Originally Posted by
icemilkcoffee
Campy works well stock, but when it comes to mix and match, Shimano is king. I slapped a brand new 7 speed freewheel on my 1987 Shimano 105 hub and shifted it with Sora ST3300 brifters. Can you do the same with Campy? Nope. You’d be lucky to even find a freewheel for an Italian threaded hub. And Campy never made a 7v brifters, so you are out of luck if you want to stay 126mm. On another bike, I was able to convert a 130mm RSX hub to 126mm by just taking out one spacer. I don’t see how you can shorten a newish Campy hub. You can also run 8 of 9 on 7 with Shimano hubs. With Campy, the 8 speed hubs are in a lost universe on their own and there is no good choice for staying with 126mm hub width while using brifters.
Similarly for the front, Campy cranks shorter than 170mm are rarer than hen's teeth, whereas 165mm Shimano cranks are at least out there. The most recent 105 goes down to 160mm. And, you have at least tons of aftermarket alternatives with Shimano’s 110mm and 130mm bolt patterns. With Campy, your obscure 135 BCD pattern means no luck finding replacement rings and that ISO square taper BB spindle means no interchangeability with other brands either.
A lot to unpack here.
0. You shouldn't slap things, especially if they are old. Would you slap your grandmother? I wouldn't.
1. 98% of Campagnolo hubs are English threaded. That means just about any freewheel will thread on, including the new Shimano freewheel you bought.
2. Most of the hubs sold these days use
end caps. Your RSX hub is 20, 30 years old. You can remove spacers from Campagnolo hubs from the same era. Oh, and a Shimano R7000 hub? No spacers to remove there.
3. 8 speed hubs, no matter the brand, have
always been 130mm. That includes Shimano.
4. How about a Gevenalle shifter? Or bar ends?
5. Run a Shimano crank instead. Or a White Industries. Or anything you want. It'll work fine.
6. TA makes 135BCD chainrings, available through Peter White or your local
https://www.amazon.com. But yes, fewer options than 110 BCD.
7. Origin8 makes an affordable yet high quality ISO taper BB. $30. Comes in a variety of lengths. Token makes some too. Sugino makes one for their track cranks.
8. Most high-end vintage cranks are ISO taper, or close to it.