Intro guide to Campy groupsets?
 

I have been riding Shimano my entire life, but recently I acquired a bike with Campy record 10 speed groupset from a colleague at work. I have to admit I know very little about Campy, close to nothing. I tried reading around and various sorts of Google Fu but what I usually find is either too specific to problems people having or to vague and irrelevant. I have a hard time finding some nice intro to Campy / their groupsets, some kind of wiki style articles. I would imagine with such thing as Campagnolo that arises a lot of passion and enthusiasm in different people, it should exist but I can't find it.

Also, just looking for simple question turns out to be harder then I thought. For instance, I know that most ultegra 10 speed cranksets will work with 9 speed shimano drivetrain. But is it true for Campy, will for instance, 11 speed compact super record crankset work with 10 speed record drivetrain? Or another one, the bike came with 11-25 cassette, what would be the most cost-efficient way to make it more hill friendly? (it already has compact cranks). You insightful advice would be much appreciated!

Sometimes folks don't like to see references to other sites, but this may be an exception. Worst that can happen is that the post gets deleted. Anyway, there is a Campagnolo-specific section on:

Campagnolo

For more general information and history, see:

Campy Only! Campagnolo News, Information, Rumors,

Campagnolo has a lot of information on their web site:

Campagnolo Official website

They also put up a lot of videos on YouTube...

I do know that their biggest 10-sp cassette is a 30-tooth, but the vintage of your setup may make a difference. The factory also says not to mix 10-sp and 11-sp, but I think they tend to be very conservative. There are some professional bike mechanics that drop into that forum, so I would defer to them.

You're right, there should be a wiki... there isn't. Lots of good stuff on the Campy-only site, but it's dated. There's some good info on the Branford Bike (knowledge base) website, but again... not all that well maintained.

The Paceline is a good forum, especially due to having "oldpotatoe" there to answer specific Campy questions. Another good source is Graeme from Velotec UK, I think he's on this forum, as well as several others.

As for a good wiki/library type of thing that's up to date, you're out of luck.

Compatibility across Campagnolo lines can be a real headache and head-scratcher, which may be part of the problem. As long as you stay at the Chorus/Record level, parts are compatible across the ten speed line that spanned the 2000s. There is also compatibility with some 9 speed stuff that was produced later, but the early 9 speed campy stuff is incompatible with 10speed. It gets more confusing when you go down into the lower tiers (starting in 2007, prior to that, things were basically compatible across the board).

In 2007, Campy messed with the front shifting and changed the geometry of the front derailleur on Centaur and down. At this point, Centaur inherited the much maligned "Escape" mechanism in the shifter.
In 2009, a new generation of shifters was released. All of the ten speed components at that time are compatible. Whether or not the ten and eleven speed components are fully compatible has been debated a good bit (at least as far as the rear derailleur is concerned; some claim it works, others disagree).
In 2011, Athena/Centaur/Veloce got down-graded and lost Ultra-torque cranksets and lost Ultra-shift (ability to shift across the cassette in one stroke). The replacement Power-torque and Power-shift were definitely a step backwards, but not the end of the world or any serious reduction in quality.
In 2015, Campy completely changes the geometry of the 11speed line which is no longer compatible with older Campy 11 speed.

For the most part, Campy 9/10/11 speed are compatible but there are just so many exceptions that I hesitate to say that. At least the wheels are compatible, the older 8 speed hubs are completely different.

Cranksets aren't a big deal, you can get away with a 10speed crank on an 11speed system or vice versa.
You can find a wider cassette, maybe something like a 13-29 but campy cassettes are pricey. Best to order from Ribble or another overseas vendor if you are in the US.
If you really need more gear, grab a NOS triple or something with arms for a 74bcd ring... doesn't have to be made by Campy.

Might as well pick up some g-springs and a carrier while you are at it, and rebuild your shifters! :) Good news, Record 10 can be rebuilt; bad news, sometimes it needs to be rebuilt. The newer style ergos (starting in 2009) lack this ability.

Thanks headloss! That is already more info that I gathered over past few days. :)

I did came across Campy Only! site but I found it very difficult to navigate given how much varied content is being hosted there. Also roadbikereview subforum is only 12 threads? But most of them are very recent, was it just started. Thanks again for your help

Scroll down to where it says "thread display options" and change it from a month to a year.
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/cam...0&daysprune=-1

Oh... so embarrassed :) But truth to be told, this is the first forum I see which such a display option.

When I bought my bike back in 2005, I spec'ed out a full Centaur double drivetrain with 53/39 and 12-25. I was working in Taiwan in a relatively flat area and this worked very well. Later on a spent time in a city that was much surrounded by fairly hilly areas. I went on a few rides with a local club and there were some short steep switchbacks that scared the crap out of me because my cadence would get very slow. Slow cadence and slow speed while being clipped in is not a good situation. My solution was going to a triple as this was well before Campagnolo introduced that 30-tooth 10-sp cassette. The place where I bought my bike, GVH Bikes in Oregon, was selling off some previous year's inventory and I bought a Centaur triple crank and long cage rear derailleur and a Chorus front derailleur for a triple. Now I had a 53/42/30 with the same 12-25. That worked out well with the 30>25 for hills and the 53>12 for the flats. When I upgraded to 11-sp, the Athena triple didn't come out until later. I would have preferred that to the compact.

Miche is an alternate source for Campagnolo-compatible cassettes. They have combinations that Campagnolo doesn't have...

In your vintage Chorus is as nice as it gets mechanically except for later 10 speed dual pivot brakes where Campagnolo stopped using ball bearings below Record. Record adds titanium, more carbon fiber, and cosmetic flourishes - I ride Record Titanium for the hardware matching my Ti frame and sexiest skewers ever made. Going down market you loose little function (rear derailleurs mount the cage with a C-clip not the Chorus/Record bolt which is less fiddly when you take them apart to clean out the gunk) but gain weight (Centaur/Daytona generally only has the last two cogs on a carrier, not the big 2-3 pairs depending on starting cassette; Veloce has none).

Lay in a supply of right G-springs and carriers. With ADHD shifting I went through springs every few years and replaced broken carriers every two spring swaps. Re-taping the handle bars is the hardest part of the rebuild process. Shifting gets soft before the indexing mechanism won't stay in gear - pay attention and be proactive about replacement.

All the front derailleurs changed geometry in 2007 with "Quick Shift"; although the worst that will happen on a mismatch is one click more on the move between rings.

Your left shifter will run a triple derailleur using 7 of 12 clicks. That can give you lower gears (a 74mm BCD crank will run an inner ring down to 24 teeth, with 24x25 like 34x36) and/or tighter spacing over the same range - 53-39-26 x 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-26 has a lower gear than 50-34x12-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-28-32 and no gaps between the 15/17 and 17/19 cogs.

You can spend as little or much as you want on that - selling your old derailleurs and crank and buying aluminum parts not marked Record you'll pocket some money, with careful shopping you could buy used alloy derailleurs and crank for less than the price of a new Campagnlo 12-30 from the UK, buying NOS Record Titanium triple derailleurs (I just paid $220 for one from Velomine) and a Lightning crank (about $700 without rings) you'll spend over $1000.

If you want to stick with the compact Campagnolo larger cassette options include

13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-26-29
12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-27-30

I and others think loosing the 12 tooth cog is better than accepting another gap in the middle - I used a 50x13 big gear for the decade I spent in Colorado after moving on from 52-42 with a six cog free wheel.

IRD has a 12-32.

Buying new you MUST import your parts from Europe unless you're feeling charitable and care to send your LBS owners' children to college. Note that you don't pay VAT (20%) and shipping from Ribble Cycles in the UK is about as fast as between the coasts within the US.

As of 2010 officially the short cage rear derailleur (55mm betweeen pulleys) was good for doubles (standard 53/39 and compact 50/34) with all cogs (through 12-25 and 13-26) except 13-29 although there's some latitude depending on your hanger geometry.

The medium (72.5mm) was officially for doubles with all cogs and triples all cogs (through 12-25 and 13-26) except 13-29; long (89mm) for triples and any cogs.

12-27 and 12-30 10 cogs are recent additions for which I don't have the recommendation.

The previous Racing-T derailleurs were mediums when the biggest cassette outside the short lived mountain bike range was a 13-28 (8 or 9 cogs). The long is really long.

Campagnolo chains wear longer than others measured according to a ruler, although Campagnolo suggests measuring between rollers with calipers. KMC offers a Campagnolo specific missing link ($2-$3 each when you buy a full card of six) so you don't need to use Campagnolo's one-shot pins. The width of inner links varies between brands so you want the right master link.

Campagnolo 10 speed on hills:
I would try a 13-29 cassette. It's supposed to be outside the range that the derailleur can handle, but I've never seen a report of it not working. You can get Veloce and save some money. I assume you have a 50 & 34 chainrings on the front?

I got a 13-29 for some big mountain rides, but I decided to keep it on the bike for my local riding. A 50-13 high gear limits the top end pedaling speed to about 32-35 mph, but I just coast down steeper descents anyway.

The 34-29 low is pretty good for most steep hills. I can climb 8% grades sitting down, and 12+% grades are a lot easier than my old 34-25 low gear.

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Campagnolo chains. They really do last a long time. I use the Wipperman Connex 10-speed quick link. I can take the chain apart for occasional full cleaning, but the main advantage is avoiding the fussy special pin to put the chain together.