Wayback machine: how to make Campy 10 work with Shimano?
 

OK, I am sure this has been mentioned ten times over in the past 15 years, but I want the latest *proven* support on this -

If I have 10 speed Campagnolo Centaur with a Veloce long cage (mid cage?) RD and now have a King wheelset, what cassette with a 32t cog will work on this setup perfectly?

I have seen comments saying that their setup was perfect and others suggestion other solutions that vowed that their solution was 'near perfect'

What is the best option I have? I assume it will be either 9 or 10speed Shimano. Don't have a preference.

Thanks for your patience with this overcooked question!

I only made 10 work with Wheels Manufacturing conversion cassettes. I made 9 speed work with a Problem Solvers Travel Agent.

No first hand experience, but with a Campy RD why not go with the 11-32 10 speed Centaur cassette? That should work as well or better than any option using Shimano.

I have a pimp set of CK wheels that cannot be converted to Campy.

I actually have a conversion cassette that I bought here years ago for this purpose, but once I received it, I realized that I misunderstood the sale - it is a Campy-splined cassette, but with an 11-32 range (unavailable for Campy at the time) and made by some other company. It is quite nice, but wont actually help me here.

Anyways, I have seen that some people have made a 9speed Shimano cassette work flawlessly in this circumstance - has anyone done that?

Keeping it simple use a Shimano compatible cassette and the appropriate JTek Shiftmate 1. If you'd like to go with a 36T+ Shimano compatible cassette (I run this on two bikes, one with a 40T) use a long cage 9 spd Shimano MTB rear and the appropriate Shiftmate 3.

IRD made conversion cassettes many years ago, but good luck finding one of those.

There are funky cable routing/fastening solutions out there, but I was never personally happy with the result and finicky nature of the setup.

Long ago I had a successful experience with King hubs, Campy Record 10speed levers/derailleur and a Shimano cassette on my cyclocross bike. Rode it that way for many years.

No problems whatsoever and I had even bought a shim kit from Wheels Manufacturing to correct cog spacing that I never needed to use.

I tried the same lever/cassette/derailleur setup on my road bike and it didn't work well at all. The only variable I can think of was a shorter chainstay on the RB but I don't know if that would account for the poor performance.

I never tried the shim kit because King had come out with the Campagnolo splined R45 hubs and I bought them. Those drive shells broke many times, aluminum and stainless :(

Back to square one.

The 11-32 is 11 speed; there is a 12-30 Centaur 10 spd cassette.

I have an old (converted by da Vinci) SRAM X9 MTB derailleur set up with 10 spd Campy ergos and a 9 spd Shimano cassette; it works quite well.

https://gravelbikearchive.wordpress....am-derailleur/

I ran a full campy 10 speed groupset with a Shimano cassette as is. Took some fiddling and sucked when changing wheels but worked well enough on the one wheelset to race on.

Ymmv.

We have a 9s Shimano equipped Cannondale tandem. 9s Shimano cassette, 9s Shimano rear derailleur, some Shimano front. 2006 road tandem with cable disc brakes.

I speak Campy in terms of shifting so I put a 10s set of Ergo levers on.

Put the cable on the wrong side of the rear derailleur cable anchoring bolt. Zero modifications otherwise.

Absolutely flawless operation, all gears.

I put a smaller cassette on, I think it's an 11-28. Originally it had a 32 I think.

(Campy front is basically ratcheting so front shifter works with doubles or triples, and in fact I ran a Shimano front derailleur on my Campy Ergo bike for a while).

Could be worth trying to replicate the methods used here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDAvc3Tkpdo

Haven't tried personally though.

I don't doubt that you got the 10s Campy levers to work with on the otherwise Shimano 9s bike.

But I don't think you've described the cable attachment variation properly.

What is known to actually give correct indexing is to, yes, run the cable to the other side of the bolt, but with the cable end pointing rearward, and with the cable doing a 180 so as to exit on the same side of the bolt as intended, though passing around the bent tab of the mounting washer.

Kind of like this one shown below, though this was for a 6/7sp conversion of sorts (6s levers with narrowed 7-1s freewheel on an old Phil hub), so used a fabricated washer having slightly different dimensions:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...224e0461_c.jpg

If a 9s 12-34t, 11-32t or 11-34t cassette suits your riding, then it's a solidly robust setup.

My wife's bike has campy 10, King wheelset, SRAM 10 cassette (11-26 I think) and a jtek shift mate. No idea if those are still available and which one you need but it's worked great for a few decades now.

I think the jtek is the solution. Added stuff, but it makes things work perfectly, and that is the goal.

Here are the King/ Velo Orange wheels back from the shop - they’re drop dead gorgeous, if I say so myself!

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...Ug&oe=66344AE6

For clarity. This is our tandem.

The cable would normally run above the bolt, in the picture above.

Instead, run the cable below the bolt. The only way to clamp it is to clamp it past the washer bit that's bent down to act as a lock against the derailleur (so the washer doesn't spin). This mounting spot happens to point the cable up (in the picture).

What are you using for calipers? I'm not sure campy 10 plays nicely with the popular cable actuated disc calipers.