Briancollins

Hello all,

I am riding a 1991 Masi with 8 speed Campagnolo Chorus with downtube shifters and need to know what chain and cog alternatives are availabie. My LBS isn’t much help.

Thanks,
Brian Collins

jdawginsc 

Miche Primato (https://custom-junkies.com/miche-pri...rious-versions) stuff is very solid... and a LOTTTTTT cheaper than Campy (usually). Plus they have multiple options that are knee friendly(12-23, 13-26. 13-28 etc...)

KMC is the chain you want (X8 or X8.93). Some people like SRAM as well.
https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Unisexs-M...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Steel Charlie

I see lots of 8 speed Campy cassettes on Craigslist. Not at all expensive. KMC X chains absolutely.

Robvolz 

was the 8 speed a mechanic failure?

I found some new in box from a closing shop, put them on eBay and not one has sold. Was it a short lived thing before people jumped to bigger (9, 10 and 11)?

icemilkcoffee 

I don't speak Campy but my understanding is that the 8 speed Campy freehub body and cassette is not compatible with the later 9+ speed freehub bodies and cassettes, leaving it an orphan.
Anyways, back to the OP's question- according to Sheldon Brown's crib sheet the Campy 8 speed has the same spacing as the Shimano 7 speed. So you can also run a Shimano 7 speed freehub or freewheel, and nobody needs to know about it

P!N20

How many teeth? Combined with a 135BCD crank, anything less than a 13-26 is going to be hard work.

Guess it also depends on how much you’re asking.

sbarner 

8-speed was around for quite awhile; it was 9-speed that was a flash in the pan. I think the issue with Campy 8-speed is that there never was as much of it around as Shimano, and it was a long time ago so those bikes have been upgraded or are sitting in the back corner of the garage. It doesn't help that Campy was making Record and a whole bunch of crap or near-crap. Campy didn't have much in the way of wider-range derailleurs, and most of them were crap as well, with punched out cage plates and lots of slop. I think a lot of folks changed out their drivetrains as soon as they started having problems with their Ergoshifters. While they are rebuildable and well-made, finding a shop that will rebuild them and then paying for it could be a challenge. Of course, there was nothing you could do when the same thing happened to your Shimano brifters except soak them in lube or toss them and buy new ones. Perhaps that's why the supply of hoods dried up so quickly--Shimano figured you would be replacing the levers anyway.

Personally, I like Campy 8-speed and have it on several bikes. As long as my supply of 13-26 cassettes holds out and I can get G-springs, I expect to continue with it. If I were buying a replacement cassette, I would snag a Miche 12-28, which can be had for under $50. I prefer the 13, but getting two more teeth on the other end is nice on the big climbs and early season rides.

Perhaps I should try the KMC chains again. My experience with SRAM chains on 8-speed has been much better. YMMV

Camilo

Ditto on this. I will add that the Miche cassettes I bought are completely, what's the word, freely assembled? None of the sprockets are attached to each other so you can mix them up to make a cassette you want. I wanted a 12-28 but could only find IIRC, 12-21 (or 23) and a 13-28. So I used the lockring from the 12, and assembled the 12-28. Can't remember exactly which ones I used. Theoretically the shifting might be a little hinky, but it shifts perfectly to my mind. Yeah it was a little expensive, but not so much as to hurt my feelings compared to the higher end Sram and Shimano cassettes I tend to buy. However in retrospect, I should have just used the 13-28.

FWIW, although my whole drive train, including brakes is 8-speed era Campy record stuff, I put on a Centaur 50-34 crank and then had to adapt my Record RD with the cage from a Racing Triple RD (identical except for the cage) to take up the chain wrap. Why didn't I just use the Racing Triple RD? Because it didn't say RECORD on it! Yeah, I'm that guy. I did NOT put a fake Record decal on the Centaur crank arms!

I can't remember what chain I used, but I'm pretty sure it's just a KMC 8 or 9 speed chain. Nothing special.

Spaghetti Legs 

8 speed Campy is functionally my favorite of the whole campy range. Install it and forget it, works near perfectly all the time. It is unfortunately limited by gearing range with 26 tooth the biggest cog available in the brand. You aren’t finding many people buying cassettes of any brand in the 12-25 to 26 range these days. As an aside, I guess it’s nice to have but I don’t get these 1x set ups with tiny chain wheels, like 28 to 32 tooth and mega range cassettes with max cog plate 42-44 teeth. These people are either riding their bikes up walls or content to pedal their bikes at slower than walking pace.

OP, you have to be careful shopping for cassettes for a Campagnolo 8 speed freehub as there are a couple of standards. Here’s a primer

https://branfordbike.com/new-page-1

There are workarounds if you want to try to get more hills friendly gearing but you have to go outside the stock 8 speed setup. I’ve used a variety of KMC and SRAM 8 speed chains on 6,7,8 speed drivetrains and they all work well.

dddd

After Campag introduced their 9s drivetrains, their new 9s chain became the specified replacement for use on 8s bikes.

On any bike with integrated shift levers where one can shift while standing, it is a near-necessity (for safety) that a properly arranged Hyperglide-style cassette be used, else one might experience abrupt, unpredictable slippage while pedaling, thus leading to a loss of control.
Because of the different handlebar, this was far more critical on a road bike than on a mountain bike. Shimano's Hyperglide cassettes arrived in 1989, fully prior to their releasing any STI levers.
Campag I believe did first offer an alpha-numerical cassette where you could arrange cogs according to their chart, but this really was sub-standard and was quickly corrected with their own version of Hyperglide cassettes.

An 8s "Record Titanium" gruppo was offered for a time, having the later-style of deeply-splined freehub body, similar to all those that followed.

Road Fan

All that said, my wife has a Terry road bike which was new in 1997, and the original Campy 8s Mirage is still going strong! I don't see where there are any concerns about quality if they are treated well.

I'd really like to find her a 13-28 or so 8s cassette. For the cost we don't need another gear for her, but wider range, yes, that is useful.

panzerwagon 

Back to more important issues like aesthetics, the 8s ergo shifter hood shape is still the best looking of the bunch and don't look out of place on a c&v bike.
The later 9s and above tend more to a play-doh/plasticine inspired misshapen mess, akin to the goofy shimano bull-horn look.

Jus' sayin'

Dfrost 

My wife’s custom ‘96 Erickson started with Campagnolo 8-speed: Record hubs, Chorus Ergo brifters and Racing T derailleurs. Crankset was a a pretty Topline triple. As I recall, the original cassette was 12-28.

I do all our bike maintenance and was surprised that the Campy cogs wore much faster than the Shimano cogs on my Sachs New Success Ergo (originally 7-speed FW) 8-speed setups. Same best available SRAM chains and chain lube frequency on both bikes. And as noted, the supply of Campy cassettes/cogs dried up quickly.

I converted her bike to Shimano Ultegra hubs using the Wheels Mfg conversion kit (essentially the same as Shimano 7-speed spacers plus a longer lock ring, unfortunately no longer made). Cog selection and life both increased dramatically! Neither of us noted any degradation in hub quality. If anything, the Shimano hubs have a better bearing arrangement and superior seals.

Her Campy RD always required very precise adjustments for proper indexing, while my Sachs setups have been very easy/forgiving, probably thanks to their floating upper pulleys. I’m still using Sachs 8-speed Ergo setups on both my bikes with custom cassettes (i.e., built up from loose Shimano, Miche and SRAM cogs) on Ultegra and 600 hubs, after more than 60,000 miles/30 years.

FWIW, her arthritis was making it more difficult to brake effectively, and a frame crack on the Erickson combined to change her bike after 20 very happy years with lots of miles, two tours in Europe and more around here. She’s now extremely happy with hydraulic disc braking and Shimano Ultegra 11-speed mechanical shifting on an Independent Fabrications frame, which she essentially uses as a 1X system with 34 front (and a rarely used 46 big ring), 11-40 in back - she was never a pedal downhill person anyway.

IcySwan1 

I have bikes with campy 8s, 9s, and 10s hubs. I just converted the crankset on the 8s to a triple to get the old duffer going uphill dividend.

Mike

Andy_K 

I disagree. This is one of the big reasons I prefer second generation ergo over first generation. I just don't like the look of the levers. It reminds me of this thing:



I like the ergonomics of the third generation, though those have a bit of a Gumby look to them.



For me, second generation (mostly 10-speed, but some 9-speed), hits the sweet spot between being readily available, looking good, and having great functionality. I also like the Tekro brake levers that cloned this shape.

panzerwagon 

I need to paint a set of my hoods with that face... captures my look perfectly when I'm in full "sprint".

Yeah well..., I mean, sure if you like riding your bikes. /s

Also, can we officially start calling the >8s hoods the gumby hoods? Just... perfect.

Camilo

13-28 Miche are readily available. They shift fine in my experience. When I bought mine, I got them from Bike24 and they're a great source. For closer to home, they're easy to find on Ebay.

Kontact 

I have several hubs sporting 8 speed cassettes and an additional 1mm spacer to get some spoke clearance, and the lockring is normal. If you take a Shimano/SRAM 8 speed cassette and add 7 speed spacers (or vellum shims) between cogs 2 through 7 you'll end up with a Campy compatible shift spacing and the width of Shimano + 1mm. The H and L stops take care of 8 and 1, and the standard lockring will tighten down fine.

So a Campy conversion cassette for the price of a cheap SRAM or even Sunlite cassette.