[jcospolich]

i've used Shimano on my old LeMond Poprad, which was fine.
to try something new, I bought an Orbea Onix with Campy Chorus. I very much like the Campy stuff.
Since I have 2 Campy-equipped rear wheels (Ksyrium Elite, and an Open-Pro Veloce rear wheel), it would certainly be easier to run Campy on my new cx bike.
Does anyone have any experience with Campy rear shifting (I'm going to probably run a 42 single up front) on a cx bike? Does it work as well as Shimano in the mud/wet?

Thanks.

 

[jnichols959]

when i was figuring out the build for my cross bike about a year and a half ago, i searched/posted a similar question. if you search old posts by lonefrontranger for campy you should be able to find a fair amount of the previous posts on this. what i took from it was there are people racing regularly in a fair amount of muck that have had seen campy 10 perform well.

my experience has been, and this should come as no surprise, that 10 is more finicky than 9 and 9 is more finicky than 8 when it comes to riding in the muck. as far as shifting performance goes i doubt it's a campy vs. shimano thing - more of a question of the number of speeds.

one comment i remember hearing from more than one person is that the shimano shifters tend to get fouled up more quickly if you bail and stuff the shifter in some mud. shimano shifters are generally not servicable too - though you'll find some folks that swear by some combination of solvent/lube/etc. to bring their shifting quality back.

i've also found pretty recently that, when the rear der. cable routing is mtb style (top tube) that running housing all the way from the top tube stop to the rear der. significantly compared to leaving the stretch along the seat stay exposed.

having said all this, keep in mind that i don't have experience with shimano for cross - but aside from the shifter issues i've heard about with shimano and the lack of maintenance options for shimano shifters - i think shimano and campy will probably perform similarly when comparing 10 to 10 and 9 to 9.

 

[wunlap togo]

10 speed works fine, campy or shimano. Less cogs doesn't= better shifting, new cables= better shifting. And that goes for campy and shimano!

What it comes down to, for me, is shifter shape. I feel that the newer shimano 10speed shifters are better in the mud and wet because of their tall, secure shape and small grip diameter.

I like riding on shimano, and working on campy.

 

[euro-trash]

I like riding on shimano, and working on campy.

Great quote.

I run a 42 front with Campy 10. It works great. I run a cheap IRD 12-28 cassette. I also run a Campy 13-29 on one training wheel. Both work great in all conditions. 10 speed is great stuff.

 

[jnichols959]

Less cogs doesn't= better shifting, new cables= better shifting

wunlap probably has more practical experience than most of us here given his sheer focus and the volume of riding/wrenching (as discussed recently) ;-)

even so, i think there is a theoritical and in my experience practical difference in tolerances between 10, 9 and 8 speed shifting setups. the tighter tolerances on 10 speed shifting seem to translate to shifting that is a) more sensitive to proper setup and b) more sensitive to getting messed up when there is friction in the system.

yes, new cables/housing will resolve the friction issue but this is not an option mid-ride or mid-race. i've seen perfect shifting deteriorate to truly crappy shifting in the course of a 3 hour ride with snow and mud on the ground - probably not as much of an issue for race lengths. my memory of my first mtb with 8 speed xtr is that the shifting quite simply NEVER deteriorated like that. the difference between 8 and 10 would be more pronounced than between 9 and 10 but even my 9 speed SRAM on my mtb seems less sensitive than my 10 speed on my cross bike...

i'd still say go for 10 speed - campy or shimano (or sram?). and yes, start with the ergonomics first. you can keep 10 speed shifting well in the muck - whether it's replacing housing/cables, sealed housing systems or running longer stretches of housing.

 

[weather]

i'm still waiting for the first sram road group equipped cx bike.

 

[Ronsonic]

I'm running cheap campy Mirage 9s with a single 42 up front.

Works as well as anything can be expected to, which is mostly perfect, but a little balky in 10" deep playdoh.

Ron

 

[wunlap togo]

i'm still waiting for the first sram road group equipped cx bike.

Yep, I'd really like to give this a try too. I've clicked it around a little, I'll bet it'll be fine. I think it's rebuildable too! That feature alone makes me want to run it on my bikes.

Thanks for the props jnichols959, I think you're right- 8speed xtr is pretty ultimate, the best shimano mtb group ever IMO.

I am pretty opinionated and race-use-only oriented in my comments. My advice is generally geared towards racers who have (or ultimately want) 2 bikes, a mechanic and a pressure washer.

For off road general use on a cross bike, or for use by someone with no pit bike- 8speed stuff (C or S) with bar end shifters would be pretty bulletproof. But I don't think 9 speed (campy or shimano) ends up being much of a compromise between 8 and 10. 9 and 10 are both pretty easy to mung up in a muddy race and prone to bad shifting because of dirty cables.

So for that reason I say just go 10. Shimano 10 is vastly better than 9, particularly because of the shape of the lever. 10 speed shifters will take considerably more abuse than the old 9 and the 105 10speed levers I was running at the end of last year were really remarkable in fit, finish and function.

In campys case, I think it matters less. The 10speed technology has trickled down to campys less expensive groups and cassettes/chains are easy to get for c10. The feel and function of c9 and c10 is virtually the same, and in fact it is a very simple job to convert a shifter from 9 to 10 or vice versa. The advantages of 10 over 9 are less for campy, other than 10 is now the standard.

 

[FatTireFred]

Chorus 9 works fine, for me.

 

[giovanni sartori]

I'm going to be running campy centaur this year that I bought from 11speed, the main reason I went with campy is becuse my road bikes are all campy and wanted to be able to switch stuff around if I had to, plus the wheels just makes it easier.

 

[GearDaddy]

Been running Campy 9-speed for CX. Works great. On at least 3 occasions last season I witnessed someone else's Shimano rear shifters stop working completely. They were all really pi$$ed.

 

[morganfletcher]

I've run campy 10 (Centaur) on two cross bikes and I like it a lot. I have the double ring up front. Live in NorCal, have done one season of cross with no significant mud.

Drivetrain: centaur short cage rear, centaur double front, 13-26 10spd cassette, campy c10 chain, Ritchey cross cranks, (38-48) shimano bb, centaur ergo levers.

I like being able to share parts and wheels between my road and cross bikes. My wife's road and cross bikes are shimano-9. That's just the way it is.

Morgan

 

[towerscum]

Great posting!

Very good information. I am set to buy a cross rig and I learned a lot here. I have Camp on my road bike and love it. It's Campy 10 for my cross. Thanks!

towerscum

 

[atpjunkie]

wellif I hadn't Franken biked

and built from scratch I'd go Campy.

shifters can be rebuilt and closed system makes them more impervious to gunk.

one wet wreck on Shimano and you are out 180 or so dollars.
I hate their repair by replace ethos.

but to agree with wunlap I have one cx rig running Shimano 8 speed and those shifters feel way better than 9 (more like 10).

 

[weather]

my bike has campy shifting and shimano (-compatible) rear derailleur and hubs w/o any whacky setup or gadgets. as long as you can live with 8 speed, that's a great option. shimano standard hubs and cassettes are just much easier to find and cheaper to buy.

 

[The Walrus]

I set up one bike the almost same way--8sp Record Ergo with Chorus derailleurs, and wheels with Ultegra hubs and an 8sp XT 12-28. I didn't want to share another bike's Campy wheelset and didn't have the time or money to track one down for this bike, and I wanted the extra flexibility in gearing that Shimano allows. Like weather's setup, it didn't require cable-pull modifiers or funny cable routing or other contortions, and it works just as smoothly as either pure Campy or Shimano.

Just one more example of why 8sp was the pinnacle of drivetrain design....

 

[the seamus]

I have a Campy CX bike for trains and stuff but my race bikes are shimano, though I like campy a lot better. Both groups work fine for CX obviously but I just don't want to crash up my campy parts in a race, and shimano stuff is, well, a bit more disposable in my opinion.

Regarding shift quality, I've had good luck running 9s Campy ergo with 9s shimano cassettes on several bikes. It's a little less expensive than going all 10s and you don't have to buy campy specific wheels, though the original poster already had two, I guess. Anyway I've used this setup for years in all sorts of conditions without trouble.

 

[kannas]

mix 'er up

I ride mainly campy 9. I've had record, chorus, centaur and veloce. The cool thing with campy is its diversity and rebuildability. If you look over www.campyonly.com and www.branfordbike.com you'll see.

X bike #1
centaur 9 shifters
old sachs top pull FD
daytona 10 RD
FSA team carbon 52/39 (right now) 44/39 (Xseason)

X bike #2
chorus right rear shifter
record left (gutted)
chorus carbon 10 RD
Shimano DA 42 singlering

X bike #3
record carbon brake only, its a singlespeed
I space out the cassette to run one cog and add a track axle


road bike
Record 9 through out
FSA compact carbon

wheels I interchange
OP 3x 36h record 9/10 12-21
proton front
mavic cxp30 tubs 3x 32h record 9/10 13-26
mavic cxp30 record front
cane creek aros (zipp 404s) tubulars shimano 9/10 freebody 12-25

tires
grifo challenge 32 tub
tufo elite 28 tub
maxxis mimo larson 35 (not that wide) clincher
tufo c s33special 21 (great training, racing, no pinch flats) clincher