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Old 01-12-09, 03:27 PM
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invisiblehand
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Washington, DC
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Bikes: Jamis Nova, Bike Friday triplet, Bike Friday NWT, STRIDA, Austro Daimler Vent Noir, Hollands Tourer

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Incompatible front derailers?

Long story short, I believe that a Campy Record Ergo front shifter is defective. It could shift an IRD compact front derailer from the low to middle position, but unable to hold the high (outside) position after shifted. The video below demonstrates.

http://tinyurl.com/8x2bf4

Notice that you hear the shifter ratching (clicks) when the derailer moves from low to middle and middle to high. But as the derailer slides back to the middle, you hear more clicks. As long as I provide physical force to the lever, the front derailer stays in the high position. Once I release it, it slides back to the middle position.

After a little trouble shooting, the techs at ProBikeKit agreed that it was defective and said I should send it back. They now claim that the shifter is fully functional ... although they didn't mention how they determined this ... and write that the shifter is incompatible with the front derailer. I find this extremely hard to believe.

I put on a set of Ultegra shifters and the front derailer works fine.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I did ask how they determined functionality. Twice. They still have yet to respond. But I did mention that if they simply tested it with a double, they would discover that it works fine ... I assume it would be like shifting from the low to middle. However the Campy shifters are supposed to work for both doubles and triples. Consequently they wouldn't discover the problem until shifting from middle to high.
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Last edited by invisiblehand; 01-12-09 at 03:39 PM.
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