myself prior to the service (3 week waiting list). All that said, and being a bit of a newbie where gears are concerned, I see it is not as simple as buying off-the-peg. Any advice on the difference in options, and what they are for, would be gratefully received.

Rear mechs: cage size? What's that all about?

Front mechs: are they specific to whether you are running double or triple rings? And the measurement attached to them, is that simply seat tube diameter?

Cassettes? Can I slot on one of the new 2011 Ultradrive ones without experiencing compatibility issues?

Cheers all!

kieranb

lots of questions, hopefully some one with better knowledge will answer them in detail, but yes, the rear and front derailleurs are not independent of the cassette and chainring sizes, you need to make sure they are compatible.

E.g. cage size - longer cage for cassettes with wider range, but I think a longer cage can be used with narrow range cassettes but not vise versa.

Both derailleurs will have a max range for the change in teeth from smallest to largest cog/ring etc

jonny_trousers

Thanks Kieran. Perhaps I should take a better look at what I have already and come back to ask what I should be looking for. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and have Condor sort it? I definitely want to swap the ergo levers as I find Veloce a tiny bit plasticy, but I can easily sort that myself.

Monty Dog

Rear mech cage size - only worry about this if running a triple chainset or a 13-29 rear cassette. If a regular double chainring set-up with something like a 12-25 cassette, then a short-cage mech is fine.

Front mechs do come in double or triple varieties and come in 2 fitting types - band-on or braze. Braze can be used if your frame has the special tag, or you can simply fit to a band-on adaptors. there are 3 band-on sizes: 28.6, 31.8 or 34.9. If the frame is steel then it probably needs a 28.6.

Cassettes - stick to the same number of spockets and you'll be fine. No problems swaping between model years.

Billy Dunlop

I'm just glad you called the stuff 'Campag'!

jonny_trousers

Monty Dog wrote:

Rear mech cage size - only worry about this if running a triple chainset or a 13-29 rear cassette. If a regular double chainring set-up with something like a 12-25 cassette, then a short-cage mech is fine.

Front mechs do come in double or triple varieties and come in 2 fitting types - band-on or braze. Braze can be used if your frame has the special tag, or you can simply fit to a band-on adaptors. there are 3 band-on sizes: 28.6, 31.8 or 34.9. If the frame is steel then it probably needs a 28.6.

Cassettes - stick to the same number of spockets and you'll be fine. No problems swaping between model years.

Thanks Monty!

jonny_trousers

Billy Dunlop wrote:

I'm just glad you called the stuff 'Campag'!

If you mean as opposed to 'Campy', that aint gonna happen!