Bicycle Mechanics - Compatibility question

Hi. I have a cannondale r400 and was planning on changing up the wheelset this coming season to either campy sirrocco or zondas wheelset. I am wondering if they will be compatible witht he shimano sora groupset on the bike right now (that i plan on changing to campy centuar probibly end of the coming season or the season after). the other wheelset i looked at was the mavic ksyriums. any help with this would be appreciated. thank you

It is possible to respace pretty much any Campy or Shimano cassette to work well with shifters of the other brand. If you decide on Campy wheels, you will have to use Campy cassettes to match the splines on the freehub body. Sora is 8 speed. You could try just sticking a Campy 8sp cassette on to see if the Sora shifters/der will shift properly on it. If not, you can get spacer kits from brandfordbike.com and harriscyclery.com to adjust the spacing so it will work.

thanx. if i get the mavics it will probibly be less hassle thought right?

RobotSonic, if I am not mistaken, Campagnolo and Shimano use different methods for attaching their cassettes to the freehub. I think you must choose one of them when buying a wheelset.

If you get the Mavic wheels, you will have to choose a freehub- Shimano or Campy compatible. If you get the Shimano hub, your present cassette will work for now, but you will have to buy a very expensive remanufactured cassette to work with the 10 speed Centaur grouppo. If you go with the Campy hub or the Campy wheels, you will have to buy a Campy 9 speed cassette and a respacing kit for Shimano 8 until you respec your bike, then get a Campy 10 speed cassette as part of your upgrade. If I were you, I would put the money aside, and get the gruppo and the wheels at the same time. You should also price everything out. It might be cheaper to buy a new bike spec'd out the way you want it than it is to upgrade our existing frame.

once again thanks for the advice. after a bit of debating with myself i think im going to buy the wheelset (still havent decided which one yet :rolleyes: ) and get the spacer kit. I thought about buying a new bike but this is sort of a project for me and would rather not take that route.

Those Campagnolo wheels are nice ... but I think demoncyclist is right ... I'd save up for the groupo and wait to get the wheels. Or you can get the wheels, hang them on your wall and admire them until you get enuf cash for the Centaurs. :D