Bicycle Mechanics - FSA Energy Compact Crank with Shimano chainring compatible with Campagnolo FD?

So I had my LBS put together a bike for my wife last fall (Bianchi L'Una with a 2006 Chorus drive train and a FSA Energy Compact crank). Everything works great except for the FD / big chainring which refuses to shift from the small chainring to the big chainring while riding. I thought it was an adjustment problem so I went back to the LBS and they tinkered with it and again the same problem. The bike will shift from the small chainring to the big while on the stand but not while riding.

So I read a couple posts here which suggested I may have better luck with a Chorus CT FD. So I ordered one and installed it today and still the same thing. I did more research and come to find out FSA Campagnolo 10 chainrings and Shimano 10 chainrings are list as different products. Of course my Energy Crank is their Shimano 10 chainring, which leads me to wonder if this was my problem all along?

Has anyone had any success with FSA Energy cranks (I think they only make these with Shimano chainrings) and Campagnolo Chorus FDs?

Would a FSA Campagnolo 10 specific chainring set solve the shifting issue?

Do I just need to go to a different shop and find someone who can setup the FD correctly?

Yes, I am grasping at straws but I am desperately trying to get this issue resolved by Mother's Day so I can take my wife riding. Any help appreciated!

By the time you finish paying the LBS and buying parts you might as well get a Campy compact crank. Sell the old parts on ebay to help defray the cost. The new Ultra Torque Centaur crank would go great with the group and wouldn't break the bank. Good luck


Tim

Certainly a Centaur CT would be nice, but this setup should work with a better LBS.

You could prob find a new crankset for about the same as buying FSA rings. (Maybe I missed them, but the only Campy spec rings I saw on their site were 135mm BCD anyway)

Are you sure the fd's limit screws are set properly? Campy '06 and prior front brifters are ratcheted rather than indexed so be sure you can reach the "click" far enough out to get the small to large shift to operate properly.

Also, I wonder if the LBS set up the shifters properly. Many bike shops have little experience with Campy components and may not have done the setup procedure right.

I'm using '06 Record brifters and a Veloce 9/10-speed front derailleur on an otherwise all-Shimano bike with an Ultegra 9-speed triple crank and Shimano 9-speed chain. The shifting is fine among all of the rings so there is nothing inherently incompatible.

vpiuva: If you go to aebike.com and the like you will find FSA chainrings for both campy and shimano in different BCDs.

HillRider: Basically I am not sure of anything. The weird thing is it works on the stand but not while riding. I am unsure what you mean by "reach the click far enough out to get the small to large shift to operate properly". I am not familiar with campy ratcheting system so I am still in learning mode.

I wonder about the installation and setup of the brifters/FD as well. I am giving them (LBS) another chance as they have done fine work for me in the past.

My main concern is that, unlike your setup, I have a FSA Shimano-10 chainring trying to pickup a campy ultra-narrow chain. I wonder if the spacing/ramps is off just enough to cause this problem. I am hoping someone with a similar setup could chime in.

Campy Ergo brifters (prior to the '07 "QS" type) have 9 "clicks" for the front shifter and that's what I mean about a "ratchet" rather than true indexing. Their advantage is you can trim the derailleur position over both or all three chainrings no matter what crank you are using. If the outer limit screw is too tight, the fd won't travel far enough to make the shift under some load even if it does so on the repair stand.

The Campy web site has reproductions of all of their owner's manuals and the proper technique for installation and adjustment is spelled out there in excellent detail.

I realize our two systems aren't the same but my point was that there is no inherent reason your Campy brifters won't work properly with a Shimano spaced crank.

A shimano 10s ring/cog is 1.6mm thick, campy 1.7mm, so I doubt that's the issue, as your chain will fit on a wider ring. I don't have your setup, but I used a chorus 10s FD with an 8s shimano crankset, chain, and brifter. FDs are very flexible.

vpiuva: Thanks for the info. but you are running a shimano chain on a shimano crank. My question was whether the campy ultra-narrow chain (5.9mm) with a Shimano specific chainring could be a factor here. Just to be clear I think it is adjustment issue not a compatibility issue as well.

HillRider: I knew that 06 campy fd is a ratchet system and what that meant. I just didn't know what you meant by "reach". To be honest, I went through Park's, Sheldon's and Campy's install info. several times. I am sure it is just my inexperience that is causing the problem but I am also trying to weed out other possible factors as well.

I dropped off the bike again. I hope third time is a charm. Otherwise I only have one other bike shop 50 mins away. After that I have to drive out of state to find a bike mechanic. Well I hope it doesn't come to that. Thanks to you guys for your time.

Update: It still did not work after my LBS campy guy worked on the bike. The FSA big chainring was just not picking up the chain on shifts. I was tired of driving back and forth to my LBS so I bought a centaur CT UT and had the campy mechanic install it. FWIW, it works now. Here is the real kicker of it all. I took the FSA crank and installed it on my Lemond with a shimano 9-speed drive train and it shifts fine. I don't know who the culprit is but I guess it is one of those weird compatibility quirks you run into once in a while. Thanks to everyone for their help!

If you're running the old Campy shifters, that are rachet more than index (as explained by HillRider), then how about just getting FSA's compact-specific front derailer?
I still think that the Campy FD (either one of them) should be able to be set up to work fine, and am in the dark along with everyone else here in understanding why it won't work.

I want to recommend you away from buying Campy's own compact crank, just because I think they were ***holes in building it with a 110mm bcd but with one hole rotated so that you can only use their chainrings. Certain types of incompatibilities are engineered into systems to limit competition, and this is definitely one of them.

I've heard of this same problem before, it was solved by using a normal double FD instead of a compact. Dunno why, but campy compact FD's don't like other compact cranksets.

Campy has a 41.75 chainline while FSA is 43.5 (I'm pretty sure). That means your crank is a few mm too far away from the frame. This takes it out of the arc that the der swings through (the optimal area) Also, the spacing between the chainrings (even though FSA SAYS they are "Campy rings") is still set up for Shimano.) It is different spacing.

My advice is to ditch the FSA stuff all together before it breaks and you have to replace the BB or crank anyway and stay with the Campy set-up. Most aftermarket stuff is designed to mesh with Shimano with some after-thought given to Campy. The tabs on the crank spider are definately set up to acheive Shimano spacing because it doesn't make sense to make a seperate CRANK (not RINGS) for Campy (due to the small volume).

Wow lots of feedback, thanks guys. As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought the Campy Centaur CT UT crank already and it works fine with the all Campy setup. This is my first experience with Campy drive trains so it was a learning one.

@Tim: I feel the same way about proprietary stuff but I just wanted the fastest, most likely to work solution which was to buy a campy crank.

@Hocam: I originally had a regular (normal) FD which behaved exactly the same way.

@Bob: Yours is the closest to an objective reason why I was having problems. Thanks for the chainline info.