DogBoy

I currently have Shimano 9sp 105 brifters/hubs&FD. I have XT RD & LX 11-32 cassette. I have tried personally and had the shop try to get my FD to work well and can't get it to go. Currently I can use the small and middle rings but can only use the 2 smallest cogs with the Large ring. I figure if I can't do it and they experienced guy at the shop can't do it I'll never get it to my satisfaction. The cure to this (per the shop guy and my own experience is to switch to campy ergos or bar end shifters. Let me just say I don't like bar end shifters (too bad it would be much less expensive) so that leaves the ergos. The shop guy said this would mean new wheel (or rebuilding current wheel with a campy hub), new cassette and a new RD in addition to the shifters, but I'm aware of the JTEK shiftmate that lets me only buy new cables & the brifters (which may include the cable set) & the $40 shfitmate.

So, here's the ultimate question (given I'm keeping the XT RD, and Shimano cassette/hub):

Do I get 9 or 10 speed campy ergos? I'm inclined to get 9 speed since then I'm working 9 with 9, but I want to know from others if 9 sp campy shifters w/ 9sp shimano works better/worse/same as 10sp campy shifters w / 9 sp shimano RD cassette.

I also want to know which level of Campy has the least amount of plastic in the shifters? WI can get cold and I plan to ride this bike in winter. I've had bad luck with plastic. I'm debating between Chorus ($270) & Veloce ($200).

juicemouse

HA! What a horrible load of bullpoop! There's just no reason that 105 levers should not work with a 105 front derailleur (besides a broken component or an inept mechanic). If you have another local shop around, I highly suggest you seek out a second opinion. My suspicion (from afar) is that something isn't right with the front derailleur. Front derailleurs are basically the least expensive of all components, so if you've exhausted all your options with your current one, you should just pick up a new one and see if that solves your problem. Make sure you're using a suitable derailleur for the combination of chainrings you're using.



If you want to switch to Campy levers, that's fine. But again, you shouldn't have to.

There won't be much difference between those two combinations of Ergo/ShiftMate, but I would think the 9-speed Ergos and the appropriate ShiftMate would give you slightly better shifting to your largest cog. This is because shifters pull slightly more cable at the extremes of their travel (due to derailleur geometry) and with the 10-speed shifter you'd be missing out on that extra pull for the largest cog (because you'd only be using gears 1-9 of the 10-speed shifter). I'm not sure if Jtek has accounted for this in their design or not (it would require a variable-diameter pulley) but again, it's not a huge deal either way.



Veloce and Centaur are the only two Ergopowers with metal levers (the only difference between them being the cut-out in the Centaur's shift paddle, and about $30). That being said, it gets pretty darn cold here in central PA, and neither my Mirage nor my Record levers have given me any trouble at all in the dead of winter.

If you can't find a decent local shop to patronize, Ergo levers can be had much less expensively online than the prices you quoted.

https://www.probikekit.com/display.ph...0Levers-%20STI

https://www.11speed.com/catalogo/prodotti.asp?cat_id=25

ComPH

Your description of the setup and the problem are unclear, but I cannot understand why would shop have a problem with it. First, Shimano 9 speed shifter should work just fine with MTB cassette and Simano XT RD. It is much trickier to get Shimano cassette to work with Campy shifters, even though it has been done, but that should only complicate your situation. It appears that you have tripple on the front. Do you have tripple FD? It appears so, you have no complaints about front shifting. It sounds more that you cannot shift to large cogs from large front ring. Besides a really weird chain line, poorly adjusted FD or really missaligned RD, it sounds to me as either short chain or you are not using long cage RD. Again, this should be fairly simple to figure our for a mechanic, so it cannot be the problem. If you can explain in more detail the setup and problem, there are many guys on this forum who can help.

DogBoy

RD is fine. FD works well with little chainring and middle chainring, but in large chainring I can only use the two smallest cogs. Sorry if it was unclear.