Road Cycling - Campy and Shimano Compatibility?

Hey all,

I've got a dilemma. I have a Giant road bike with an old worn out Shimano 600 group that I'd like to upgrade to campy stuff. The trick is that I can't afford to upgrade all at once so I'll do it a piece at a time.

I think my first purchase will be a Chorus Crankset, a set of Chorus or Record brakes and a pair of record hubs built up with Open pro rims.

I know the wheels will need a cassette, and the cassette won't be compatible (10 speed vs 8 speed), but will the other two items work with my current 600 setup? or should I just put it all in a box until I have the complete set?

My 600 crank is a double, and I'll be getting a Chorus double to replace it.

Suggestions?

I'm using a Ritchey crankset that was being used with Shimano 105 with my Campy Chorus drivetrain and have had no problems. The brakes should not be a issue either. Obviously splne on the wheels is wrong to fit a shimano cassette on it so those won't work. And the derailleurs won't work with shimano shifters.

Are you crazy? using shimano and campy on the same bike? They will fight all the time, and you won't be able to stop them from bickering long enough to get a good ride in! Even worse, if you ride in this condition, your drivetrain will explode! j/k.

It is often much cheaper to buy everything all at once then buy induvidually. I would reccomend saving up and eventually buying all the stuff at once.

I'll concur with Phatman.. Shimano stuff works with shimano... and campy with campy. There's really no other way around it. If you upgrade one thing to campy everything else will go whack. 10 spd campy is the way to go!!

There are several different combinations of Campy shifters & Shimano hubs/cassettes that can work together. I and several other folks helped Louis Dubrey with an article that outlines most of them and you can download the .pdf file here: http://www.hearingoffice.com/download/hearing/10_Speed_Conversion_screen.pdf

Although I'm not sure it's mentioned in Louis article, in addition to the "Shimagnolo adapter" that lets you use Campy 10 with Shimano 9, Wheels Manufacturing now produces an Accelerator 10 Speed cassette (remanufactured Ultegra, Shimano splined) that fits on most hubs with the exception of Chris King, Spox, and Shimano's integrated wheel systems. Although not cheap at $125, these cassettes do let you bridge the gap between Campy 10 speed and Shimano wheelsets until you go full Campy with a new wheelset.

For reference purposes, I've got four different road bikes with Campy 9 speed shifters (pre-2001 and post) that work interchangably with Shimano 9 speed and/or Campy 9 speed cassettes/wheelsets and no special adapters or tricks other than careful adjustment of the rear derailler. 10 speed does pose more challenges but is not insurmountable. Campy 9 speed also works flawlessly with Shimano 8 speed cassettes without adapters. Just adjust the derailleur stop to lock-out the 9th "click" on the Campy Shifter.

Gee, my classic lightweight uses Campy Record hubs, Shimano 600 freewheel, Dura Ace derailleurs, all shifted with early 60's Campagnolo friction shifters!

Save money on pain meds and do all of one or the other.

The taper is a bit different on Shimano and Campy bb's so remember to budget for a new bb. Beyond that, I'm with the others that say do it all at once.

Originally posted by Waldo
The taper is a bit different on Shimano and Campy bb's so remember to budget for a new bb. Beyond that, I'm with the others that say do it all at once.

Good catch on the differences in square taper BB standards...

Shimano = JIS
Campagnolo = ISO

"I'll concur with Phatman.. Shimano stuff works with shimano... and campy with campy. There's really no other way around it. If you upgrade one thing to campy everything else will go whack. 10 spd campy is the way to go!!" Where is Pokey?

there's no reason why you couldn't use shimano brakes with campy levers and vice versa. some wheel manufacturers, like mavic, sell replaceable freehubs that let you change your whels from one standard to the other... ymmv

Originally posted by ComPH
There's really no other way around it. If you upgrade one thing to campy everything else will go whack

Again, this isn't a true statement but I can appreciate the sentiment and spirit behind it. Campy is my preference as well BUT it's not all or nothing -- there are just too many of us using hybrid systems.


Originally posted by ComPH
10 spd campy is the way to go!!"

Can't argue with that but strongly consider using a Wipperman 10x chain with Conex connectors instead of Campy's own.

Campy pedals should work fine with Shimano stuff :P