Campagnolo shifters

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm a bit of a fan of Campag 9 and 10 speed stuff. I like the way it looks and the way it works, I like the feel of it and I like the fact that it's serviceable and you can still buy consumables like hoods for things that were discontinued more than ten minutes ago. But I don't like the fact that they apparently use their own cable standard, with slightly smaller nipples. This is a standard cable which is solidly wedged in an otherwise functioning Veloce shifter. Any ideas how to get it out?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Mole grips, a vice and a hammer got it out in the end. Now I just need to put it back together...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Although it remains annoying that none of this would have been necessary if Campag used the otherwise universal standard for their cables.

 

[Keezx]

Yes it is, but I never expierienced a jammed nipple, likely because I always use universal cables which in general do have nipples that fit Campagnolo shifters...
You must have used a Shimano cable...

 

[Big John]

I vaguely remember having the same problem a few years ago when changing gear cables during the servicing of a customers bike at the bike charity I'm involved with. We ended up using Shimano ones but shaving a bit off the nipple on an electric grinder. We rarely had Campag bikes to work on. I've never ridden one but I hear they're a cut above Shimano for performance.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Oddly the last shop I worked in had no end of problems with cables with undersized ends, they would float around in the shifter and could never be trusted to seat and provide reliable shifting. Perhaps you need to buy cheap imported junk cables with undersized ends.

and to think I suggested throwing them out… we just needed to find a lot of Campy customers.

I’d bet they would have worked fine for you. … it’s a weird old world sometimes.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Yes it is, but I never expierienced a jammed nipple, likely because I always use universal cables which in general do have nipples that fit Campagnolo shifters...
You must have used a Shimano cable...

Possibly, but the point remains... Why are there different cable standards? That helps nobody at the consumer end of the equation.