Hello all,

My current bike is set up with '03 10 spd. Campy Chorus.
I'm looking to buy a use bike that is set up with '01 9 spd. Chorus.

Can I use my 3 wheelsets that have 10 spd cassettes on the used bike?


Also, an unrelated ?:
what the heck is a quill stem?

Problem will be that you are using 10 gears where 9 used to fit. So you will have to adjust your rear derailleur so can only shift through the nine gears you want. You get to pick, though. Either drop out the first or the tenth and set the stops accordingly. You will also have to use a 10-speed chain due to the 10-speed cassette. And you are supposed to use a 10-speed big chainring with a 10-speed chain. And 10-speed jockey wheels and bolts on your RD. It will be easier to simply purchase a 9-speed cassette or two. Can generally get them new off of eBay for about $50. Actually, I just bought two of them for ~$30, each. A pretty good deal compared to $75-200 from your LBS. But. Read on.

OK - now here is what you really want to do. Send your right side Ergo lever to Tim at Branford Bike. For about $75-90, depending what parts it may need, he will convert it to 10-speed. Get a 10-speed chain and jockey wheels for your RD and, presto. Both your bikes are 10-speed. Now, that wasn't too difficult, was it. Just try doing anything remotely similar with shimaNo.

And, lastly. Tell Tim you want your 9-speed parts back. Because I want them to convert my 8-speed to 9-speed. Have fun!!

Almost forgot. A quill stem is the old style stem that fits down inside a threaded steerer tube on the older style forks. It has the long bolt the pulls the jam/compression nut on the bottom end up. As you tighten it the jam nut expands the bottom of the quill stem tightly against the inside of the steerer tube. Considered heavy and cheap in todays world. But they are very reliable and a gizillion of them out there.

Thanks a ton!

Well, the real problem here is that 9 speed shifters are not about to shift a 10 speed cassette anyway. 10 speed cog spacing is 4.12m and 9 is 4.55mm.

It is the cog spacing that is the problem going from 10 to 9 speed. But since this is Campy, you can simply get an extra 9 speed cog set and mount it on whatever wheelset you want to use with the used bike. The hub is the same for Campy 9 and 10 speed. With a lock ring remover and a chain whip, it is a 5 minute job to switch the cog sets, tops.

Also, if you do not want Branford Bikes to work on your lever, you can order the parts from them and have them ship it to you, and you can rebuild your lever yourself. It is not that hard. Really. Instructions are at www.campyonly.com. I did it when one my rear shifting lever started shifting funny. Turns out that one of the parts was broken (the same part that the guys at campy only replaced) and I was able to use their instructions to take the lever apart, replace the part, and put it back together again. Total cost this way is around $20 to $30 for the parts alone, with a $5 instruction manual to go with it.

Have fun,

BR