Originally Posted by
ultraman6970
After reading zinn's article i don't think it is a challenge at all, is hard to get used to the new ways tho. This is my experience with the new type of levers. In a matter of fact i fixed my problem with the shifting a few minutes ago. Just in case I'm using regular 10 speed campagnolo cable.
Centaur 10 ultrashift, centaur cassette, really old record ti cassette and a miche i have moving around. Veloce 2007 rd I believe, nothing fancy. I'm using 3 old cables and 1 new cable (rd). My issue was that coming down the shifting was erratic, upshifting was perfect. My bike is an old lemond steel (bilato).
When I put the shifters I took the friction plastic thing out and put some oil in it, used an old cable and passed it backwards to be sure the cable passage was clear. When I put the shifter cables what I did was use a tiny screwdriver to hold the cable so it was able to pass the cable all the way to the hole I wanted to, not hard to do but I did it with a totally used cable (FD one) so I'm just making a point.Once the cables where out of the shifter the trick was put the housing, the housing needs to be perfectly cut or it wont fit right in the holes. Since I was cut of housing just bought jag wire one for the rd side, the fd side is using a super old campy one. Ok oiled again the Y friction plastic in the brifters, done.
Now, in the BB since the bike is mint, Im using two pieces of teflon housing, the transparent one, so i dont scratch the BB area. That was the area where i was getting friction problems, tonite I managed to get some oil inside of the transparent tubing and problem fixed, shifting in the spot as it should be. My RD is a 2006/7, fd is a 2008 chorus CT FB (flat bar) that all the literature says it wont work with anything but flat bars and CT, my chanrings are regulars and shift like a champion, the shifters are 2010 ultrashift centaur. Tried with all my wheels and all of them work perfect, even the miche one.
Based on this, what I think is that people is not using the screwdriver technique to pass the cable inside of the levers, because if you do it in the other way the cable will bulge (not sure about the word) big time, the friction Y thing needs to be oiled also in my opinon and try to use an old cable to "sand" the holes in this area a little bit. Have a mechanic friend and he was telling me that sometimes cables need more oil or sometimes teflon tubing is needed to help friction.
Definitely i believe the problems are because of friction, not because the Rds cant perform the job. The thing is to find where the problem is.
CheerZ
Nice write up ultraman...thanks. With all the links posted including your yours, cable friction does seem to always be at the root.
The perplexing part of it for Bostic and me is we can get our bikes to shift in back on either chain ring but not both. Cable friction must be playing in again is all I can think. Increased chain tension when in the big ring seems to not allow all the slack to go out of the rear derailleur cable...in other words when on the big ring when chain tension is the highest...the rear derailleur is not upshifting outboard because the cable is fighting the increased chain tension just enough. Not so on the smaller ring with less chain tension. On the smaller ring apparently chain tension is low enough to not compete with cable friction and hence good shifting up and down the cassette on the small ring.
As to installing cables in new Campy shifters per Zinn's article...it is a bit fiddly IMHO. I have done it a few times now. It really helps to have a fresh cable with a welded end for fishing it thru otherwise its hard to do. The other thing I do is remove the white plastic insert when pushing up the cable. I do use a delicate blade screwdriver like you do to push the cable down into the exit hole when pushing the cable thru the housing.
I don't follow the part in your description about the BB and teflon housing...can you explain this further? What transparent tubing?...can you take a quick pic and post it?
Moving forward I am going to use a number of techniques to reduce cable friction and will review them here hopefully with pics to help others with this based upon what I have learned from others. One place of friction for me maybe under the BB. Unfortunately the cable guide that came with my new 2010 shifters does not fit under my BB so I am using the one that came on my Look 555 frame which is still in good shape but may have a bit more friction then a fresh guide.
Thanks if you could explain what is going on under your BB...maybe you are running a full cable housing versus a guide under there...not sure.