Hello,

Short simple question I believe. I couldn't find a specific answer online through google so I'm hoping I can here.

I have a campagnolo athena 11 black group (carbon crankset) with Chorus Chain and cassette, is it possible to throw a chorus, record or super record mechanical set of shifters on this group and it work?

I'm looking for the ability to shift more cogs than what the athena shifters allow.

Thanks a ton!

Yes.

I have same Athena 11 Carbon, running rear Chorus brifter, Athena front.

Oh, may be worth noting that the new Chorus shifters have EPS style thumb levers (as does new Athena, IIRC), so if you've the older style, you may not want to mix and match thumb lever types for the sake of uniform feel. If you're thinking to change both brifters to Chorus, no problems (provided they're same model).

I have my eyes on a set of 2nd hand 2013 Super Record Mechanical shifters on ebay. But if they go to high I'll probably just go Chorus 11 since they're carbon and have the shifting I desire.

Thanks a lot guys.

I don't think that's true for mechanical Chorus. That would prevent multiple shifts, which Athena does not have.

Ah yes, you are correct; I messed that up. Thanks for the correction.

This answer should be qualified insofar as it will work OK in most cases but the Athena RD has a weaker return spring than the Chorus RD as it is designed to work with the PowerShift lever - if the cable run is long, or complicated, the RD won't shift as well as any increase in the friction between cable inner and outer can cause a problem in set-up.

You will also see a more sluggish shift, especially under load, to the smaller sprockets than you should - as part of the RD return tension will be being used to help rotate the shifter innards, rather than trying to pull the chain off the sprocket.

Once outer cables are significantly dirty / worn inside the curves or in the case of the tunnels, start to gain wear or get claggy with energy drink residue and the like, you may again see slightly less good function, again because the RD only has so much spring tension to "share out" between rotating the lever innards, overcoming friction inside the gear outers and pulling the chain off one sprocket and onto the next.

So the message is generally yes, it will work but it *may* not be perfect and if it is when installed, you may need to look at a more frequent and careful maintenance regime to keep it that way.

HTH
Graeme
Campagnolo Main UK SC

Graeme,
I will start and say you may not be wrong about this and if you know the relative spring rate difference, I am all ears. Quite sure that Campy would not divulge the relative difference to anybody...including your facility but I could be wrong.

When I hold an Ultrashifter off the bike in my hands with just the bare inner cable installed....I have a new 2014 Chorus shifters in a box just that way as they come from Campagnolo....and I hit the side button with even a fraction of tension on the cable...there is NO cable drag to let out the 2.x mm of cable slack to effect a shift. The detent wheel rotates without any resistance and any resistance in the cable to rotate the Ultrashift mechanism is imperceptible. So the reality doesn't seem to comport with what you write but you have more experience with these parts than anybody.
Best Regards.

Why on earth would you be shifting to the smaller sprockets, under load? "This is feeling a bit sluggish, I know, think I'll upshift, that ought to fix the problem."

You're missing the obvious, there...serious riders upshift under load all the time, an example of which would be sprinting. It's simply riding hard and aggressively.

So if I notice a lot of lag in the RD I could theoretically just upgrade the RD to a chorus and that should alleviate any sort of issue right?

Errr - you are wrong. You have to bear in mind that whilst we are not part of Campagnolo, we have a very close technical relationship with them & are in fact the only non-Campagnolo owned company in the world, apart from ICC in the Benelux, allowed to accredit mechanics to Campagnolo factory standards - so as Campagnolo's main, factory-appointed Service Centre in the UK, we visit the factory 5 or 6 times a year for technical training and discussion. As a result we are privy to any and all relevant technical information, hence, you can be assured that the technical information we give on a forum like this is as accurate and as full as we are permitted to make it.

In that situation you are correct as you are dealing with a brand new lever and no induced cable tension, so no friction or wear-induced factors in any part of the system, cable, cable guide system or lever.

Long-term test data from the factory (Campagnolo simulate tens of thousands of shifts in the test lab, on multiple examples, plus they have many months of field testing on multiple examples) plus our own long-term xperience working with a lot of systems in the fielde, indicates that what I originally wrote is correct, however.

Yes, on the assumption that there is no other cause, that is correct.