This is a ten-speed Campagnolo Veloce shifter. I noticed it sits too far back in the lever body, and now I see it's broken and is about to fall apart. These things are supposed to be rebuildable, so how do I buy a replacement? One idea is to drop the bike off at my local bike shop, but are these things obtainable online? I assume I can either find a service document or figure out the procedure somehow.

quick search shows... https://www.probikekit.com/bicycle-b...ation=11070668

and there are any number of vids showing installation... You MIGHT find a single right on Ebay... kinda scarce as a single... they fail fairly often.

you might find a campy replacement PART that might fix the assembly... kinda tough to do, if possible... get the new assembly, since the return spring fails, too.

I think you just use your backup to re-image the shifter

There is nothing wrong with your shift lever. Your right hand shifter has the brake release in the open position. This is a little button on the brake lever. Pull on the brake and push the button on the left side of the lever so that it sticks out on the right side. Your shift lever will then be much closer to the brake lever

Oh my goodness, you're right. And I was shifting gently and as little as possible to forestall what I thought was inevitable. Thank you!

I really didn't want to buy a whole new pair of brifters. I'm surprised I can get them for as little as $85, but still. [MENTION=414686]maddog34[/MENTION], are they really that bad?

any brifter, shifter, brake lever, etc. can break.

brifters, in general, can be troublesome... they get "sticky", springs wear out, levers break... and a crash can scar up the housings which causes them to be a pain to use.... and some older shimano 105-ultegra-DA ones like to break the shift cables INSIDE the levers... getting the cable remnant out can be quite epic, especially when you have a race start coming up in 20 minutes..... i change those particular cables every season now.... and any time the shifting on that bike changes suddenly for no other good reason...

but they sure work nice until they fail, eh?

and then... there's trying to get shimano type shift cables out of old Campy downtube shifters.... at least those stuck ducks are easy to access with tools.. drills, pin punches, hammers, pick axes, 9mm semi auto, C4.

OK, thanks. I thought you had something specific in mind. I realize brifters are finicky. So far, I've been happy. I have three bikes with them, and that will soon be four.

Thanks for the tip of proactively changing cables. I'll try to remember to do that. Now that I have a taller stem, I clearly need to install longer housings and cables.

For future reference, you can buy the shift lever assembly separately. At some point Campagnolo seems to have moved away from selling each individual spring, gear, and bushing (though those are still available for older generations of their shifters). Here's a source:

https://www.universalcycles.com/shop...9&category=771

It looks like the replacement assembly for those Veloce levers would run about $72, which isn't such a great deal when you can buy a new set for $85, but it turns out you could actually upgrade to a Record shift assembly for about $97. I did this recently with an old Centaur lever. You may have seen my thread about the mismatch. It nags at my OCD, but the shifting performance is worth it.



(Note: For some generations there is a bit of debate whether there was actually a mechanical difference between different levels of shifters in the Campy lineup. In my case, I went from a worn out 9-speed Ergopower shifter to a NIB 10-speed Ultra shifter, so naming aside it was a definite upgrade.)

Thanks, [MENTION=131875]andy k[/MENTION]. I can't imagine a shifter working better than my Veloce. That's how good it is. But I'll take your word for it.

The OP was asking about his particular situation which was resolved by learning about the brake release. There was nothing wrong with his shifter

Yes, I was clear about that. I was providing information for future reference for anyone who was looking for information about replacement parts whose problem couldn't be resolved in the way noglider's problem was.

Yeah, the newer Campagnolo shifters are really nice at all levels of their line up. I just built a bike with 2014 Centaur 10-speed shifters, and they feel great. There are some differences in the upper groups with how they function, particularly how many gears you can shift at a time, but all of them work very well.