Campag 11-speed RD + shifters, Shimano 11-speed cassette

sparquin
sparquin Posts: 69
edited April 2019 in Workshop
I'm hoping to sell my old wheelset to a colleague. The trouble is, his bike is equipped with 11-speed Campag (Potenza, I think - might be Athena) and my wheelset has a Shimano freehub on it. Can he use a Shimano 11-speed cassette with his Campag 11-speed gears, or are they incompatible? I'm sure I've heard that this will work, but I'd rather be sure than sell him a set of wheels that he can't use!

Comments

  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Many people say it works well enough. Some purists say it's not 100% spot -on.

    Can he try them before buying?
  • i.bhamra
    i.bhamra Posts: 304
    As keef66 suggests, it should "work".

    I have used a shimano equipped rear wheel with my 11sp Athena set up (wanted a 28T sprocket at short notice for a ride including Hardknott pass and so used a rear wheel off a different bike).

    Needed some careful adjustment of upper and lower limits and cable tension but worked well. I was able to feel that shifting wasn't 100% as smooth and crisp as with the Campag cassette but soon forgot about it (until I put my original wheel and cassette back on!). I think it's best your colleague try's it and then decides whether he's personally happy with the outcome or not before buying.
  • sparquin
    sparquin Posts: 69
    keef66 wrote:
    Can he try them before buying?

    He's a colleague, I know where he works :lol:

    Looks like it's a weekend test drive before making a decision then. I'll let you know the results.
  • sparquin
    sparquin Posts: 69
    So the results are in . . .

    My friend turned up to try the wheels out on Saturday. His bike has a Potenza groupset and a smart set of Campag wheels that he’s planning to keep for Summer only – hence the interest in my Superstar wheelset. Fortunately he has inline adjusters for all of his control cables, so the wider rim (Superstar Pave) isn’t an issue and aligning the derailleur is a ten second job. I’m doing that next time I replace cables.

    Having aligned the derailleur on one cog, it easily found all of the others. A bit of noise on the largest (28T) one seemed to be down to a slightly worn chain or sprocket rather than misalignment. A fractionally different ‘feel’ to the shifts might have been down to different tooth profiles between Shimano and Campagnolo, but wasn’t a problem.

    In summary: you can use a Shimano 11-speed cassette with a Campag 11-speed drive train.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Happy ending! Thanks for taking the time to post the results.

    I fitted inline adjusters last time I recabled my CR1; very handy for fine tuning even while riding, and I can't get the FD spot-on without.

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