rduffy

greetings. i have a campy record 10sp with gear ratios 53-39 front and 11-23 rear right now which is perfect until the steep climbs. without having to switch out more than the cassette i was looking at getting a 13-29 for when i ride the mountain passes. per campagnolo's instructions only a medium cage rear derailleur will work with a 13-29 cassette but i've heard that people have been able to successfully use a short cage derailleur with the 13-29. does anyone know if this is true or whether i would be risking some type of disaster trying it?
thanks in advance!

terry b

I've run my 13x29 on a short cage rear derailleur with both a 53x39 and a 50x34 crankset. It works fine. Just takes a bit of diligence, time and tweaking to get it that way.

cuda2k

Becareful about cross chaining and you should be alright.

bianchiboy71

+1 for Cuda2k's comment, as long as you don't run on the big ring at the front at the same time as the big sprockets on the back you'll be fine.
Check Campy's website and look for the 'capacity' of the Record short cage derailleur so you can work out your safe combinations.

DocRay

I run 12-25, or rarely 13-29 without problems.

rduffy

thanks for the replies...seems like its worth a try. per campy's specs max capacity is 27 teeth so i wouldn't want to ever go 53 front 29 rear which would be at 30 capacity. but there really is no reason to do this unless it happened by mistake and hopefully i would figure that out before any damage done. would the shifter even be able to pull the derailleur up to the 29?
also, assuming i never go into that gear would the chain i have now work or do i need a longer chain?
thanks!