So I’m embarrassingly unfamiliar with freewheels and associated gearing. I have a frame I’m building up and it’s looking like I’m going to use (mostly) parts I have on hand. Currently that’s Campy NR friction DT shifters and an English Campy freewheel set of wheels. I’m using an Athena crankset that can either be 52/42 or 52/39. I have a 6s 14-28 Suntour Perfect freewheel on a set of wheels I can steal from.
Which Campy rear derailleur should I be looking for that can handle this combo?

Just a quick tidbit of information on the Suntour 6 speed Perfect: The body came in two versions. Either regular spaced for 126mm rear dropouts or Ultra, or narrow spaced, for 120mm rear spacing. If you have the narrow version, it is just a mm or two taller than a 5 speed freewheel. If you do have the Ultra version, I recommend a SRAM or KMC 8 speed (even a 9 speed works well) chain for best shifting.

It may be tough getting a Campy NR RD to handle a 14-28. It can be done and I've done but I needed to shoot the wheel all the way back in the drop outs to make it happen.

See this is why I ask you guys questions before doing things. I’ll measure, thanks!

I would be fine with a later Campy rd if it worked better. Maybe Athena or Chorus from the 8s era? Would those do better?

If you care about gear ratios, you also want to consider the specific choice of teeth. 52-42 works well with something like 14-16-18-21-24-28 in back (been there ... done that), just as 52-40 worked well with a 14-17-20-24-28 5-speed.

If it were mine, I would seriously consider 50-40 / 14-16-18-21-24-28 or what I used on my Bianchi, 50-42 / 14-16-18-20-23-26 (SunTour standard/wide width), which works superbly with a Campag. NR. I am currently running 46-38 / 13-15-17-19-22-25 (Regina America) on the 1959 Capo, which has a brand-correct but anachronistic Campag. 980 derailleur. I have even run a triple half-step-plus-granny with a short-cage SunTour cyclone 48-45-34/13-15-17-19-21-23, which had a full 40 to 100 gear-inch range.

One secret to obtaining lower gears on older equipment is to ask yourself whether your really need a high top gear. For me, anything in the mid-90 gear-inches is perfectly adequate. Choose a smaller outer chainring and work your way down from there.

Just for reference, a couple of bikes I have built in the past for (and ridden at) L'Eroica with Campagnolo Nuovo Record transmissions. In neither case the rear wheel had to be all the way back in the drop-outs to work. YMMV, though, depending on hanger length and possibly other variables.

28T largest cog and a 50/36 chainset:



28T largest cog and a 49/36 chainset:

Surprised you went there. When I tried 14-28t with a Chorus crank, the 53/39 chainring difference is so wide, I found it easier to use a 25t big rear cog. That way, all of the usual gear combinations work (except, of course, big/big and small/small). With a 28t, I either put a lot of RD strain when on big chainring combinations, or I lose some combinations in the higher gears on the small chainring (due to chain length). These are the constraints of using the short cage.

Assume you can be less careful with this combination with the chainrings closer together. Still, that seems beyond the limit of NR (without adding a Soma long cage).

Triomphe RD may work, as well.

53/39 gives you a wider range, but eats 4T more chain wrap than 52/42, which is smoother but can be a leg-puncher at times.

28-14=14, 53-39=14, so 28T chain wrap, which is pretty much easily wrapped by almost any RD.

Your issue is going to be the max cog clearance of the RD, of which 28T came in later than sooner for Campy.
As such, the Victory, Triomphe in that era, and many of later moderns, since you're using friction, will work.

Since chain wrap is not going to be an issue, even a NR may work with a $22 Roadlink that drops the cage 22mm.
Maybe just enough. Steel frames and Roadlinks are generally agreeable.

The only other noticeable issue may be the 14T outer cog. That may want to kiss that R seat stay a bit.
Not often an issue with freewheels. Often an issue with cassettes on road bike frames.

I do remember seeing a BF member riding a McLean that ran 14-28 rear, 52/42 front, all NR, and it sure didn't slow him down.

It's not hard finding Campagnolo NR RDs and they tend to be reasonably priced. You can always get one of these from Soma and it will be able to handle a wider gearing range:

https://www.somafabshop.com/shop/pro...0?category=764

Alternatively get a long cage suntour cyclone; it will shift better than a campy.

With my first L'Eroica venture I had found that a first generation short cage Shimano 600 RD would handle a 28T cog and a 28T chain wrap without much fuss, so I wanted to know if a Nuovo Record would as well.

I read up on the subject here on BF (which took a while ), and although reviews and opinions were mixed, I didn't find any hard evidence that it wouldn't work on my Locomotief. So I tried it. And it worked. In both cases I adjusted the chain length so that it would accept the big/big combination, if only just.

Statements about whether NRs and SRs have the same capacity are not consistent. If you have an NR it might must work, but you might have to fiddle with it delicately - you are close to its limits. If you got a 14/24 or 14/26 and used the 52/42, you would be in the sweet spot used 1968 and later, back in the old days.

All I can say is, Shimanos are not Campys.

Personally I’d look for nice vintage mid cage Suntour or an early Racing T era Campi with the slant parallelogram. They are likely to cost the same as a decent looking Nuovo Record or Victory but shift better.

BTW….. I never understood the whole ‘gear inch’ thing. All I know is the bigger the cog in the back the easier it is to pedal and the smaller the harder it is and the front is opposite. In general 13 - 23 or 25 is usually all I need with a 42/53. But I haven’t usually lived in areas with YUGE hills.

I have 52/42, 53/41 , and 52/40 chain rings with 14-28 FW 5 &6 speed FW’s and they work well with the Campagnolo NR derailleurs but the one bike I have that has SR works a bit smoother and I didn’t have to run the rear wheel as far back in the drop outs. With the 52/40 crankset on my Motobecane I can just barely go big to big so I need to lengthen the chain. I just shift down my front derailleur more on that bike. I would love to triple the crank because I live on a very steep hill but I would have to get a longer cage and chain so I walk!

Because I live where there are lots of long steep climbs, gearing is always at the forefront of my mind. I have no experience with old campy derailleurs . That said my short cage solution is to give up the big gears.

For my Eroica bike that has a short cage Shimano Crane, with max 28t cog, and 28t wrap ( same as a campy NR?) , I have ditched my 1st gen Dura Crank ( 52-42, 165mm) and replaced it with an SR Apex ( Japansese copy of A Stronglight 99). It has an 86mm BCD, so can take small rings. Currently it has a 47-34, but I found some chainrings even smaller.

So I will be running 42-28 chainrings with 14-28 FW. Some of you would bemoan the high of only 42-14. Yet I can easily peddle up to 22 mph with that , a speed which I rarely reach on the flats nowadays. After that I am happy to coast. I figure I can spend up to an 45 minutes to an hour climbing ( yes 3 to 5 mile long climbs with pitches varying around 8% to 10% ) in my lowest gear, but only 3-5 minutes where I might be spun out. Thus, lower gears far are more usefull to me.

As pointed out earlier by some one else, with short cage derailleurs you have prioritize where you want your limited range to be.

What's with the low gearing on this Erotic ride? Is this the route?

When you reach my age, they all look like that, and erotic has no effect....

Anyone have any experience with Campy 990s?

ooo shiny

I believe it is just a prettier version of the 980 Gear. But basically the same design, measurements and geometry as all Campi derailleurs up until Chorus, if I understand "The Dancing Chain" correctly.