It's my understanding that there were 3 diffarent freehub bodies made for 8 speed and that the standard, Ti, and Exa-Drive cassettes are not interchangeable. Is this correct?

More importantly, how interchangeable are the rest of the 8-speed groups, i.e. will all 8-speed Ergolevers and derailieurs shift all 8-speed cassettes?

I see some hubs advertised as accepting 8,9, or 10 speed cassettes. Is this true?

Regarding interchangeability...all 8-speed should be compatible with the different freehub body versions of itself. The 9sp shift levers will not be compatible with the 8sp levers, but you can replace the cam to make it compatible with the gear number you want (8,9). I have yet to open up a set of 10sp levers though, so I'm not too sure what they look like inside....probably the same with a few modifications as the 8 and 9sp models.

I would think you can use a 9sp rea derailleur on the 8 speed drivetrain as long as you swap over the pulleys...I'm not sure how much more narrow the rear der. cage is on the 9sp from the 8sp.

Front derailleur comes with an insert to make the cage narrower as well...never tried to pop that off either, nor have I used it with an 8sp drivetrain.

I'm not sure on the 8sp compatability with the freehub body, but I think my hubs are compatible with 9 and 10...same hub body...its a 10sp campagnolo group and I got it a short time after it was first introduced, and never tried putting an 8sp cassete on it, exa or not.

someone please correct me on the information above.

I had boxes full of 8 sp parts and sold them all because of incompatibility issues. Now, I'm using 10 sp until they muck that up.



True

True and false, 9 sp and 8 sp use the same actuation ratio until 2001. 2001 and newer 9 sp and 10 sp are different than earlier 9 sp. That's why Campy makes 2 different 9 sp Ergo gears.

The pulleys are the same, the spacers are narrower on 9 sp and narrower still on 10 sp. The bolts are also shorter. If you swap the spacers without shorter bolts, they will stick out the back of the cage.

8 sp and 9 sp don't need the spacer only 10 sp.

9 and 10 sp use the same splines. If you look, you'll see they use 4 really deep grooves. The old 8 sp used 8, or 6 can't remember, shallow grooves. They aren't compatible.

You can upgrade 8 sp to 9/10 by swapping cassette hub bodies. All Campy 8 sp hubs from Mirage to Chorus used the same axle, bearings, cones and cassette hub body. Simply use a current Veloce 10 sp body for the swap. Cost is about $75 as a year ago. I' done the swap on a set of Chorus wheels for $100 including labor and wheel truing. That's a lot cheaper than a set of new Chorus wheels.

Record used an oversize axle and special aluminum cassette hub body. It's very expensive to convert. IMO, buy a new Record hub and have it laced to your rim.

Good luck on your project. If it were me, I would sell the 8 sp parts on ebay. Campy 8 sp is getting very rare and expensive. Nice brifters go for upwards of $100. Really clean rear can go for $50 - $100. Record for lots more.

Tim

All of the above.

For an illustration of the freehub bodies, check here

And for parts, well it's true that it is hard to find. Most Campy distributors will stock 8-speed cassettes however, so grab a few while you can. The only other critical part might be the rear derailleur. You can always overhaul the shifters. Can you use 10-9 speed front derailleur and chainrings on 8 speed?

8 and early 9 sp derailleurs are getting so hard and expensive to find. Supposedly, Jtek #1 will allow you to use a 10 sp der with your 8 sp setup. I personally haven't tried it. I did hear this directly from Jtek though. They said they don't publish it for some reason. Go figure.


Tim

I tried

Looks like I ended up learning somehting in this thread too.

I am running 8 speed campy triples on 3 bikes. Never any issues - the rear der are racing T 8/9 speed or Daytona same on the front der. Shifters are late model Chourus and Athena. the cassattes have been very easy to find but I am not running Ti. I only think what doing to get to be tough to get are the short cage der. For the triples these are a great set up and I added Campy Or 26 rings to each of the triples. I also run the same set up on 9 speed on another bike different hubs same der. I still see alot of new tandems with Racing T speed setups so they must have a source. I see know reason to convert to 10 speed - and I a have a jtek set up ready to go on a tandem so I can run campy shifters and shimano xtr der - I am told this works well.

Racing T came in the old actuation ratio. They were designed to run as 8 or pre 2001 9 sp. Yes, they are excellent derailleurs.

Tim

to continue an old conversation, what is "Racing T". where does it fit in in the campy family?

can anyone confirm the above statement that Racing T rear dérailleurs will work in conjunction mid 95 era 8 speed mirage ergo shifters and a veloce front dérailleur?

if you go back thru the old Campy catalogs, like on the Campybike CDs, there are a bunch of Racing Triples, in different grades and in different years. I have a set on my Woodrup that I thought were modern, but which turn out to be 8-speed era. I use 'em in friction mode with 7-speed, so it doesn't matter much. On my RD it looks like somebody replaced the rear cage with some other brand, it doesn't match any of the drawings in the Service Parts books. But like I said, works great in friction mode.

As far as the FD, I'm told the front brifter is basically a ratcheded friction shifter, so any front derailleur should feather into place with any Campy left brifter. Make sense?

For the rear, I assume detective work is needed to identify the year/grade and to match it up with brifter year, and especially what gear system it's configured for.

Road Fan

thanks road fan!

Racing T was from the era when Campy didn't include triples in their groups. For example, in the 8 sp Ergo era there wasn't any such thing as Record or Chorus triples. If you wanted a triple, you got a Racing T. The reason being that triples weren't considered serious road kit. Then marketing changed and Campy included a triple in all their groupsets. When Campy redesigned their groups a year ago they dropped triples in all the groups and went back to separate triple groups again. Go figure.

Tim

that's interesting. does this mean that the racing-t, despite the name, wasn't considered by campy to be a "performance" group? is it more of a street/leisure group?

I have a 1985 Trek 600 running Mirage brifters, Racing T fd, and Veloce rd. Shifts crisply and smoothly, no troubles whatsoever.

Having read this thread three times over, I have: a. Learned a lot, b. Have one hell of a headache, and c. Now have a reason why I've limited my messing for eight speeds and up to Shimano.

All that interim change stuff is ludicrous! Thirty five years ago I was convinced that we put up with Campagnolo idiosyncrasies primarily for the snob value. I'm even more convinced of that in the intervening years.