8 Spd to 10 Spd Campy
 

I pulled my old, early '90's Merlin Extra Light out of the shed, and was thinking it has been so long since I have ridden it, I might as well clean it up and sell it. But having had so many miles on it, I am getting sentimental. I have been riding my other bikes since 2014. It has a mixture of 8 speed Campy Chorus and Record, and Mavic Open Pro wheels. Being old and 6'4"/250, I'm thinking more is better when it comes to the cassette. So I have been doing research on converting an 8 speed to a 10 speed drivetrain. From what I see, you can put an 10 speed cassette on an 8 speed free hub? It's a matter of a spacer or two? Would the same RD be compatible? Can you use the same wheel? Is it worth doing? Back to YouTube. Thank you all for your time.
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but a ten speed cassette will not fit on an 8 speed freehub. See: https://branfordbike.com/new-page-1
You would need a new freehub body (most likely an different hub altogether), rear derailleur and 10 speed ergos.

Unfortunately, Campagnolo 8 speed freehubs are different from the Campagnolo freehubs that fit 9-12 speed cassettes, so you're probably going to need to replace the rear wheel in addition to the cassette, RD, Ergos (and probably FD and crankset - though maybe not those last 2). That's a great looking bike though, so I can see why you'd want to upgrade and keep it.

I may have to lose weight:50:

Can you get good 10 speed parts? 10 speed is old and pretty much the forgotten speed for road from all manufactures now, Campagnolo being no exception.

Not seen any mention of shifters, 8 speed Ergos aren't going to be 10 speed compatible, maybe there is a conversion out there, but by the time you have done that, the cost of just buying 10 speed (if you can find any good ones) would equal the time and effort taken for this

For the hub, thinking your going to be limited to 8 speed, your need to ID exactly what you have, but even though they look similar, it wasn't till 9 speed came along that you start to get hubs that are still usable with more recent cassettes, this link covers it 8 speed and 9 speed Campagnolo | LFGSS

Is it worth doing? That's for you to decide, I have mid 90's bike currently with 9 speed Daytona, when the shifters wear out it's probably going change from Campagnolo, in your case, would do the math on how many parts you can use, how much new you need and how much needs replacing vs selling the parts you currently have and using that money to buy new parts

If you're looking at selling, it looks like a clean bike now, is it worth doing anything with, rather than let the purchases worry about what they want to do with it? Thinking that the shifter conversion idea wouldn't help a sale, probably detract from it, would look at this option if was planning on keeping it.

You can still find enough 10sp stuff - many/most of the UK sites have sections for NOS Campagnolo, and eBay is still a decent source of stuff. My main ride is a 23-year-old Litespeed with mid-'00s Chorus 10sp. I can still find everything I need.

Ummm.. is picture #2 your cassette? If it is, then someone has taken 9 or 10-speed Campy cassette cogs, removed the original spacers and one or 2 cogs, and converted it to a 8-speed cassette.

If these came off of your rear wheel, then the freehub should be compatible with all Campy cassettes from 9-12 speeds.

Regarding Campy 10-speed, I have several bikes kitted out with 10-speed Ultrashift, and it is amazing stuff. The shifting performance is as good as mechanical gets. Every few years you have to replace the G-springs and perhaps spring carrier, and hoods, but that is the only downside. Campy 10-speed cassettes (13-29 or 12-30) are still easily available from the UK mail-order places, for about half of their cost in N. America, if you can get them at all over here.

Other: your rear derailleur will not be compatible with Campy 10+speeds. And do not invest any of the lower-tier Campy gear, such as Power Shift or (shudder) Escape.

Thank you guys for the replies. That is the cassette I just took off my rear wheel. Over the years I have gone through a number of cassettes. Back then I just took it to the LBS. So I am not sure what the story is with it.

I, too, have an older road bike that I just love, but the group set was getting a bit old. Yep, I'm still riding the Scapin Columbus EL-OS frameset that I raced back in the '90s!! It had the same 8 speed Campy Chorus grouppo on it from back then, along with the Campagnolo Zonda deep dish wheels. I debated long and hard about getting a new bike, but since I'm not racing any more and I love the way this frame fits and feels, I decided to look into a full Campy upgrade. I ended up with the following from ProBikeKit from the UK: A Campy Centaur 11 speed Ergo-Power shift set, Centaur 11 speed cassette, Centaur front derailleur, and Campy Zonda C17 wheelset. I kept my existing Chorus BB, cranks and brakes because, well, they work just fine. The installation was a piece of cake as the dropout width is the same for both setups and I ended up knocking over a pound off the weight of the bike (mostly due to the different wheels). The bike was transformed! I'm loving it all over again, and the entire upgrade was $750 with free expedited shipping to the US. I'm in California and I got it all in 4 days from the UK. Amazing!!! To find a new bike with a Campy gruppo would have run me several times that price. Sure, I would have had some other newer components etc etc, but I'm completely happy with this frame as is so why spend another $2000? If I had your Merlin, I'd do it all over again.

Why don't you add a photo of the freehub. That looks like it is probably the newer variety of cassette.

Deep splines?

So that may mean just the rear cassette should be able to be upgraded.

Campy changed the pull ratio sometime midway through the 9-speed. So, your rear derailleur likely needs an upgrade.

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If you wanted to upgrade to 9-speed. Then you would probably be fine just locating an old style "pointy hood" right 9-speed shifter. And, a new cassette & chain. Everything else should work including the rear derailleur.

There may be options for upgrading shifter internals too, if you can locate the parts.

Freehub
 

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MP has me thinking about upgrading it to an 11speed. I am developing some questions about that. One is, I have a 39 inner chain ring. Can I just get a 32 (or the smallest possible) and swap them out, or does that require other changes? Thank you all for the responses.

That does appear to be a newer style freehub, and I believe should be good for up to 11 speed.

Your crankset won't support a smaller chainring.

You can purchase a "compact" crankset, usually about 50/34.

If you go with the standard Compact, your front derailleur may work with simply moving it down.

I have shifted a wider 54/34 on my bike (Chorus 11 speed front derailleur).

Campy front shifters are often quite forgiving for different derailleur styles.

Silver Record freehub. Those are sought after. It will take 9-11 9-12 speed. I don't know what that ring is on the inboard side of the body. Maybe a spacer put there when they converted it to 8 speed?

BTW Here's the user manual for that hub:

Edited from 9-11 to 9-12 thanks to alcjphil

Actually, if the free hub can take an 11 speed cassette it can also take a 12 speed cassette

Correct. But, my brain stopped at 10 speeds. It was just luck I remembered 11. Man, I remember when a 12 speed was 6 in the back and two up front.

I just mentioned 12 speed because it is current and probably easier to find than 11 speed

Thank you, gearbasher. That is a 1.05mm spacer. I cleaned up the cassette, put it back together, and am going to take it out for a spin. All my recent, and not so recent miles are on custom frames for my size, and I have to see how the lower bars suit me. If they do, more questions:)