Old 09-12-18, 02:57 PM
  #11  
DaveSSS 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Loveland, CO
Posts: 7,228

Bikes: Cinelli superstar disc, two Yoeleo R12

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I decided to measure the cable pull on my very early model Campy11 speed shifters. To do that, I use a precise machinst's rule ( preferably Starret brand, not some cheap brand). Either an English or metric rule can be used, but the metric versions only have .5mm between marks, while an English model has .010 inch increments, that are significantly finer. With the wheel off the bike and the chain off the chainrings, place a piece of masking tape around the exposed cable, so it starts at some major increment, like 1 inch or 20mm, with one end of the rule resting on the cable housing stop. Go thorugh all 10 shifts and write down the position of the tape, after every shift. Repeat several times to be sure that the results are repeatable. What I found is just what I expected - the cable pulls do NOT steadily increase starting with the smallest cog shifts and progressing to the largest cogs. What I found is not much different than my previous measurements of a 10 speed system, 9 years ago. I got a consistent 3mm pull on the first shift, but that shift can be affected by the limit screw - you have to start somewhere. After that, the next six shifts were consistently 2.5mm, so the cable was at the 18mm mark at the end of those shifts and 20.5mm after the next. The pull increased to 3.5mm for the last two shifts, and the limit screw was not limiting the cable travel. The total travel was 27mm.

I also know that the 2015+ shifters pull more cable than the older models, but I have to measure the 2018 shifters that I have to find out how much. Unfortunately, my Colnago C-RS frame has no exposed cables, so I'll have to figure out some way to measure the pull on those shifters another day. I have a 2018 RD on my bike with the old shifters and found that the 27mm of cable pull was inadequate for the new RD. I tried the same trick that I did 9 years ago, to get a 10 speed RD to work with 11 speed. All I did was grind down the diameter of the clamp bolt threads to the root of the thread and file a little material off the cable clamp plate, to shorten the effective lever arn length on the RD and increase the travel a bit. It now shifts quite well with the old shifter. Before that change, if enough cable tension was applied to shift to the two largest cogs, the shifts to the smallest two cogs would hang up. More RD travel was needed.
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