pennpaul

I'm trying to help out a friend. The clamp on his front Campy Avanti derailleur broke the other day. His bike (some kind of Specialized) is prob 30 years old and a replacement derailleur is slim pickings locally, and eBay seems to be a struggle, too. I don't know how many rings he's got in back.

It doesn't seem like he can just swap in a Shimano 105, for example, as the cable pull seems different, right? Does that also mean the spacing between front rings with Shimano is different from Campy?

If he can't find an exact replacement, what are his options?



Thanks
Paul

Iride01 

2x or 3x front? Integrated shifters on a drop bar or downtube shifter?

Probably that old just get some new Microshift Front DR. However you can also probably find a used and period correct Campy front DR at a somewhat reasonable price on eBay.

Make sure it's for the correct number of chain rings though.

Andrew R Stewart 

I suspect the Specialized has Campy Ergo shifters. If so then the left hand one is not truly an "indexed" design and most any brand of ft der will work with it. Andy (who runs his Ergos with various Asian ft ders because they make better ones)

Dave Mayer

I have many bikes running Campagnolo Ergopower. The front shifting is not indexed, and the front shifter produces about a dozen 'clicks' across its range. So you can install basically any road double front derailleur that has the right clamp diameter.

As far as Campagnolo front derailleurs working better than say Shimano or SRAM, I've not noticed. At my local bike Co-op we have a heavy bin of front derailleurs for all of $5 each. Since the 1 x fad took hold, we seem to have a surplus of front derailleurs.

pennpaul

I've not seen his bike up close, but he said the shifters are Avanti, too, which I assume must be like 105 vs Ultegra. I shared your feedback with him and he thinks it should work.

Thanks,
Paul