oharescrubs

So spending a boring day inside my house while the plumber is tearing my bathroom apart, ive been daydreaming of my next cross bike... Ive seen some cross race bikes with full campy, what campy stuff is the best for cross purposes? or what do you use etc etc? and to adapt this TIRED old question to cross, any reasons campy over shimano, but in cyclocross specific terms.

JimmyMack

centaur. works good.

If you go with campy, you better like enough to own spare wheels. Some bigger races might offer a neutral wheel tent. I doubt they will have anything other than shimano for you.

Iffacus

I have been using Campag for the past 4years on my cross bikes. One thing I do like is the little button on the side of the brifters that when pushed increase the amount of clearence between wheel and brakes.

Nice little trick if you racing in very muddy conditions.

MrPolak

I have a Centaur setup with a compact crank on my Flyte. The 50-tooth ring is replaced with an FSA 46-tooth. The inner is 34. Rear cassette is 10-sp 12-25. I have Campagnolo Scirocco wheels as well, which have done well.

ejpres

Did the FSA chainring fit on the Campagnolo CT crank as it was or did you have to tune it in a bit? I hear the radius for the bolt behind the crankarm is a bit different from the normal compacts.

cs1

If I was going to use Campy on a cross bike, it would be Mirage. Centaur and Chorus are way too expensive to trash in the mud. Mirage is very affordable and performs well. I am running a Veloce/Mirage with Campy barcons on one of my bikes now. It works very well. Good luck


Tim

alreadyblue

I really suggest you don't use Campy stuff on your bike.
1. It's much more expensive than it's Shimano Equivelant
2. Very few people in the USA run Campy on their cross bikes, so finding spare wheels at a race is hard to impossible.
3. Used/spare parts are much harder to find and fetch a lot more money on Ebay. And let's face it, cross bikes go through a lot more parts than your road bike will.

I have a friend who switched his Kona JTS over to Campy because his road bike runs campy. I guess that makes sense for him, but he'll always have to bring spare wheels. God forbid he trashes any other part at a race. I think he runs Veloce on the JTS.

Ronsonic 

I'm running last year's Campy Mirage and it works great. I'd say they were a bargain compared to the Shimano stuff, but that's taste, I guess. BTW, a 9S Campy shifter and der combination will shift a Shimano 9s cassette just fine. Make half a turn on the barrel adjust and you're good to go. I've got Campy and Shimano wheelsets, right now one has road tires. Don't be afraid to go Campy.

cslone

Mirage or Veloce are going to be the best bang for your buck. If you have a Shimano neutral support, the 9's will generally shift almost flawlessly, while the 10's isn't perfect, it will get you through the race. Campy is not much more expensive than Shimano, and I run 3 roadbikes with Campy, which is why my cross build is also going to be Campy.

jhota

i don't race, but i've retired my mtb in favour of my 'cross bike, which is Shimagnolo. not exactly what you're looking for, but i like it - brifters and front derailer are Centaur, rear mech is XTR. gets pounded a lot, and works flawlessly.

cheap and easy to match the cassette, too - i'm running a 9-speed 105 right now...

nitropowered

I guess if you have Campy road bikes, It would make sense to build it with Campy.

If buying new 2007, I'd get Chorus shifters, centaur or veloce UT cranks (the only difference is color and the machined vs stamped rings, but if you are going to change the 50t to a 48 or 46t might as well take the cheaper veloce crank), centaur or veloce cogs, veloce chain, spooky brakes, veloce rear derailleur (no carbon) centaur or veloce FD.

If you want to save money, hit up ebay for pre-2007 shifters.

I'm building a cross frame now and I'm really torn on what parts to use on it. My road bikes are campy and have 1 spare rear campy wheel. I really like to try out SRAM since the wholesale cost on it is so low but i'd have to buy/build new wheels.

fogrider

I'm running centaur 10 shifters with shimano 9 speed wheels. I don't like 10 speed chains...they don't last more than 1,500 miles and they have been known to fail. shimano shifters rely on too many small parts which don't like dirt and mud.

mellowdave

Centaur, Mirage, Veloce, all work fine. Ignore all the B$ about this has been known to fail, that has been known to fail. My uncles buddy's niece saw some campy parts fail once. Jeez.

The only truth up there is the statement about finding neutral wheel support. Though Lately I see that changing too. Maybe in the NW its an issue, but its not so bad here. Anything you do break can be ordered as parts if you cant find a quick replacement, so get in good with your LBS. There is a HUGE difference between retail and racer price.

somnambulant

I'm planning on going Centaur on my new bike.. Personally I figure I'm not really competitive enough to care about neutral support. If I flat and they don't have a campy spare, then a big 'ol DNF for me. At least for this season as hopefully I'll have a spare wheelset next year.

amorrow

This stuff about 'cross being hard on parts is true, but that doesn't warrant buying shimano. In fact, last season, I busted the internals of my older ultegra STI levers when I wrenched on the lever in the heat of it. Now, I can't fix it. It's toast. Campy can be repaired. I've done it to my record levers and it requires patience, but no particular skill. This year I'll use old campy 9 speed parts from ebay and craigslist.

Oh, and shimano wheels work on campy... most of the time.