ridethecliche

I'm thinking of going 10 speed campy with a 10 speed shimano cassette without a shiftmate. I've heard a lot of people run their setups this way and I was wondering if it would work well in the real world.

Thanks a lot for your input!

anti.team

https://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3946

It looks like it would work okay if you use an 'old' Campy RD. I found one on eBay for $30. Any 'old' campy RD you find will be 9sp, but don't worry, it will work with your 10sp cassette as long as you use a 10sp chain.

Good luck!

ridethecliche

Well the site says that the 9 speed is an area of confusion as there are some old 9 speed and some new 9 speeds out there. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for then, other than 8 speed which is pre-change and thus 'old'.

I was planning on using a 10 speed campy shifter, with a veloce 10 speed RD, and a 10 speed shimano cassette and I'm guessing that it isn't going to work well.

Deanster04

Check out Sheldon Brown's website on cassette spacing and compare campy 10 speed against Shimano 10 speed cog spacing. I am about to setup a 9 speed SRAM 11-34 cassette with a Campy 10spd Ergo shifter and longcage RD. The spacing is only 0.2mm different. Used Sheldon Brown's (RIP) information and discussion to decide to try this.
Will use this on a touring bike with either a compact double or a triple with a 48 large chain ring. Good luck.

anti.team

I imagine it won't work that well, but there seem to be some combinations that just end up working with no trickery. Small differences in shifters/derailleurs/etc. could end up making it work better than you thought. If you have the parts it's worth a try.

Is there any problem with using a shiftmate? I don't have any experience with them but it sounds like it is the right solution for your situation.

ridethecliche

I'm actually thinking of buying most of the stuff from a BF member who said that he ran it this way for races without any problems. Said he used to use a shiftmate but didn't have it once and it ran fine so he got rid of it.

I figure I'll just get a shiftmate if it's that bad, but I knew it wasn't 'supposed' to work so I was curious how it might have.

Thanks!

cslone

Yep, it's me. As rtc, said, I was running full Campy on all bikes. My cross wheels and HED disc were Shimano only options. I bought a shiftmate to account for this. One day while wrenching, I ended up taking off the shiftmate on the TT bike. It ran perfectly. So just for my own knowledge, I ran my cross bike this entire season without the shiftmate. It also performed flawlessly. You just have to line up that middle cog and the rest works fine. The cassettes were Ultegra, chains were KMC with Record and Centaur shifters and Chorus and Veloce RD's, respectively.

A bunch of others have had the same luck in Road Cycling Forum.

forensicchemist

I would be one of them. Full Veloce 10 speed, 9 speed shimano cassette. At first shifting was spotty, but once the cables stretched a little, and I "dialed things in" its been very nice.....and ultra quiet shifting!

OneTinSloth

a mechanic i work with also does this. full record, dura ace 10 speed cassette, dura ace 10 speed chain. it works very well. he recently swapped the upper RD pulley for a shimano and it is now flawless.

paulau

This is a quote from an email i received from Sheldon Brown"

"No, you don't need the ShiftMate. Shimano/Campagnolo 10-speed sprocket spacing is not identical, but it's close enough that it's not a problem in practice. "