mikejavo

I've seen 8 and 9 speed cassette spacer kits, but I'm just wondering if anyone has seen the 7 speed version, or are there other limitations, like the width of the teeth, that make them incompatible.

Thanks.

HillRider

Probably lack of interest is why no one makes the conversion. Campy's index shifting in the days of 7-speed was terrible so there wasn't much demand for converting 7-speed Shimano that worked well to 7-speed Campy that didn't.

mikejavo

Thanks hillrider. Would a Campy RD, campy shifter and Shimano cassette work in friction mode?

mikejavo

I guess a better question would be this. I have a long cage Campy RD and Campy 7 speed shifter that I want to swap, from a mid 80's Shimano 600 short cage and great clicking STI downtube 7 speed shifter. Would the Campy Long cage DER work with the Shimano shifter? I read somewhere that the DER is just a mechanical spring in a cage. So in theory, the Shimano Shifter should work fine with a Shimano cassette and Campy DER.

You're absolutely right, the 600 index shifting has been, and still is awesome. I'm just looking at increasing the tooth count on the rear cassette, and had this Campy long cage RD sitting around.

HillRider

I don't think the geometry of a Campy rear derailleur is going to index properly with Shimano indexing shifters and/or cassettes. It would certainly work in friction mode but that's about all.

The idea that all rear derailleurs are speed and manufacturer indifferent is not correct. All Shimano (except pre 9-speed Dura Ace) and some SRAM rear derailleurs have the same design and geometric configuration so they (with the noted exceptions) will work with any number of cogs and the matching indexing shifters.

There are some cable attachment rerouting tricks that allow incompatible derailleurs to be used with shifters and cassettes not originally in their design but this is a bit of trial and error. Sheldon Brown may have some ideas on this too.

Campy uses different rear derailleur geometry that isn't compatible with either Shimano or SRAM. In fact some Campy rear derailleurs won't index properly with other speed Campy systems. IIRC, Campy 8-speed isn't compatible with anything else.

J-Tec makes a series of adapters that let you mix-and-match among various Campy and Shimano cassette/derailleur/shifter combinations but i don't think they bothered with 7-speed anything.

Sheldon Brown

Campagnolo doesn't have a friction mode, that would run afoul of a Shimano patent.

Back in the 7-speed era, all indexing systems used a 5.0 mm sprocket spacing.

When 8-speeds came in, Shimano and Campagnolo diverged:

Shimano 8-speed is 4.8 mm spacing but...

Campagnolo 8-speed stuck with the same 5.0 mm spacing as with 7-speed.

Thus, if you use a Campagnolo 8-speed shifter and a Campagnolo derailer, you can index properly with:

Campagnolo 8-speed cassette or

Anybody's 7-speed cassette or freewheel.

See: https://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_sp-ss.html#spacingk7 for more details

Sheldon "Interchangeabilitude" Brown

HillRider

That's my point. You have to use a Campagnolo derailleur and a Campagnolo shifter to make it work. You can't use a Campy derailleur with a Shimano shifter.

Campy dt shifters may not have a friction mode but Shimano dt shifters certainly do so you can use Shimano dt shifters with anybody's cassette and rear derailleur in friction mode.