Setting up a campy group...

[kceb_cire]

Any tricks, or tips I should be aware of?
So far, my only complete, form the ground-up build has been with a flat bar shifter for the rear, and a downtube shifter for the front der.
Campy centaur 10 spd group, older, round style. I believe they are Power shift? Thumb lever ratchets all the way down, index lever clicks once.

[ultraman6970]

Do not install the levers yet. (im going to skip some obvious steps ok?)

1... click the pads all the way down untill you hear no more clicks.

2 .... Install the cables... easier w/o having the levers in the handlebars...

3 install the levers in the handlebars

4 once levers in position put the housing in place. Put brake in the front and derailleurs in the back, it is because of friction issues.

5 blah blah the cables are run, handlebar tape in place blah blah blah.

6 adjust rd lower screw...

7 step erased...

8 install cable in rd and appply tension... tight the cable screw.

9 count 4 clicks with the pad, the chain shoould be in the 5th cog, if not adjust the cable tension screw untill in position.

10 click the rd down to the small cog, then go all the way up 9 clicks, the chain should be in the 10th cog, the biggest one... if not it you have to adjust the upper rd screw.. go all the way down, all the way up and ready to go.

11.. if you have problems kind'a in the middle going up or down, or you are riding and the stuff kinda slips gears in the middle of the cassette in particular, or if like you were having friction problems... then you have to adjust the C screw... have seen that to happen with centaur in particular and veloce aswell. With record personally i have not had to adjust anything, but with centaur and veloce i had to do it in the old style and in the new style. Never knew why the difference.

Good luck.

[maximus]

This is a good link:

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/workshop-how-to-fit-campagnolo-ergo-levers-24781/

Have fun!

[kceb_cire]

Are newer campagnolo cables really not compatible with older groups?
In my excitement, I ordered a set of cables/housing, but now looking back it says compatible only with post 2010 10/11 speed systems....

[ultraman6970]

IMO they should work just fine in a matter of fact in my last built I put shimano jagwire cables and jagwire housing for the derailleurs... saved a ton of money and time that way. Nobody carries campy cables around here, there was a store carrying another brand that was campy compatible derailleur cables and they were asking like 20 bucks for it... no way! got the ss jagwire for five each that is not that bad.

The only thing you have to do is to dremel the heads to fit the spool holes so they dont get stuck in spool. Using a dremel is like a minute per cable, just be safe using glasses because of the metallic dust and particles that will be moving around.

[oldpotatoe]

Are newer campagnolo cables really not compatible with older groups?
In my excitement, I ordered a set of cables/housing, but now looking back it says compatible only with post 2010 10/11 speed systems....

Just the opposite. 2009 and later ERGO levers must use 4mm der housing(2009 cable kits) since that's the size in the lever for the housing(w/o ferrule). You CAN use a newer, 2009+ cable kit on older ERGO BUT I rec. 5mm der housing for 2008 and older levers, in fact, all shift levers, works better, longer.

[oldpotatoe]

IMO they should work just fine in a matter of fact in my last built I put shimano jagwire cables and jagwire housing for the derailleurs... saved a ton of money and time that way. Nobody carries campy cables around here, there was a store carrying another brand that was campy compatible derailleur cables and they were asking like 20 bucks for it... no way! got the ss jagwire for five each that is not that bad.

The only thing you have to do is to dremel the heads to fit the spool holes so they dont get stuck in spool. Using a dremel is like a minute per cable, just be safe using glasses because of the metallic dust and particles that will be moving around.

Not sure why bike shops aren't smart enough to just get Campagnolo cables, from Jagwire, for brake and der and then use them on the 'other' manufacturers shifters and brakes, they work just fine, smaller head and all.

[jr59]

Not sure why bike shops aren't smart enough to just get Campagnolo cables, from Jagwire, for brake and der and then use them on the 'other' manufacturers shifters and brakes, they work just fine, smaller head and all.

Is this a trick question?

90% of the shops I have gone in, in the last 4 years, don't even know how to spell Campagnolo, much less work on it.
You come in and ask about Campy and they say, we can order it for you! Or they look at you like you have 3 heads. They don't want to know about it. They don't care! BTW: They don't get my money either.

Even the ones that do, don't know much about it. That's why I had to call your shop from the service dept of another shop and ask where you bought a 3.5 mm allen wrench! They were SHOCKED that you gave me an answer right on the spot! :eek: And that's the best shop in this city!

[oldpotatoe]

Is this a trick question?

90% of the shops I have gone in, in the last 4 years, don't even know how to spell Campagnolo, much less work on it.
You come in and ask about Campy and they say, we can order it for you! Or they look at you like you have 3 heads. They don't want to know about it. They don't care! BTW: They don't get my money either.

Even the ones that do, don't know much about it. That's why I had to call your shop from the service dept of another shop and ask where you bought a 3.5 mm allen wrench! They were SHOCKED that you gave me an answer right on the spot! :eek: And that's the best shop in this city!

I know but the Campag specific cables from QBP(Jagwire) are listed right next to the shimano ones, same price also. For the 1-2 times per year somebody asks for Campag specific, well, they would gain a customer.

Lotsa bike shops, service managers are just lazy. This stuff isn't a black art or something, just cables, pulleys and chains. ALL the info is all over the interweb.

I fault Campagnolo, NA also, with Campagnolo, IT for not funding the USA office to have traveling tech reps, like Mavic and Campagnolo used to have..just to let some of these 'wrenches' how to do some of this stuff.

BUT, like I said, with the interweb(thanks Al!!), the info is everywhere.

[jr59]

lotsa bike shops, service managers are just lazy. This stuff isn't a black art.



^^this^^

[kceb_cire]

Just the opposite. 2009 and later ERGO levers must use 4mm der housing(2009 cable kits) since that's the size in the lever for the housing(w/o ferrule). You CAN use a newer, 2009+ cable kit on older ERGO BUT I rec. 5mm der housing for 2008 and older levers, in fact, all shift levers, works better, longer.
So, the cables will work just fine, ie, I don't have to dremel anyything, but you recommend the smaller housing for the derailleurs? Is it a longevity issue, or performance issue? Kit comes with housing a well, so I was hoping to use it all...

[ultraman6970]

This is smart thinking... you get the tiny head ones for everything, which will work with whatever arrives to the shop... I totally agree with OP.

Campagnolo presence in the states is super big compared with other countries. I have friends in my country that have not seen a campagnolo 10 in years but ask them about the other brands... they know them all; even microshift has more presence than campagnolo. Based on that i doubt campy will be having reps or people teaching in the stores. Thats a reason why I think campagnolo has his certification. By the way how much is to get the campy certificate??? is too expensive to pay for the seminary.

Not sure why bike shops aren't smart enough to just get Campagnolo cables, from Jagwire, for brake and der and then use them on the 'other' manufacturers shifters and brakes, they work just fine, smaller head and all.

[ultraman6970]

Kceb if you have the kit you wont have problems at all man, be sure to measure the housing twice and cut it once.

Forgot this, no idea if the others will agree or not. The rear derailleur housing that comes from the chainstay to the rd... dont cut that housing too short, in a matter of fact try to do a nice curve, the cable will work better that way. If you cut it too short kind'a mess up for excesive friction.

As for longevity, if you arent one of the guys who shift each 30 secs even because you got more front wind, then probably you wont stretch the cables in a while... in a while meaning a year or so before the thing needs retentioning. If you shift like 500 times in 3 hours then you know...

[atl001]

So I'm mostly done setting up my first Campy group now (2012 Athena with Chorus shifters--thanks for the recommendations in my previous thread), and have a couple tips to contribute to this thread.

On installing the derailleur cables in the shifters: On the right side, it goes almost straight through bottom to top, no sweat. The left side involves cursing, I think because the cable has to negotiate a curve--it helps to put a slight curve in the end of the cable to help it around the bend. (If the cable frays, I think solder would work best to keep it together.)

I like to use a dremel to cut cable housings--very clean. But, I found that the cut-off wheel melts the Campy inner liner. Even after using the reamer on my Swiss army knife to clean it out, it had much higher friction than it should. I found that using a 1/16" drill bit, turned by hand, nicely reams the liner of the shift cable housing back to normal, while a 5/64" bit worked well on the brake cable housing.

I don't know if it was just the kit I got, but the derailleur cables included (at 160 cm) were not long enough for the rear on my medium-size frame. Thankfully, I had longer ones in my bin (I think 210 cm is pretty typical).

Last, a question about routing: This was also my first build with shift cables running under the bar wrap. I think it looks cleaner to have the right shift cable run to the left side of the frame, and the left shift cable run to the right side, since they more closely follow the brake cables that way. (In my case, I cross the cables back over inside the down tube.) Is this common? Any reason why not?

[apeescape]

Its really a shame more shops don't work on campy. I get the privilege over ovehauling shifters and building campy bikes frequently. Just install a campy 10s record titanium group on a C59 that had new RD cassette, chain and brakes, but all other components had 13,000 miles on them. That bike shifted flawlessly. No trim needed in the FD to hit all 10 gears in either ring, and rode smooth as butter. It's a little more upfront, but campy pays you back in the long run. Also see if you can get your hands on a campagnolo tech manual. Lots of good info in there. Enjoy that awesome gruppo! :banana:

[monkeybanana86]

Not sure why bike shops aren't smart enough to just get Campagnolo cables, from Jagwire, for brake and der and then use them on the 'other' manufacturers shifters and brakes, they work just fine, smaller head and all.

I wasn't going to be passing my favorite shop across town so I had to try FOUR different shops to finally get campy derailleur cables asap. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area BTW!!!!!

I agree, just get campy cables.

[ultraman6970]

YOu can buy shimano cables and dremel the heads a tiny bit.

[oldpotatoe]

I wasn't going to be passing my favorite shop across town so I had to try FOUR different shops to finally get campy derailleur cables asap. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area BTW!!!!!

I agree, just get campy cables.

I know, it's pitiful. If how many times other shops here in the republic call and ask us for Campag 'stuff' is any indication..even 2 of the Campag 'pro' shops.

Lazy shop wrenches, service managers, etc. If it was something they just ran out of, that's one thing but we get calls for things they never carry, like a PT BB30 cup. Gettin tired of it. Inventory control is one of the biggies in retail, IMHO. Identifying the market, making sure you have the 'stuff' for that market. If they either know nothing about or don't want to work on that Campag stuff, send them to me.

I also get ERGO levers from other bike shops around the country for OVH. Geeez, not that hard..........

[dustyrider]

I went around to the numerous local bike shops recently to try and get some ride time on different modern groups, and I couldn't seem to find any campy stuff anywhere. We are a very MTB centric community, but still I figured at least someone would have campy stuff to at least touch. I got the same response, it seems most people are used to. We can order that!

I know from my experience working in a shop that campy stuff was always looked at with some level of disdain, by the service staff, I never figured out why people in the biz for decades didn't like the stuff, but then again we never really saw campy coming in on bikes, so I never got the chance to figure it out.

Coupled with the fact that the folks I know that run campy usually run it on the vintage garage queen, makes it hard for me to even want to ride campy. It's not like I can just try it out anywhere, or even get a cable the same day, unless I order every possible ancillary ahead of time. Which, just doesn't make me want to pony up, so I'm sticking to Shimano, cause I can't stand the double tap SRAM. :eek:

[kceb_cire]

Setting up the campy group was pretty simple (Centaur 10). I got it mostly nailed down from the start, and I don't own any more tools that basics: cable cutters, hex wrenches, screwdrivers, chain breaker. Also, I set it up on my living room floor, since I don't have a stand yet.
Brought it down to my favorite shop and had my mechanic give it a once over.
He loves when I bring my bikes in, I think its the only time during the day that he gets to work on campy.

[oldpotatoe]

I went around to the numerous local bike shops recently to try and get some ride time on different modern groups, and I couldn't seem to find any campy stuff anywhere. We are a very MTB centric community, but still I figured at least someone would have campy stuff to at least touch. I got the same response, it seems most people are used to. We can order that!

I know from my experience working in a shop that campy stuff was always looked at with some level of disdain, by the service staff, I never figured out why people in the biz for decades didn't like the stuff, but then again we never really saw campy coming in on bikes, so I never got the chance to figure it out.

Coupled with the fact that the folks I know that run campy usually run it on the vintage garage queen, makes it hard for me to even want to ride campy. It's not like I can just try it out anywhere, or even get a cable the same day, unless I order every possible ancillary ahead of time. Which, just doesn't make me want to pony up, so I'm sticking to Shimano, cause I can't stand the double tap SRAM. :eek:

At least that's a good call...

Once upon a time, Campagnolo had US tech reps, traveled around, didn't sell anything. Just made appointments in shops, talked Campag tech, to show it wasn't a black art and the 'stuff' is readily available. Mavic did that also. No mas, too expensive, I guess.

I told the Campag US people I'd be a tech rep for them, Colorado front range,
provide wheels, travel expenses, small stipend..no $ from Vicenza.

At least I can have a Campagnolo-centric store here in the republic. BUT go 20 blocks away(or 1/2 block) and it's, 'huh'?? From the 20 somethin'.