Campagnola verses everything else

[Psycolist]

Having been a cyclist for over 50 years, man and tadpole, its only by pure chance that i have had the mystery of wot you can and cant mix on your drive train explained, in terms of things for campag and things for everything else. For me, there was always an element of mystery about anything with the word campagnola included in either the description, title, or name. I often thought of it as equipment that you would only see on a proffesionals race bike and that it was beyond the reach of meer leisure riders like myself. I think this is a more wide spread issue than many people realize. When scanning the internet for spares or parts, its often seen that things like chainrings are described as ' capagnola ' or ' shimano/sram ' when, as i now realise, they are completely interchangable. I had this explained to me at great length, and with considerable detail by an ex bike shop proprieter that i happened to ask a simple question of, when looking to buy a replacement crankset. There seems to be almost an unwritten agreement among the trade to keep this as a closed secret that should not be bought up or discussed, and they play upon our ignorance when advertising items by seemingly making anything with the name campagnola attatched to it just that bit more expensive, creating the impression that its worth more or of better quality.
If any one else has comments on this topic i would love to hear from you, because, until i do, i am an island of ignorance.
It may well be that by pure chance, i had never had this topic discussed or explained and was living in ignorance of my own making, or there may be others like me that just didnt know !
I look forward to any and all replies
P.S. I am a newbee to this forum lark, so be gentle with me. LOL

 

[bauldbairn]

Hello and welcome to the Cycle Chat forums.

 

[JNR]

I never knew that!

 

[jay clock]

whilst chainsets are compatible, I suspect the gear changers are not (ie you cannot use Shimano Ultegra STIs with a Campag mech (without a lot of fettling). But I may well be wrong

 

[rsb62rsb]

Hello :-)

I don't know much, but, I believe some Campagnolo and Shimano stuff can be mixed, but you need to know stuff like the measurements of gaps between sprockets on cassettes and so on. A few googles on "shimergo" or combinations of Campag + Shimano will turn up stuff. (Maybe Sheldon Brown has some info too...)

Obviously the manufacturers would rather people bought all their stuff... and at least if you do you know it should work! I have a bike with Campag Veloce (c 4/5 years old) and another with Shimano XT both are good, the campag is smoother I think... but it's not a straight comparison as the campy is ergo shifters and the shimano bar ends... and the campy is well worn in.

Perhaps Campy has more cache... but that's perhaps more in the eye of the beholder.
Top end stuff by both (and probably SRAM) is lovely kit. Having said that even the low mid range Shimano is pretty decent and works reliably - other wise no -one would upgrade to their top level expensive stuff...

regards

Roger

 

[fossyant]

Erm why bother - campag with campag, shimano with shimano, sram with sram...easy.................

 

[Biggsy-]

I'm new here too. Well, I thought I'd better make a contribution before posting adverts for my unwanted junk

Chainrings is one of many examples of Shimano and Campagnolo not being interchangeable - at least when it comes to full size doubles and triple middles and outers. The bolt circle diameter is different, so they don't fit on the other make of crank.

Plenty of Campag stuff is actually reasonably priced anyway. It's just that Shimano has a bigger range, that starts lower than Campag's.

 

[nosherduke996]

I'm new here too. Well, I thought I'd better make a contribution before posting adverts for my unwanted junk

Chainrings is one of many examples of Shimano and Campagnolo not being interchangeable - at least when it comes to full size doubles and triple middles and outers. The bolt circle diameter is different, so they don't fit on the other make of crank.

Plenty of Campag stuff is actually reasonably priced anyway. It's just that Shimano has a bigger range, that starts lower than Campag's.

Just mix and match, then get the patent and call it shampagnolo.

 

[Davidc]

There are quite a few things which aren't compatible. SRAM and Shimano have more mutually compatible bits than Campy with either of them.

Why bother? For most of us we're just stuck with whatever came with the bike. 40 years ago it was all Campy, now it isn't.

There's plenty on here and other forums on what will and won't work between the big 3 manufacturers.

 

[wafflycat]

There is some degree of interchangability between Campagnolo and Shimano, but it is quite limited.

Of course, real cyclists use only Campagnolo..

*sits back and nibbles popcorn*

 

[MacB]

I thought the big difference was that Campag meant you had to push your bike up hills more due to a lack of little gears.

 

[Alembicbassman]

Shimano has all its tech manuals online, which I like - not sure about the others though.

Never owned anything Campag, but from what I've seen quality is the same as Shimano/SRAM for my pocket. I don't have a £1500 groupset though.

 

[wafflycat]

I thought the big difference was that Campag meant you had to push your bike up hills more due to a lack of little gears.

No, the reason I push a bike up hills is due to lack of fitness

 

[MacB]

No, the reason I push a bike up hills is due to lack of fitness

ah, so only the 'tough' use Campag, that'll be why I don't then

 

[wafflycat]

ah, so only the 'tough' use Campag, that'll be why I don't then

Change to Campag and you will find an immediate improvement in your sexual attractiveness to members of the opposite sex if you are heteroesexual and amongst same sex if you are homosexual. If you're bi-sexual, well, you'll have the opportunity to be very greedy indeed. And your stature in terms of 'top-dog' amongst your mates goes up several notches to a definite 'alpha male' or 'alpha female' as the case may be. 'Tis true. No word of a lie.