JTek shiftmate
 

I'm thinking of putting 2009 Centaur shifters on my road bike, which has a Shimano-compatible wheelset. I was going to use a Centaur RD with an Ultegra cassette/chain and a JTek shiftmate #1 to alter the cable pull. When I spoke to a shop about this, they insisted that this would yield sub-standard performance (i.e., they just don't like the JTek device).

It was my impression that this worked -- does anyone have any direct experience?

Thanks,
Daniel

Works fine for me. Veloce 9 speed shifters and deraillers shifting Shimano cassette. (Until I find a cheap Campy hub and cassette)

Do they have any experience? Or do they not like them because JTeks are sold direct to consumer?

The JTek adjusts the cable pull perfectly...

Why not a conversion cassette?

Used one for a while, worked fine.
105 shifter-Ultegra RD-Campagnolo 10 speed wheel

BS from LBS - i put together 2 bikes for my friends using JTek for centaur/ultegra combos, one last year, one this year and they both work excellently. remember, JTek is a simple adapter, nothing else. it provides great choice for end users - people like us, who don't like lack of compatibility between competitors.
note - shifters are the key components here.

Should work. I'm using one with my Campy 10 shifters and derailer since I still have several 9 speed chains and cassettes I never got around to using.

Shops may be wary of using them if they have little experience with them.

works great for me. Veloce and 105

use an sram RD with the campy shifter, it will index shimano cassettes perfectly.

Ah, good idea AEO.

I have campy shifters and campy RD with shimano cassette, and it works fine with no shiftmate. Give it a try first. No issues swapping cassettes either.

I have heard the JTek works better than the conversion cassettes. And I think the sub-par performance is something that average rider would not feel.

I work at a shop, and I've personally got 3 on my own bikes. I've got nothing but good things to say about them.

Shiftmates work great.

BUT - I recently tried the rear wheel from my Campy equipped bike on my SRAM equipped bike, and other than adjusting the limit screws on the SRAM rear derailleur, the Campy wheel shifts perfectly.

That Campy wheel, of course - has a 10 speed Campy cassette on it.

So - you might want to give it a shot WITHOUT the shiftmate first....you might not need it.

Campy cog spacing is 4.15mm and Shimano SRAM is only 3.95mm. Even with careful centering, you'll have a positioning error of almost one millimeter or over 20% off location as both ends of the cassette.

The positioning error can be reduce by deliberately clamping the shift cable further away from the clamp bolt, to increase the lever arm length and reduce the travel.

I've done the opposite, grinding the clamp bolt threads down to the root to increase the actuation ratio to use a Campy 10 RD with 11 speed.

The Shiftmate works fine. I've heard it's better than a conversion cassette and it's definitely better than just trying to use the system with no pull ratio conversion. The only downside is it increases the cable friction a bit, but this shouldn't be a big deal now that they use actual bearings in the pulley rather than just a bushing.

Quick follow-up: I bought a set of Centaur ultra-shift derailleurs and a JTek #2 shiftmate, which are shifting an Ultegra RD and SRAM cassette (9sp). Works perfectly. It's even shifting my random old (late 80s) 105 front derailleur (nothing to do with the JTek, of course)...

10 speed campy shifters and 10 speed shimano everything else. Works 100%

You can run sram with campy with no issues.. Here is a link to the zinn article that talks about it

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/73404

here is the pdf that explains how to mix and match, also include info on jtek

http://www.hearingoffice.com/downloa...ion_screen.pdf