Namida12

Can I use an 11 speed chainrings & Campagnolo Crank with my 10 speed Campagnolo setup?

Or do I need to change the chainrings on the 11 speed crank to 10 speed for chain size?

I need a new crank and chainrings for my Ridley Excalibur?

JR

darkhorse75

Do it. It will work fine. I've got a 10 speed chorus set up with an eleven speed Athena chainset and it works perfectly.

gfk_velo

There are two key reasons why it's not advised by Campagnolo.

The 11s chainrings are effectively closer together than the 10s (look at where the teeth are milled across the gauge of the chainring) and the 10s chain is wider than 11s. Hence, you can get an issue that looks like chain suck on the small ring and at the small end of the casette, where the outer plates on the idler run of chain catch the lift pins on the back of the big chainring (esp the case on 34/50 cranksets), lifting the chain and jamming it between the frame and the chainring. This can damage the frame (obviously), the chain and sometimes the chainring. I have seen cases where this has happened out on the road and the only way out of the snarl-up has been to drop the RH crank out of the BB assembly to get the chain un-jammed.

This problem occurs more (as you would expect) where the back end of the bike is comparatively short (405 - 415 mm), it's not such a big problem on a longer (say 415 - 420 mm chainstay length).

The front shift can't be set up to work exactly as intended as the 11s stroke is shorter than the 10s - the 10s cage width is set up for 10s chainring spacings and the 10s chain so it can be the case that it'll tend to push the chain "over" the small chainring (again worse on 34/50, esp at the "big" end of the cassette and under load) when downshifting.

This problem is also affected by BB "drop", seat angle and the position on the tube of the FD mount - which is why Campag, Shimano and SRAM all publish a spec for this ... they all affect the exact position of the FD relative to the crankset centre and therefore how the FD cage interacts with the chain and the predictability of that interaction.

You can make it "work" but work "as intended" and on apredictable basis with any frame within the overall frame spec Campag recommend? - No.

A lot of it depends on your tolerance of less-than-it-could-be ...

FWIW it also voids any possible warranty on any part of the transmission.

Namida12

gfk_Velo,

Quote: "The 11s chainrings are effectively closer together than the 10s (look at where the teeth are milled across the gauge of the chainring) and the 10s chain is wider than 11s."

Since an 11 chain is narrower but same size inside, I would not need to worry about this problem.

Quote: "10s cage width is set up for 10s chainring spacings"

Shiming the inner chain ring on the 11 speed crank & matching the 10 speed spacing would it fix the chain suck problem, and maybe fix this problem using a 10 speed left shifter, and would this also fix the chain width problem and allow use of a wider chain?

Or I could spend more money and use a 11 speed left brifter and 11 speed FD with the narrow 11 speed chain, and solve the fitting or any shimming efforts I might need to accomplish using 10 speed parts with the current 10 speed FD?

darkhorse75,

Did you use a narrow 11 speed chain on yours, I have a 10 speed chorus set up, and wanted to use a 11 speed crank and chainrings.

JR

gfk_velo

Yes, you do. The problem is not the ID of the chain, it's the OD. The rings are in effect closer to each other so the outer plates will run significantly closer to the outer chainring when you are on the inner.

Well, you could *possibly* shim the chainrings but that wasn't the question you asked. Also it again depends on how much of a bodge you want to do and what risks you want to take - the chainring bolts have a shoulder so you'd need to find accurately made shim-stock washers with the right ID for the shoulders on the bolts and shape them to accurately fit snugly beneath whichever ring (as whatever OD they have is likely to be greater than the chainring bolt hole centre to web flat dimension), plus bear in mind that there is then a big added shear load on the chainring bolts that they are not designed to withstand - so I'd say "not a great plan". Additionally, I've never checked it but I am not even sure that the chairing bolts have shoulders that are long enough for you to shim by the required amount ... I'd be surprised simply because I do know that the bolts only engage six full turns on an M8 x 0.8 thread (so 4.8 mm) and are not-quite-bottomed-out when the rings are tightened down.

On the FD, you could use an 11s FD with an 11s chain as that gets you a certain distance around the chainring spacing issue but leaves you with a potential problem around FD "throw" in that you'd end up, so that your levers match for look and feel either being stuck with a 10s shifter (wrong cable recovery), or the need to find a RH Pre 2015 UltraShift lever to convert to 10s to run with a pre-2015 LH shifter.

Is there a problem (other than possibly an aesthetic one) with just fitting a Veloce 10s chainset - that'd be a lot cheaper than messing about with shims and shifter changes and so on - and will work, bang-on correctly, straight out of the box?

darkhorse75

I use a 10 speed chain and it works fine. If you have 10 speed Chorus the front shifter should have multiple clicks between chainrings and can be made to work easily. Best not to overthink it.

Namida12

I ended up purchasing a 172.5 mm praxis works turn zayante crankset with Mid Compact Chainrings. I have used one of these on my Force Fuji, I have about 6,000 miles on the 53/39 and 2,000 on the 52/36 mid compact rings and it never misses a shift.

Rather than fiddling with a sweety looking almost new 11 speed Campy Crank. the zayante crankset works well with the 10 speed Campagnolo cassette. The zero deflection of this massive light weight hollow crank zayante crankset is what I am after, the smoothness is a legend that many have not had the chance of knowing. There is no way any thighs will be able to make this crank flex.

Looking forward to the results of the left Brifter with the Chorus FD, on this crank, and I will report after a few miles to let everyone know my feeling, as shifting smoothness is always a subjective discussion, where as if it does not work it is a failure...

JR