nalax49

One of the return springs broke in a Campy Centaur Ergo lever. Know of any shops in Chicago who can replace these? TIA

lowbike

Call Tom at Cycle Smithy in Chi at: 773-281-0444 S-W 11:00am - 8:00pm

UptownJoe60640

Can't recommend Cycle Smithy because I never really go into Lincoln Park but I can recommend Uptown Bikes. Unpretentious and reliable mechanics. Not sure if
what you are wanting is something they do but I would really be surprised if they don't! If they CAN'T fix it... they will recommend someone 9 out of 10 times!

4653 N Broadway St, Chicago, IL
Saturday & Sunday Hours: 11am - 5pm
(773) 728-5212

MJH2

Everybody likes to talk about Campy stuff being rebuildable. Finding somebody who can crack one of those things open, fix it, and put it back together so that it's in perfect working condition is another story, though. If you find somebody, make sure to report back here so people will know.

I absolutely hate what I'm about to write, but:

The levers are about the cheapest part in the Campy group. If you've got 11 speed, you can currently get a set for $185ish (or Veloce 10 speed for about $120). Might just be easier/quicker to buy new levers.

rm -rf

It appears that the newer 11 speed levers aren't as rebuildable as the older style shifters--the ones with the knob at the top.

On my 2006 levers, I broke the same spring. If it's broken, the shift lever doesn't engage the rachet to shift into bigger cogs, and just moves with no resistance. (You can get it to engage by pressing in with your thumb on the top inside part of the lever while you shift with your fingers. Good enough for occasional shifts. I did a few rides this way.)

I've rebuilt my shifter 2 or 3 times now. The first time, I probably took 2 hours to get it all put back together. I had trouble getting the thumb shifter and it's spring back in place correctly. But it's pretty easy with experience. Any LBS mechanic that's done it a few times shouldn't have any problems. Once reassembled, it'll work like new. There's no tricky adjustments needed when assembling.

It might be possible to replace that coil spring without disassembling the shifter. Pull the brake and shifter cables, unscrew the bolt holding the shifter on the bar, and tap out the pin that the shift lever pivots on. Then there probably is enough room to put a new spring in with some needle nose pliers.

If not, since it's all apart anyway, get a pair of G-springs to replace the ones in the shifter, since they wear down, and the replacement broken coil spring.

UptownJoe60640

Like your screen name! Glad to see a few Linux/Unix users on here. I am a long-time FreeBSD user myself but am using
Fedora 13 at the moment for the desktop. The girlfriend loves it and I have grown to love it as well. Anyway, sorry for
getting off topic!

Shimagnolo

And I like your signature line!

(Solaris/Linux/(Free,Net,Open)BSD/Mac-OS-X user here).

UptownJoe60640

Do we have an update?

rm -rf

Here's the rebuild video. Start at the 3 minute 0 second mark. The top coil spring is installed from the top of the shifter, so there's no disassembly needed. It's not quite as easy as the video shows. The spring is stiff, and it's hard to get the straight end of the spring to pop in without unhooking the curved end.




--------------OFF TOPIC--------------

I've seen other linux related user names here.

I like that it assumes you know what you are doing. The rm -rf * command can delete all the files on your hard drive, and not even ask "are you sure?"

nalax49

Thanks for the video. This really helps out!

nixternal

Only if you su or sudo.

sudo !!

There, now it will do it Long time Linux hacker (currently a Debian Developer, Ubuntu/Kubuntu Developer, and KDE Developer) FLOSS FTW!

MJH2

I have nothing to add here, except that I know nearing nothing about computers and am going on nearly 2 years without windows (home and office). It's been mostly Ubuntu, mythbuntu, and android.

I have no regrets.

UptownJoe60640

You might want to add in there while you're at it that you must be in the sudo group to sudo! :-)

nixternal

I love convert stories like this You know, I just happen to be the leader of Ubuntu Chicago and we try to have regular get togethers. Some of us hack but many show up to learn some new stuff, hang out, and drink of course

admin or wheel to be exact. Though by saying 'wheel' I might be showing my age a little there. Of course you don't need to be in either, as you can 'sudo visudo /etc/sudoers' and add your user

UptownJoe60640

You're right. Like I said, I did use FreeBSD as a daily desktop but the fiance didn't like it so I converted over to Fedora. My Unix/Linux memory needs polishing.

Shimagnolo

You broke off the engagement, right?

UptownJoe60640

Haha, I tried and tried to convert her but she wasn't having it. I fought long and hard for one year. I have been away from FreeBSD a year now. I do miss it at times but like I said earlier I am actually happy with Fedora. I do miss FreeBSD at times and will eventually add another internal SATA drive for other distributions. I got my feet wet with Slackware. I was stuck in a CLI without X for weeks before figuring out how to configure X. Fun days.

nixternal

I need to get FreeBSD back on my one box and play around with it again. It always seemed to have the best install of KDE, and from what I have been hearing, this is still true today. I have been using Slackware for my Ruby dev box and I have to say, Slackware is still by far the greatest operating system on the face of this earth. Granted it is for more experienced users, but it is still the best distro I have touched and the best teaching tool there is. I started with Slack back in 1994, and it was amazing back then.