rsx 7 speed with campag 8 speed levers

My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx levers have started to
fail, the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week. I've been informed of a shop that sells
campag 8 speed levers (record & mirage), and I'm tempted to buy a set and see if they work with
my rsx groupset.

I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has anyone
successfully tried this combination.

Michael Anderson

 

"Michael Anderson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx levers have started to fail,
> the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week. I've been informed of a shop that sells campag 8
> speed levers (record & mirage), and I'm tempted to buy a set and see if they work with my rsx
> groupset.
>
> I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has anyone
> successfully tried this combination.
>
>
> Michael Anderson

I've done it on my daughter's bike and it works perfectly. No need for a different derailer
or anything.

 

Andy M-S <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Michael Anderson" <[email protected]> wrote .

> > I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has
> > anyone successfully tried this combination.

>
> I've done it on my daughter's bike and it works perfectly. No need for a different derailer or
> anything.

Yes, I'll agree with that, I ran my cyclo-cross bike for 2 seasons on Campy 8sp shifters, and RSX
Rear Derailer and 7sp shimano cassette. To make perfect shifting, a campag rear derailer should be
used, but I found the Shimano worked fine. Alan.

--
Change the 'minus' to 'plus' to reply by e-mail. http://www.dvatc.co.uk - Off-road Cycling in the
North Midlands.

 

"Michael Anderson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx levers have started to fail,
> the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week. I've been informed of a shop that sells campag 8
> speed levers (record & mirage), and I'm tempted to buy a set and see if they work with my rsx
> groupset.
>
> I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has anyone
> successfully tried this combination.
>
>
> Michael Anderson

I used to use Record 8spd on 400Ex rear mech which if I recall correctly was the predecessor of
RSX and RX100

 

"Michael Anderson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has anyone
> successfully tried this combination.

Michael: Campy 8-speed shifters pull close to 3.5mm of cable per click. Campy rear derailleurs have
a mechanical advantage of about 1.43:1. 3.5mm x
1.43 gives 5.0mm of derailleur travel per index click. This matches 7 speed cog spacing.

8-speed Campy spacing is also 5.0mm. Shimano 8-speed spacing is 4.8mm cog center to center.

Shimano 7 and 8 speed shifters pull close to 3mm of cable per click. Shimano rear derailleurs have a
mechanical advantage of 1.67:1. Same result: the derailleur moves 5mm for each click.

Therefore, using a Campy 8-speed shifter with Shimano rear derailleurs will result in almost 1mm
of overshift per click. This does not work - unless one replaces the indexing disk inside the
Ergopower shifters with the Shimano-compatible Sachs version (good luck finding these), or you
have second-hand Campy shifters for which this modification has already been performed - and you
don't know it.

What should work is Campy 10-speed Ergo shifters with a Shimano rear derailleur shifting Shimano
8-speed cogs.

My advice: pick up the 8-speed Mirage shifters cheap (I would not pay more than $75 complete - and
this includes the cable/casing kit and the downtube cable stops). I just picked up a complete new
Athena kit for this. 90% of the parts inside the shifters are common between Record and Mirage. Then
don't waste your time with compatibility issues, and mail-order up a new Mirage or Veloce rear
derailleur. Less than 50 bucks.

 

Michael Anderson said:

>My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx levers have started to fail,
>the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week. I've been informed of a shop that sells campag 8
>speed levers (record & mirage), and I'm tempted to buy a set and see if they work with my rsx
>groupset.

You could always go for Sora - cheap, and has similarish ergonomics to Campag. Ex seemed quite happy
with hers.

As a matter of interest, which shop has 8-speed Ergos? I'm after a replacement pair for my own bike.

John

 

SabineUK wrote:
> As a matter of interest, which shop has 8-speed Ergos? I'm after a replacement pair for my
> own bike.

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/components.htm - gear levers

--
~PB FA: 62cm Ti frame: http://tinyurl.com/6stt

 

Ok,. so i took it to a bike shop 3 days before my training camp holiday in Spain. This is a bike
shop I trust and go to regularly. They serviced the bike of course and said that the shifting of the
left hand lever was very erratic and sluggish and didn't compare favourably to the shifting of the
other bikes in the workshop. They said I'd get away with the poor shifting but it would be a
terrible shame if it ruined my cycing holiday (in Spain).

As these levers are no longer sold, let alone individually they came up with idea of using a barend
lever to shift the front rings. This work very well.

The reason I'm after the campag ergos is that I've got a little bit of money coming to me and a new
set of (record 8 speed) levers on the bike would look fine. The rsx levers are scratched but have
served me well over the past 6 years. I could get by with what I've got, but I'm just like most
people I suppose, I don't always go for the cheapest option.

Michael Anderson

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Isaacs" <[email protected]> Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 12:29 AM Subject: Re: 8 Speed Shifters

> >My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx
levers
> >have started to fail, the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week.
>
> Just curious what happened to the lever and wondering if you flushed it
with
> WD-40 before deciding it was a goner.
>
> jon

"Michael Anderson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> My summer bike is a very comfortable machine to ride, however its rsx
levers
> have started to fail, the left hand lever gave up the ghost last week.
I've
> been informed of a shop that sells campag 8 speed levers (record &
mirage),
> and I'm tempted to buy a set and see if they work with my rsx groupset.
>
> I've read that campag 8 speed levers pull the same amount of cable as shimano 7 speed. Has anyone
> successfully tried this combination.
>
>
> Michael Anderson

 

"Michael Anderson" <[email protected]rson.evesham.net> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
>
> As these levers are no longer sold, let alone individually they came up with idea of using a
> barend lever to shift the front rings. This work very well.
>

Certainly does - I have this arrangement on my 'cross bike, mainly for cost reasons; got a '98
Chorus 9sp R/H Ergo for under 40 quid, so paired it with an ancient Simplex friction bar-end that
came with the frameset, and a Saccon aero lever. The latter are very good, despite only costing £7
or so - nicely made, with sprung return - only quibble is the lack of a Q/R option to slacken off
the brake when taking the wheel out. Oh, and it probably saved a little bit of weight, too!

David E. Belcher

Dept. of Chemistry, University of York