DRLski

I'm having an issue with my campy setup on my recently new bike that i just finished building up. My steering is extremely stiff and I believe it's the cables because if I take the cables apart it's fine so I dont believe it's the headset. I seem to have enough cable, if I had any more they bunch up a little. The stiff steering makes my bike a little figity. Does anyone have any idea?

dekalbSTEEL

Too much twisting! Also, if you run one in front of the bar, and one behind, they will come out separately.


PLUS you get a "wing" bar effect when you wrap the bars

Jakey

Cross them in front. Then cross them back under the downtube. Less extreme angle. Try it.

roadfix

Yep, on the Ergos the derailleur cables usually route behind the bars. Your set up seem a little tight, but if you can ride no hands at slow speed, I wouldn't worry about it.

Cleave

Hello Dave,

No offense to the others, but I'm not sure how they manage to have their bikes shift reliably with their cables in those configurations. It might be hard to see, but with Campagnolo, you need to have enough derailleur cable housing "slack" so that the housing crosses like in this photo:



In your photo, the cable housings are too short which is what is causing your steering problems. The Campagnolo manual refers to this kind of problem but the manual does not specifically show how much slack should be in the cables.

Also with the housing as short as yours and dekalbSTEEL, the bike will "autoshift" if you have an extreme steering angle. It is rare that you would steer that sharp, but if you are making a U-turn on a narrow path, the short housing will pull the cables and the derailleurs (rear especially) will start to shift.

Take a look at any head-on bike shot in CycleSport or on the PezCycling web site (https://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=pe...pelopics-may06) and you will see that every pro bike with Campy has the housings cross in front of the head tube.

Lastly, it took me a little while to figure out what Jakey is suggesting and it seems that he has enough slack in the housing to alleviate the steering and autoshift problems, but it is not the common configuration for setting up Campy derailleur cable housing.

Oh, and part of how I learned all of this was by doing the same thing that you did back in 1995 when I got my first Ergopower group. Back then new cable housings and cables were "only" about $20.

Hope this helps.

Jakey

True my way is not the common way...but my way also eliminates head tube rub...which is the main reason for doing it that way. On a bike with downtube bosses, its nearly impossible to route the cables the 'normal' way and not risk marring up the paint on the headtube.

Cleave

True enough. I have used clear tape on some bikes to protect the paint. On my ex-Ti Bianchi (polished) it didn't seem to matter. My Looks came with clear vinyl pieces to protect the frame.

I guess you could also think of it as a Campy tattoo.

Who knows, I may try your way the next time I have to change my cable housing.

catatonic

Yeah, I have to do some touch-up painting on my headtube, where it's been rubbed to bare metal from cable rub.

Definately need some slack. To me, if the cable's don't cross up front, it's too short. I'm also not a fan of running one cable on front, and one on the bakc, since I am a commuter, and have a large light mount on my bars...the only way it can fit is to have both cables come out on front. It can be done cleanly, but it takes a bit of work.

dekalbSTEEL

I ride my ROAD bike on the ROAD, not some silly path. My bike does not auto shift. I shift it myself, manually. Also, I was not looking for a critique of my cabling, the OP was. Thanks anyway, Cleave.

Cleave

My apologies for offending you. Not critiquing you or your riding style but your photo showed the OP an approach that has some risk (albeit small as I noted). If it works for you then great.

Oh, and yes, this is a Campy thing.

fmw

And wonderful paint it is..........

shawneebiker

Your cables aren't long enough. Running one cable behind the bar gives you an uncomfortible ridge along the outside of the ergo lever. Make your cables longer and run them the same way and things will be fine....

DRLski

Thanks for all the replies, I will have to try a few things tonight, fortunately as do many of you, I have more than one bike so I don't have to give up riding while trying to get this one working correctly I already have some extra campy cables (which costed me about $50 ) so I will give it a shot with some longer cables or perhaps running one in the front and one in the back, however I tried this when I first set this thing up and I was having even larger issues but will try your cable configurations.

Thanks again for all the help.

R900

Here is my setup. I just switched to a larger stem 110 -> 140 and it took all the slack out of the cables. I might add a little housing when I replace the cables down the road, but I've not noticed any handling issues. I think Campy cables flow a lot smoother if you run them front and back.

John

shawneebiker

Here's the front of my R3.

SDRider

Your shift cables should be routed along the back of your handlebars and cross twice before they go into the bosses on your downtube. I'll post some pics of my LeMond later if you like. It works perfectly this way trust me. I crossed them under the downtube the first time but they rub and they will eventually wear through your bike's finish which was unacceptable to me.

I have Campy on two road bikes and I screwed them both up once before I got it right. It took me an extra set of cables to figure it out but I think it's a learn by doing thing and usually you cut them too short and you're screwed.

ViperZ

Adding to the fray...



Your Shifter cables look long enough...


Maybe try having the Brake cables infront of the shifter cables, with some clearance between them.

SDRider

Dude, that's a freaking mess.

SDRider

This works for me.