Campag Xenon 9 speed shifters set with only 7 speeds

Benn Wilson

I have what used to be a stock Raleigh Airlite 100. It came with campag xenon 9 speed shifters, but a bargain basement shimano rear de-railleur and a no-name brand front de-railleur (yes, that's how it comes!). It also came with a 7 Sprocket shimano freewheel hub. Long story short I got a tri-bike and decided to make the airlite (which I really enjoy riding) my first building project and every day bike. My tri bike came with average wheels which I upgraded with a carbon set, so I took those wheels for the airlite and bought (on the cheap!): shimano 9 speed cassette, shimano 105 rear de-railleur, sora front de-railleur. I also got new textro brakes as the old ones were broken and a new saddle from planet x!

The upgrading went relatively well, but when I tried to properly index the gears, it was skipping two gears in Some of the middle sprockets. So I fiddled and tuned and fiddled but couldn't get the gears to index properly. Then I realised that the shifters, which are definitely 9 speed xenon, are only clicking 7 times. Which makes sense as the factory set up was a 7 speed freewheel. Sorry for the long winded intro, but how can I make the xenon 9 speed as they should be?

I'm guessing there was some odd modification in the factory to limit the shifting clicks. I've read about a component inside shifters called a shifter disc. Perhaps they changed that? This bike was born a little b*stard and I love it, and would love to make it work. But I've reached the absolute limit of my knowledge! I have googled this and found some similar threads on the airlite but no answers to this query - people are generally unbelieving that a bike could leave a factory this way! All thoughts very welcome!

Keith1983

You'll do well to get the Campag shifters to work with the Shimano de-railleurs full stop. They simply aren't very compatible. That's not to say it's impossible, just very difficult. You might be better off looking for a set of Shimano levers, even some old RSX kit will do a pretty good job.

2alexcoo

There are some Shimano / Campag 'bodge' combinations that work (see here). It sounds like a previous owner found a bodge that worked for a 7 speed Shimano cassette, but the spacing is different between 7 and 9 speed Shimano cassettes.

This will be what's causing the problem, not a lack of 'speeds' in the shifter. The 'Escape' type Campag levers (like the Xenon) were only available in 9 or 10 speed. You should have 8 clicks on a 9 speed shifter, but sometimes without any tension on the cable you'll ony get 7.

If the rest of the drivetrain is all 9 speed Shimano, by far your best bet would be to replace the shifters with 9 speed Shimano (Sora or Tiagra).

Benn Wilson

Thanks Keith / Alex. I really appreciate your advice.

Not sounding too positive. I wasn't so clear in my original post. The bike comes from the factory with the camapag shimano mix. I bought the bike new. So I do have hope that a 9 speed shimano cassette and derailleur can be made to work with my xenon shifters. Question is how?

Alex, sounds like there is no internal adjustment that can be made to the shifters themselves? My stupid mistake on thinking there should 9 clicks rather than 8 for a 9 speed. Good point! You say there is maybe not enough tension and that is preventing an 8th click? Could you elaborate? I would have thought that, considering previous set up had fewer sprockets, tension would be greater with newer cassette? But maybe the range between largest and smallest sprockets was greater on the old 7 speed freewheel. Could this problem with too few clicks not be fixed with a tighter cable?

The link you sent was very interesting. In particular the "shift mate" product. I have emailed them to enquire if this could be the solution.

I really want to keep the campag shifters - I love them and the look on the bike with the cabling in the bar tape. This is also very much a budget project. The 105 derailleur was a great bargain. The wheels were free. The cassette / chain / front DR also cheap. New shifters would tip the balance and defeat the objective / principle.

Know anything about changing shifting discs in the capag shifters (this was mentioned in Alex's link)? Is this a red herring?

Wirral_paul

Simply put - if it came as standard with a 7-spd setup that worked using a mish-mash of components that worked (so a factory standard bodge), it doesnt follow that a different bodge will work.

The above advice from the other guys still stands - you're simply not going to make a 9-spd set of Campag shifters work properly in every gear using a 9-spd Shimano derailleur.

Benn Wilson

That's not a very useful comment Paul. But thanks for sharing your opinion.

g00se

With the CTC link - it looks like the 9 speed Xenon will work with 8 speed shimano rear with a 'hubub' alteration:

http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=3946#Shimano

The bit about older 9 speed working with 7 speed shimano was for pre-2001 shifters.

So the fact that you have it working with 7 speed at the rear does sound as if something has been altered in the levers or the mech.

Have you tried contacting Raleigh to see if they can shed any light onto it?

Keith1983

If it transpires that you have standard 9 speed Xenon and you do choose to replace them I migth be interested in the Xenon shifters if they're immaculate!

It sounds liek a strange arrangeemnt from the factory though!

Benn Wilson

Thanks Keith. I will keep that in mind!

Wirral_paul

Benn Wilson wrote:

That's not a very useful comment Paul. But thanks for sharing your opinion.

Well if you wish to take it that way then thats up to you. Try a search and you will see cross-compatibility of groupsets has been done to death. A 9 speed Campag lever simply wont work with a 9 speed Shimano rear mech 100% correctly. Are you hoping for someone to tell you it'll work? It seems you have already found it wont so what do you expect to be told??

Benn Wilson

Thanks Goose. The factory set up was really unusual - Raleigh was really in the wilderness back then, and I guess they were really gunning for entry level bikes. And I am glad they did, because it was my first road bike back in 2006 which I got for my commute to work and I've never looked back! And its now its my first "project" bike, so its giving me lots of value! I'll get to the Hubub fix below...

Paul, I do take your point (I now see that this has been done to death), but sometimes its hard to look when you don't know what it is you are looking for! This is a learning process for me and the link Alex gave me helped me understand a lot more about what I needed to look for. Your comment wasn't very constructive (no offence). When I can't add anything, I don't.

So, thanks to you guys, I understand more now and I think my only option is the Shiftmate product if I want decent (hopefully!) indexing. My 105 rear derailleur isn't "compatible" with the hubub fix - the cable clamp on the 105 RD won't rotate, because now there are two "hooks". Its only designed to sit one way. The hubub fix is dated, so hopefully other readers can learn from my experience with this fix on newer shimano RDs - it doesn't work on 105s.

I will post the result when the shiftmate comes. Ordering tonight! Fingers crossed!

Can I just say that, having never thought about it before, I really prefer Campag shifters - I love how the cables under the bar tape keep the front of the bike so clean looking.