# Running Shimano wheelsets with Campy setups



## Clevor

Actually I posted this on one of the threads below, but I'm not sure it can be done.

Can I run Shimano wheelsets, e.g., wheelsets with Shimano cassette hubs, on a Campy setup with Campy front/rear derailleur, shifters, and brakes? I would use an FSA or Shimano crank and Shimano chain. Once I adjust the rear derailleur with the Shimano wheelset/cassette, I could switch Shimano wheelsets at will. Only if I put on a Campy wheelset would I need to readjust the rear deraileur.

But isn't the dish and other stuff different between Campy and Shimano wheelsets? I presume the Campy shifters and derailleurs have enough adjustment/trim settings to work fine on a Shimano wheelset, once adjusted properly.


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## bikerjulio

The conventional way to do this is by using an American Classic conversion cassette which has Campy spacing with Shimano splining. They work OK and seem well made. I've had one that survived several winters on a beater bike.

You may need to make minor derrailleur adjustments, but that can happen with any wheel swap. As for different dish - there's less difference than you may think. Most wheel systems, ie Mavic just swap freehubs - there's no difference in wheels.


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## Clevor

bikerjulio said:


> The conventional way to do this is by using an American Classic conversion cassette which has Campy spacing with Shimano splining. They work OK and seem well made. I've had one that survived several winters on a beater bike.
> 
> You may need to make minor derrailleur adjustments, but that can happen with any wheel swap. As for different dish - there's less difference than you may think. Most wheel systems, ie Mavic just swap freehubs - there's no difference in wheels.


But what you are saying is you MUST use a Campy cassette with a Campy setup, in other words, with Campy rear derailleur/shifters. This suggests the throws on the rear derailleur is different between a Campy and Shimano shifter.

If the pull between each shift on the rear derailleur is the same between a Campy and Shimano 10-speed shifter, then theoretically I could use a Shimano cassette with a Campy 10-speed shifter and derailleur. I have a feeling this is not the case, as you would see more people simply running Shimano wheelsets freely with a Campy 10-speed setup.

Of course, Campy 11-speed is a different case, and I presume none of this would work, but I only have 10-speed Campy stuff.


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## rubbersoul

Whether it may be technically possible or not, philosophically and stylistically it would be a big fail.


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## bikerjulio

Adding to my previous answer - yes there is a difference in cog spacing - Campy is 4.12mm, Shimano is 3.95mm, a difference of 0.17mm, or 1.53mm over the whole 10 speed cassette.

Or to put it another way, if the centre cogs of a Shimano cassette are reasonably set up with a Campy shifter and rear derrailleur, there will be 0.75mm of error at either extreme, which will likely be quite noticeable, and shifting less than ideal.

Sheldon has a useful table under "spacing".

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_sp-ss.html#spacingk7


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## pacificaslim

Here's the easiest solution for mixing Campagnolo and Shimano drivetrains. Look through the charts and see if there is one for the parts you want to use.

http://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate.htm

I use campagnolo 10 speed shifters with shimano rear derailleur and shimano/sram cassettes on my cyclocross bike and it works brilliantly with the jetk adapter.


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## 2002

I don't know if it is helpful, but I am running shimano 7900 with campy chorus 10 cassette with no problems. I have not tried campy with shimano cassette yet. I am interested to know myself.


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## Clevor

If you do a Google search, there are several threads on this subject and from the gist of it, it seems it may work fairly well. It's pretty easy to do, which is why a lot of bike shops tried it. Some suggest it works better on some frames. 

Some people suggest aligning the rear Campy pulley directly under the center cog of the cassette, then adjusting the derailleur that way, as you minimize the minute difference in cog spacing. 

Or as pacificaslim mentioned, you can use the shift mate. Funny thing is I used to use one on my ATB bike, not for this purpose, but supposedly it improved shifting on the rear derailleur. Apparently the pulley was designed with a neutral pull ratio.

Also as pacificaslim alluded to, you can take advantage of SRAM cassettes, with their weird and wonderful cogset schemes, e.g., run an 11-32 with a 53/39 crank for example, to avoid going with a triple. In addition, SRAM 1070/1090 cassettes are pretty cheap and the pieplate ones are still pretty light. 

It seems running Shimano shifters/derailleurs with Campy wheelsets works fine, because the Shimano rear pulley is a floating design to compensate for a bit of misalignment, whereas the 10-spd Campy rear pulleys are fixed in place.

The main reason I want to run Shimano wheelsets on my Campy 10-speed bikes is because of the ridiculous prices of Campy 10-speed cassettes, if you can still find them. You'd think with 11-spd out they'd be cheap, but nope. Like $275 for a Chorus rear, or >$300 for a Record, when you can get Ultegra 6700 cassettes for $60-75, or SRAMs for the same price. That's four Ultegra/SRAM cassettes for the price of one Chorus 10-spd. And why bother with the $$$ Shimano-to-Campy conversion cassettes; if you stick to Shimano wheelsets on the bike, you won't need to readjust the rear derailleur each time you switch wheelsets.


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## bikerjulio

Clevor said:


> If you do a Google search, there are several threads on this subject and from the gist of it, it seems it may work fairly well. It's pretty easy to do, which is why a lot of bike shops tried it. Some suggest it works better on some frames.
> 
> Some people suggest aligning the rear Campy pulley directly under the center cog of the cassette, then adjusting the derailleur that way, as you minimize the minute difference in cog spacing.
> 
> Or as pacificaslim mentioned, you can use the shift mate. Funny thing is I used to use one on my ATB bike, not for this purpose, but supposedly it improved shifting on the rear derailleur. Apparently the pulley was designed with a neutral pull ratio.
> 
> Also as pacificaslim alluded to, you can take advantage of SRAM cassettes, with their weird and wonderful cogset schemes, e.g., run an 11-32 with a 53/39 crank for example, to avoid going with a triple. In addition, SRAM 1070/1090 cassettes are pretty cheap and the pieplate ones are still pretty light.
> 
> It seems running Shimano shifters/derailleurs with Campy wheelsets works fine, because the Shimano rear pulley is a floating design to compensate for a bit of misalignment, whereas the 10-spd Campy rear pulleys are fixed in place.
> 
> The main reason I want to run Shimano wheelsets on my Campy 10-speed bikes is because of the ridiculous prices of Campy 10-speed cassettes, if you can still find them. You'd think with 11-spd out they'd be cheap, but nope. Like $275 for a Chorus rear, or >$300 for a Record, when you can get Ultegra 6700 cassettes for $60-75, or SRAMs for the same price. That's four Ultegra/SRAM cassettes for the price of one Chorus 10-spd. And why bother with the $$$ Shimano-to-Campy conversion cassettes; if you stick to Shimano wheelsets on the bike, you won't need to readjust the rear derailleur each time you switch wheelsets.


so a couple of things:

Campy rear pulleys switched to a floating design sometime in the late 1980's.

Campy cassettes can be quite cheap - I've been picking up 10 speed Centaur or Veloce cassettes in the $45 range from the well known UK retailers.

On my beater, I'm still running a shimano wheel with shimano cogs and campy spacers - seems to work ok.


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## WA/SScrossracer

I have been running Campy 10speed shifters with a otherwise Shimano setup without problems, running a Shimano or SRam 9speed cassette. The front derailer doesn't matter, I'm using a Cenataur on one bike and Ultegra-DA or 105 on the other bikes. I hear you can run 10speed shimano similarly with a set of the new 11sp campy levers. I'm not sure if you could run a Campy rear derailer in this setup though. There are a articials about how to make this work online- Cyclocross Magazine has 2 good articials about it.


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## DrSmile

I've recently switched my travel bike's chainset to compact (which has Campy components but Shimano hubs with a conversion cassette), and I'm wondering if there are any 11-25 conversion cassettes out there? Neither IRD nor American Classic seems to sell them. I have Jtek on a bike and it works, but I'd like to see if the cassette option is cheaper than the IRD/Jtek route. The wheelset I currently have (Neuvation M) doesn't have Campy hubs available.


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## DrSmile

To answer my own question, apparently Ambrosio makes such a cassette.


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