Originally Posted by
Heatherbikes
Hello, I got a c-record 8 speed campagnolo hub without thinking too much about compatibility, or what might still be available. I still have to take a look and see what kind of 8 speed hub it is(other than shiny, pretty, nos). It would seem I am limited to 13-28 cassettes, 30 if lucky. miche or campy.
The bike in question was to have a wide range with 30something cog. I was thinking of shimano 11-34, surely something for campy exists... I have read and been advised many things, mostly that it is just not possible to do much about it. There is some sort of conversion ring that is now obsolete. Is it possible to put a shimano freebody on with some hacking, or a shimano cassette with hacking? Possibly something about squishing a 9 speed on, but the campy 9 speed range isn't exactly touring friendly either. Otherwise the 13-28 will have to do.
OK.. here's the good news and the bad news.... Mostly bad.
You have an 8-speed campy freehub.
- These cannot be replaced with a Shimano compatible freehub. These were never made.
- I very much doubt that your freehub can be replaced with one of the newer 9/10/11 speed Campy freehubs. I've spent a fair amount of time digging around in both types of hubs, and I don't see how they could fit.
- Shimano/SRAM cassette cogs absolutely will not fit on the 8-speed Campy freehubs. Completely different design.
- Conversion rings.... This refers to spacer kits to convert cogsets to a different spacing standard. New spacers won't help you because you need the bigger cogs.
Good news:
- Long ago, Campy did make some 28 and 30 tooth cassette cogs for the 8-speed freehubs. I'm staring at a 30 right now.
- Maybe you could machine one of the newer 9/10 speed Campy cassette cogs to fit. I've never tried this.
- When Campy made their brief and disasterous foray into mountain bikes, they produced a line of triple mountain bikes cranks. A tedious and obscure fact is that the middle chainrings on some of these were actually modified cassette cogs - compatible with the 8-speed freehub. Weird. I think they made these in as large as a 34. I have a 32 on some bike somewhere that I transpanted onto a cassette.
Happy hunting... An old bike co-op is your best chance here. Or Ebay.