# Campy Record 10 groupset and Shimano cassette and wheels: best way to do it?



## ryoanji (Mar 1, 2016)

I have a bike Campy Record 10 compact groupset, circa 2003 or 2004 I believe. I was looking to get a bit more "hill-climbability" but prices of 12-29 cassette, med cage rear mech, new freehub body (I need to replace wheelset) scares me a bit. 

I have read quite a bit of threads where people just use shimano wheelset with Ultegra cassette and fiddle with adjustments to limit screws, b-screws etc. 

At the moment, I have 10 speed XT 11-32 cassette, XTR 9 speed rear mech, and JTek shiftmate 3. JTek assured me that it should shift fine. 

Before I dive into this project, I was wondering if anyone on this forum tried something like that and if so what would you advice based on your experience? One thing I was wondering if I should get Campy 10 chain or Shimano? Someone suggested Wipperman.

Thanks a lot!


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## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

There's a couple of things I can advise, speaking as someone who is running Campy 10 and 11-speed bikes.

I recently bought Veloce 13-29 cassettes for about $40 or less through Ribble. If you want to convert to 12-29 it's easy enough to do by using your existing 12 and 13 tooth sprockets and omitting the new 16T one. Yet another alternative (because I like the 16T) is to take out the 23 and 26T cogs and replace with 25T, resulting in 12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-25-29. Not perfect, but it works. Or just stay with 13-29. 

Campy 10-speed stuff is basically all 100% compatible.

No need for medium cage RD, the existing short cage is fine.

With a 50-34 up front, the total chain wrap is (50-34)+(29-13)=16+16=32T = no problem with short cage and a correctly sized chain. (ditto for 33T).

For quite a bit more money, Campy had a 12-30 Centaur cassette, which was nice, but personally I'm not sure it's worth more than twice the Veloce.


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## rm -rf (Feb 27, 2006)

I've not heard any reports of using Shimano 10 speed and Campagnolo shifters, since the spacing between cogs is different. The Jtek would handle this difference.

Yes, the 13-29 Veloce cassette was great when I was running 10-speed. It works with most frames and the short cage, even though it officially is out of range. I'd be very surprised if it didn't work on yours, too.

Not having a 12 cog isn't much of a problem. I spin out at 32-33 mph on downhills, instead of spinning out at 35 mph. I like having the 16 cog, which is very nice to have in the low 20 mph range.

I got the 13-29 for a hilly vacation, but kept it on for the local 300 foot hills, instead of the 13-26 I had before.

The campagnolo 10-speed chains last a long time. I use the Wipperman connex link on them. Recommended.

*11-speed is compatible*
11-speed Shimano and Campagnolo cassettes have essentially the same spacing, and wheels with either one will work on the other. I've actually done this, one bike is Shimano and one is 11-speed Athena. I did have the chain come off the 12-29 Campagnolo cassette on my Shimano bike, jumping off the 12 cog. It only happened once, and I can't reproduce it, so I still swap wheels as needed.


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## bikerjulio (Jan 19, 2010)

> even though it officially is out of range


Campagnolo have caused confusion by listing the "max cog" for a RD as being the largest they happened to make that year, not the actual largest.

So in years when 26T was the largest sprocket, that was listed as "max". I have run many permutations of RD's and cassettes, and my 12-30 cassette was handled quite happily by an older Centaur RD.


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## Bee-an-key (May 5, 2007)

Agree with all of the above posts. Check out Leonard Zinn at Velonews, he has written extensively about mixing drive train brands.


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## CheapSkate (Feb 26, 2012)

Yeah, try the short cage with 13-29, I use it just fine on three bikes with 39/53 and 34/50 chainrings. I have a mid cage on my 4th bike with the same cassette. I can't really tell the shifting difference between them all.

A tip is - take care to keep the chain as long as possible. I think it prevents stress on the RD in the "crossed" gear, but I think it also keeps the RD close to the cassette in the mid cogs (eg 15t) which improves shifting around those cogs.


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## ryoanji (Mar 1, 2016)

Thank you so much for responses and sharing your experiences. It was very helpful, because what I read before was that 13-29 worked with short cage RD on regular double, but was problematic on compacts (some say it depends on chainstay length of the bike). So, it was reassuring to see that so many you ran this combo without much trouble. 

It looks like I will still need to at least try JTek to Shimano RD, because I need to run even wider gearing (MTB) due to lingering injury. I am afraid 29 won't be low enough for me at the moment. Also, I am trying to swap wheelsets. The current one with campy freehub has expensive proprietary spokes are that are both expensive and became very hard to source. So, we will see. I will come back and post my experiences, time allowing. Again, thanks so much for all your help!


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## CheapSkate (Feb 26, 2012)

One think I looked at, but never tried, was running a Shimano 9s cassette and RD with Campagnolo 10s ergo levers. I read that it works, possibly with a Hubbub cable routing. But I never tried it. Sounds like what you are thinking.

I was looking at:-
Shimano 13-36 9 speed cassette (or was it 12-36????)
Shimano Acera RD-M3000 long cage 9s rear derailleur

Then a Campagnolo front end - probably a Veloce compact 34-50 double with Campagnolo FD, Campagnolo Ultra-Narrow 10s chain. And Campag 10s Ultra Shift ergo levers.

I have read that a Campag 10s lever will shift Shimano 9s RD + cassette very well. With a Hubbub routing - or Jtek I guess.

The Acera stuff is really cheap, so it would not be an expensive experiment. I think it might take some effort to get it to work though. Maybe you'd need a wider 9s chain.

But I never tried this, when I built my gravel bike I went the other way, with a Shimano MTB chainset and FD and a Campagnolo RD, wheel & cassette.


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## Openroad2014 (Oct 10, 2014)

Here is a new solution for using Shimano 10 speed cassette with Campagnolo drivetrain. Campagnolo 10 speed cassette and Shimano 10 speed cassette have different pitch, they are about 0.19 mm apart. If you center your RD upper pulley wheel to cog #5, by the time you shift to largest or smallest cogs, the difference is 0.19 x 5 = 0.95 mm which is too much for smooth shifting. Causing not only noise but sometimes unable to shift. 

Campagnolo 12/30 cassette only for 2013/2014 Centaur group. should work flawlessly with Campagnolo 10 speed drivetrain. Campagnolo does not offer anything larger, unfortunately. And Campy 10 speed cassettes are getting more expensive. with re-space a Shimano and SRAM 10 speed cassette on a 11 speed road freehub body, you can play with cage length, chain length per your cassette, and a Roadlink.


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## DrSmile (Jul 22, 2006)

What made me ditch 10 speed is the availability of 12-32 Centaur cassettes in 11 speed with the HO derailleur. It's pretty cheap to go 11 speed now.


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