Campagnolo 8 speed wheel / freehub sourcing issues / questions

[4F]

Righto my 8 speed wheel and freehub are borked and looking at options given trying to source the above is proving a challenge...

Its a steel frame so am I right in saying that options I have are:-

Changing to campag 9 speed wheel as well as changing shifter, derailleur and chain and cold setting the frame to take the extra width. Not sure if I would have to replace chainrings as well.

Campag 9 speed wheel and cassette with 1 ring removed and a spacer kit used.

Shimano 8 speed wheel and cassette but use spacers from my current campag cassette

Shimano 8 speed wheel and cassette, campag derailleur and a Jtek shiftmate

Shimano 8 speed wheel with a 9 speed Miche cassette with campag spacing but remove one of the rings and use a spacer kit.

Confused.com

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

You can't mix normal spacers - they don't have the same diameter, spline, and sprocket thickness are different. If you want to fiddle with special spacers you need to see this. Personally, I think shiftmate type things are not ideal because they introduce another interface for problems.

A simple "modern" solution is to go 7 speed, because Campag 8 speed sprockets happen to have exactly the same pitch as all current 7 speed systems, whether freewheel or cassette. So for example any 7 speed cassette plus spacer on any 130mm road hub/wheel would work just fine. A solution to retain 8 speed without changing shifters is to get a "new old stock" or secondhand Campag 8 hub/wheel from ebay. Given Campag 8 is obsolete, it might be worth assessing the shifters' condition in terms of how long they might last.

 

[accountantpete]

The price of Campagnolo 8/9 speed stuff is rising - especially the hubs/shifters - and will get worse.

I went second hand 10 speed for not much more than second hand 9 speed - the only downside is that the cost of cassettes are a bit higher (or a lot if you go Record titanium!)- but you do get a lot better ride due to smaller gaps between gears.

 

[4F]

Cheers fellas, will have a think what to do next

 

[fossyant]

Crap isn't it.

Still ok with my old Dura Ace that is shifter and mech limited, but can still get the UG sprockets from the U S.

Hyper glide, I can take a dremmel to the elongated sprocket slot.

Can you not look at aftermarket sprockets ?

 

[4F]

Yep its a bit crappy, I think I am probably going to go down the 10 speed route. Will stick to riding my fixed whilst thinking about it and keep an eye out on eBay for either a group set or donor bike with the right kit. Shame really as I had just spent the last 4 months stripping and rebuilding it and it is so comfortable to ride as 16 hours over the past weekend showed