Odin99

i browsed velobase, but it was hard for me to tell any distinct differences. anyone have a sure and easy way to tell the differences between 8 speed record, c-record, athena, chorus etc, hubs? i'm not a campy expert (newbie more like), so i don't know if they are labeled or anything - the pics just look the same to me.

conspiratemus1

This is gleaned from my own experience and from some hours poring over the exploded parts diagrams on Campy's website recently.

All Campagnolo 8-speed hubs use axles 12mm in diameter through most of their length, reduced to 10 mm at the ends so as to take traditional 10 x 26 locknuts. There are shoulders larger than 12 mm formed into the axle at various places that various parts bear against. Record and Chorus have an oil clip in the shell. Record has the fancier quick-release nut -- it'll be a little hinged loop rather than just a nut with grooves for your thumb and finger to grasp. Of course in any given hub, the skewers aren't necessarily the originals. Don't recall there being a C-Record in 8-speed, IIRC that was a freewheel group. From Athena on down, there is no oil clip in the shell and the polishing isn't as nice but the axles and cones are the same (except for some Records that had titanium axles? -- or was this only introduced in 9-speed?? Whatever, if the axle is Ti, it's Record for sure.)

The parts diagrams give different stock numbers for the steel freehub assemblies but I can't see any differences in ones I've actually handled. They are fairly heavy, so perhaps some metal was taken out of them in the more expensive groups to save weight? Early in the the 8-speed design evolution, the freehubs got the "Exa-Drive" treatment, distinguished by one spline that is narrower than the rest so the cogs will only fit on in one orientation to each other but I think this happened with all the groups at the same time. You can install Exa-Drive cogs on pre-Exa-Drive freehubs though, you just have to pay attention to how you line them up, so this is not a distinguishing feature in diagnosing which level of hub you have.

Honest, I have Record, Athena, and Veloce hubs from that era and I agree they are almost indistinguishable. (I haven't weighed them, not being into that stuff.)

Note that when 9-speed was first introduced, it was offered on Record first, then trickled down to the lesser marks in later years. The first 9-speed aluminum freehub bodies were compatible with the 12-mm axles of the 8-speed hubs....I have transplanted a body from a 9-speed Veloce onto an 8-speed Record and it works perfectly.

vinfix

I had to refer to Campagnolo's on-line parts document for an exploded drawing of the 8-speed hub I'm currently using. I obtained a wheelset that had a front hub labeled Veloce, but no name on the rear. However, the assembly drawing of the rear hub revealed it was not Veloce, but Mirage.

jyl

Ti axle is larger diameter, part number ends with "T", and takes a special freehub.

Question - is there a third-party (read: affordable) source for Campagnolo 9-10 speed spline pattern freehubs that will fit the axles of 8 speed Campagnolo hubs?

The reason I ask is, 8 speed hubs are pretty cheap, our local bike co-op has a boxful of them, $15-25 I think. Dirty but should polish up okay. Obviously, if they could be used for 9 speed, that would be nice.

Italuminium

MTB (135 mm rear spacing) too? I'd be very interested in those!

stausty

Pre-Exa-drive and Exa-drive hubs actually take two different axles as well as freewheel bodies. The hub shells are the same, though. So if you try to convert to 9/10/11-speed you might just have to take the whole axle and freehub instead of just the freehub from one hub to another.

Where is this mystical box of 8s hubs? And why haven't you sold me one?

conspiratemus1

The easiest way is to get a used 9-speed Veloce or Mirage hub and transplant the aluminum 9-speed freehub body onto your hub, as I did. Veloces and Mirages kept the first-generation body design -- the one that will fit the axles of 8-speed Records -- for longer so there are more of them around and they are cheaper to buy. Even the Mirages before 2007 (which used cartridge bearings and tubular 12 mm axles) still used this first-generation freehub. By "first-generation" I mean the design with three pawls each having its own little "ball-point-pen" type spring.

But a 9-speed Veloce hub with cup-and-cone bearings is pretty decent in itself. I sniped one of these for a good price recently and will likely just keep it intact.

What I don't know, and would appreciate any info, is whether or not the current freehubs sold by Campagnolo as replacements for their low-range wheels, which are based on the old Mirage hubs with 12-mm axles, will fit our old Record hubs. This is part # FH-SC015. The three pawls are retained by a single circular spring that sits in a groove in the inner end of the freehub that engages the ratchet ring. These cost as much as the whole Mirage hub I bought new, and more than the Veloce I got used.

Odin99

ok, how about a test. can anyone identify this hub with just a picture?


record or chorus?

jyl

I think you'd need to show the dust caps? The part we can see, I think is identical between Record and Chorus? I guess that's a way of saying, I'm stumped.

jyl

I wasn't measuring them, but can't say I noticed any that looked wider.

paulkal

Based on the quick release, Chorus. For several years the Record and Chorus hubs were identical, the only difference is the quick release.
The Record quick release has a D ring, which this one is missing.