EamonPVD

Hi All! I trying to index my bike which has a campy record 9 sp group to my mavic wheel which run a dura ace cassette. How good can i get this, in theory and practice?

it seems solid shifting up the cogset but sloppy when coming back down. Anyone have a pointers or word of wisdom?

thanks

Andrew R Stewart 

Yes, use a Shiftmate adaptor to get proper cable travel per shift. or use a Campy compatible cassette. Andy

70sSanO

There is a whole science, or voodoo, with Shimano and Campagnolo that is based on cable pull and derailleur ratio to equal cog pitch. I once considered doing 8 speed Shimano with Campy 10 speed shifters. I have the brifters, but I never went forward with it. Still have the campy 10 speed brifters.

Here is some good info on the subject...
Science Behind the Magic | Drivetrain Compatibility ? Art's SLO Cyclery

I'm assuming your 9 speed is DA 7700; which is a great hubset. If you are not in love with your Dura Ace cassette, and I hate to use Dura Ace and Sunrace in the same response even though they both have "ace' in them, you might be able to mod a Sunrace cassette to work. I know the Sunrace 8 speed cassettes don't use a spider system. If the 9 speed cassettes are individual cogs, you can just break them apart and space them to match a campy cog pitch. I've swapped or sanded the plastic cog spacers to fit whatever spacing I needed a number of times.

John

Russ Roth

Words of wisdom; don't bother its not worth it.
The problem is that 9sp campy is a wider cassette then shimano, where Shimano needed a wider freehub body to go to 11sp Campy had already been using a wider freehub body at 9sp to accomidate the wider cassette, which is why you can run 9-12 speeds on their hubs. Its been a while since I've had to mess with 9sp campy but I recall the first 3 or 4 cogs had a different spacing form the last 5 or 6 that was built into the indexing of the shifter. If you dropped a cassette the spacers had to be put back in the right order or it wouldn't shift. I think I saw some 9sp veloce cassettes on planetcyclery when I was looking through that should work. Personally better a lower end cassette that's heavier and works smoothly then a high end one that doesn't work.

Cates2000

Thank you for sharing this with me.

Andrew R Stewart 

I have a few bikes with an Ergo lever and Shimano cassette (both 9speed) that translates correctly with either a Campy of Shimano rear der. The Shiftmate pulley is speced to the der difference. I have also installed a few for customers. All systems index well and are consistent over the years. The only frequently used bike that isn't Shiftmated is my touring bike due to the need for a 34t rear cog and Campy long cage ders don't really have that capacity.

Many will suggest that a Shiftmate is needless complexity, I suggest that most who comment on then have never used one. The cable will have to be a tad longer and the last casing loop to the der acut to fit, some care taken to get the Shiftmate to line up with the der's adjusting barrel to minimize cable friction at that point. Otherwise it's click the lever and get the shift as usual. For those of us who wish to mix brands this is a worthy solution, and it can always be removed in the future with no lasting effects Andy

70sSanO

Andy's solution is the only viable work around.

I haven't re-spaced anything to fit a Campy drivetrain. I hadn't thought about the overall width problem. I don't know if the Campy spacing is uniform; although some spacers seem to have a bit wider tolerances. Campagnolo's 9 speed is 38.2mm wide, Shimano's 9 is only 36.5mm. Even if you could somehow piece together a cassette using a 10 speed intermost cog, I have no idea if the offset would be enough, or just re-space a 10 speed cassette to 9 and drop the 11t and 12t and use just a 12t 1st. I know the cost and effort of doing so, would not be worth it.

Re-spacing cassettes have become a pet projects for me since I realized 7 speed MTB shifters were so over priced and 8 speed shifters were made so much better. Something inside me just wants to take cassettes apart and see if I can make then work. I can't explain it.

John

squirtdad

list of sellers Jtek Retailers in the UK, USA, Europe and Asia

Andrew R Stewart 

Not the only possible work around. At one tome Miche offered a Shimano splined but Campy spaced cassette. And Wheels Manufacturing (then called Wheels of Boulder) offered different thickness cog spacers to convert a Shimano cassette to a Campy compatible one. Good luck trying to find them these days. Andy.

Dave Mayer

I've been running a Shimano 9-speed cassette with 9-speed Ergopower shifters hard every day for the last week. Shifts perfectly - every time. Better than any 10 or 11 speed system I own.

The OP has not provided enough information. Is this the early 9-speed shifters with the pointy hoods? Or the later with rounded hoods?

And is the Dura-Ace cassette an 11-speeder? Or 8 speeds? Or what?

In any case, it sounds like too much friction in the cables due to cable or housing problems. Cables and housings should be replaced yearly.

EamonPVD

New cables/ housing. Rode it around a bit and it shifted fine as is without shiftmate. Only had issues in the stand. I dunno!? Ive realized bikes shift differently with rider weight

Andrew R Stewart 

And with rider applying power. And with the rode providing vibration. Andy