Drivetrain options - Campy 8 sp Record, need lower gearing

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by Scott5182

I have to agree with Angry....
Unpopular; unsolicited advice: At 72 YO; sell all that ancient stuff and buy a modern subcompact Chorus 12 setup and never look back. Why spend your golden years of cycling on cobbled together sub optimal gears?

I have gone to Chorus 12 on a couple of my old classics. I use a White Industries VBC square taper crank with it. I am running a 30/50 and an 11-34 rear.

Pretty much covers it all...

It's impressive you are getting good shifting with a 20T difference in chainring size!

[Spaghetti Legs]

Originally Posted by dddd

You could use a cable-travel adapter that will allow use of 8s Shimano 12-32t cogset and rear derailer, but then will also need a Shimano-style rear freehub I suppose.
You might get around the latter requirement by using an appropriately large (again thinking 12-32t) Miche 8s cassette(?).

You can re-brand certain of Shimano's MTB rear derailers using an appropriate sticker:

Ha, I’ve done that with the Campy drive train on my Masi. This is just a photo edit, but I fully intend to make a water slide decal for it.

[DWF]

Similar to your situation, I had a Campy Record 2x8 with 53/39 chainrings, 12-23 cassette, and Record FD and RD. I needed lower gearing for the same age-related issues.

I switched to a Veloce compact crankset 50/36. FD stayed the same and works well after repositioning lower for the smaller chainrings. The Record RD had developed the notorious crack and was swapped out for a Campagnolo Racing Triple with the longer cage to be sure it would handle a new Miche 13-28 cassette (same as yours). No problem with the indexing of the triple. In fact after the high and low stops were properly set the indexing needed no adjustments.

This has worked well for me for the last year and a half and was within my cost budget. Good luck with your next move, and be sure to let us know what you changed to!

[Gwerziou]

I think it's possible (might be hard to find?) to use a Record OR rear derailleur for 8 speed, is it not? That would get you more wrap. I ran that drivetrain back in the day on my Bridgestone MB-1 and absolutely loved it. Those little thumb shifters had the nicest feel and the brake levers were super sweet.

A Rene Herse crank might be an option that fits well with a 'vintage' campy drivetrain. I run that on bike #2 of my two-bike 'stable' with an 11 speed Campy drivetrain, the rim-brake steel cross bike. It's really lovely and also works very well.

[Flinch]

Wow, lots of opinions from experience here. Major thanks coming your way!

I've found a vintage Shimano Ultegra triple 52-42-30 crankset with BB (Octalink), don't know the spindle length yet. Rather than swapping out all components for a Shimano update, I can try it out first without expense (buy only if it works). Concerns are chainline and frame clearance, but will have to test it to see.

Anyone try that particular approach (with Ultegra)? Concerns re BB? It seems similar to what others have suggested with other brand cranks.

How many Campy drivetrains do I have to own before I am officially a Campy 'crank'?

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Flinch

Wow, lots of opinions from experience here. Major thanks coming your way!

I've found a vintage Shimano Ultegra triple 52-42-30 crankset with BB (Octalink), don't know the spindle length yet. Rather than swapping out all components for a Shimano update, I can try it out first without expense (buy only if it works). Concerns are chainline and frame clearance, but will have to test it to see.

Anyone try that particular approach (with Ultegra)? Concerns re BB? It seems similar to what others have suggested with other brand cranks.

How many Campy drivetrains do I have to own before I am officially a Campy 'crank'?

With the approprate length BB, the Ultegra triple crank should work fine with a Campagnolo drivetrain. But there's a few caveat:

A triple Octalink crank should use a 118mm spindle. There are two versions of Octalink, known as V1 and V2. Ultegra uses Octalink V1. Trying to use an Octalink V2 could ruin the crank. See the Sheldon Brown BB web page for more info.

And the bigger caveat: In order to use a triple crank, you'll have to replace the derailleurs (both of them) as well. A short cage rear derailleur will not have the capacity for the chainring differential of a triple crank, so you'll need a long cage derailleur. For the front derailleur: Firstly a double front derailleur will not be able to reach down far enough to shift off the a triple small ring; secondly, a triple crank needs more derailleur travel, and double derailleur may not have enough travel (triple derailleurs have a travel per cable cable pull).

[Flinch]

<< Mark McM A short cage rear derailleur will not have the capacity for the chainring differential of a triple crank, so you'll need a long cage derailleur. >>

Since I don't need the large chainring (for now anyway), what if I 'locked out' the derailleur travel so that it doesn't mount the chain on the big ring? Now I've got a 2x front, with 42-30 rings. Cassette on back is 13-28, giving me 29 low gear inches, and top gear is 85 GI. ( I got along for years on an eliptical 32t, high gear = 83 GI).
My top 'cruising' speed for my cadence would be 20-22 mph (ha - like there's anything flat to cruise on here), spin out ~30. Remember, I don't race, or even ride with anyone else, so no need to keep up with the guy on that neat blue De Rosa that I run into ocassionally (-envy-).

but...is the current rear D able to take the chain length wrap needed?

I appologize for the lack of esthetics, but will it work, at least until I finalize my options? You might guess that tinkering with bikes is as enjoyable as riding, for me.

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by NHAero

Uh huh, this coming from the guy who climbs 1,000,000 feet of elevation in a year!

Sadly, a paltry 886,000 last year.
Slacker.

[donevwil]

If it simplifies anything and you ride a 175 crank, I have a 50/40/30 Racing T crankset, both 111 & 113 English BBs (or is it 113 & 115?)) and an 8 spd medium cage rear derailleur (Euclid?) that I took off my wife's bike over a decade ago. I am very willing to part with it. I believe the medium cage has 36T chain wrap which would complement the full 35T range of the 50/40/30 - 13-28.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Flinch

Since I don't need the large chainring (for now anyway), what if I 'locked out' the derailleur travel so that it doesn't mount the chain on the big ring? Now I've got a 2x front, with 42-30 rings. Cassette on back is 13-28, giving me 29 low gear inches, and top gear is 85 GI. ( I got along for years on an eliptical 32t, high gear = 83 GI).
My top 'cruising' speed for my cadence would be 20-22 mph (ha - like there's anything flat to cruise on here), spin out ~30. Remember, I don't race, or even ride with anyone else, so no need to keep up with the guy on that neat blue De Rosa that I run into ocassionally (-envy-).

but...is the current rear D able to take the chain length wrap needed?

Rear derailleurs don't care about the actual size of the chainrings, just on their differential. The 12 tooth differential of a 42/30 is even smaller than for a 53/39, so the rear derailleur should work fine. But depending on the frame, it may be difficult to get the front derailleur low enough to work with a 42 big chainring. For that reason, you might want to consider replacing the 42 with a bigger chainring, like a 44 or 46.

Then there's the matter of the chainline, and whether your current front derailleur can retract far enough to the inside. For these reasons, you might want to consider offsetting the crank to the right with a BB spacer under the right cup.

Originally Posted by Flinch

I appologize for the lack of esthetics, but will it work, at least until I finalize my options? You might guess that tinkering with bikes is as enjoyable as riding, for me.

Fundamentally, yes it will work. Many people have created "home brew" compact double cranks by removing the outer chainring of a triple. The main downside is that the crank ends up with an extra wide Q factor, and/or a wonky crank offset. This may bother some people, while others may barely notice it.

[weiwentg]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

But Campagnolo 8spd is a classic! It's a pinnacle of cycling tradition! I mean, there's a good reason to maintain traditions, right? The whole purpose of tradition is ... umm ... well ... it's traditional! Heck, without a framework of tradition to hold us up, all that would be left are things like progress, modernity, utility, and practicality. And where would we be then?

We would be pushing 39x23 as our lowest gears.

(Yes, I realize the OP went to a 13-28 cassette.)

[Ralph]

I suggested he go ahead and make a Campy triple system from it because it is so simple to do that. And he already has the shifters and cassette. Parts to do this are cheap and easy to find. And work good BTW....even if out of style these days. Or get a triple crank, and use the 2 lowest gears and use the FD he has. Easy to fix his complaint if he doesn't need a tall gear beyond the mid 90 inch range. Get a new compact double, etc.

But sure....if he wants a new system, I would go 1X and be done with FD's entirely (for his climbing use).

[MerckxMad]

Don’t listen to those unenlightened folks telling you to abandon the jewelry of Vicenza. Buy a racing triple and give the side eye to those Shimano sycophants. I purchased a used Rivendell with well worn, but well maintained Chorus triple and it is bliss. Sure the crank is a boat anchor and the front derailleur is fidgety, but it works and and the hubs sing like mechanical angels as you spin up hills on aging legs.

[C9H13N]

Originally Posted by Gwerziou

I think it's possible (might be hard to find?) to use a Record OR rear derailleur for 8 speed, is it not? That would get you more wrap. I ran that drivetrain back in the day on my Bridgestone MB-1 and absolutely loved it. Those little thumb shifters had the nicest feel and the brake levers were super sweet.

A Rene Herse crank might be an option that fits well with a 'vintage' campy drivetrain. I run that on bike #2 of my two-bike 'stable' with an 11 speed Campy drivetrain, the rim-brake steel cross bike. It's really lovely and also works very well.

I have an Icarus 8 speed MTB rear derailleur (like Euclid) and I’m in the process of building it up with 8spd Ergos and the IRD 46-30 crank.

Availability is a problem, I found mine by accident and I wouldn’t want to pay eBay going rates.

[Flinch]

Originally Posted by MerckxMad

Don’t listen to those unenlightened folks telling you to abandon the jewelry of Vicenza. Buy a racing triple and give the side eye to those Shimano sycophants. I purchased a used Rivendell with well worn, but well maintained Chorus triple and it is bliss. Sure the crank is a boat anchor and the front derailleur is fidgety, but it works and and the hubs sing like mechanical angels as you spin up hills on aging legs.

...And the winner for most alliterative prose goes to...card please...MerckxMad !


Thnaks, I needed dis, as my brane be full 'o ideez, and I haz the dumb rite now.