I am considering equiping my tri-bike with Campagnolo 10 speed instead of Shimano. I was told that the Campy bar end shifters are not as good as the Shimano. Any truth to this? Any users out there that care to comment?
Thanks
Only complaint I have ever heard is that they are overpriced - and they are.
I don’t think they have a friction setting.
They work GREAT! No they do not have a friction setting…but, who in the hell would ever use that? I do like that there is a cable adjustment bolt in the lever that you can alter when you are riding. I change my wheels quite often from day to day and at times need a 1/4 turn here or there for one rear wheel or another. I can see no reason at all to not run Campy…unless you dont like better performance and longer life.
Another thing before someone brings it up…no the Campy brakes dont have a release on it, never been an issue for me.
They do not have a friction setting, but they do have a little cable tension adjuster built into them so you can fine tune your gears on the fly from the aero position in event of a wheel change. I prefer their finish and ergonomics to the Shimano bar-end shifters.
Look at page 53 in the manual for the triathlon shifter schematic which shows the adjuster:
http://www.campagnolo.com/pdf/spares04_A.pdf
The only negative is that you do have to follow the instructions to the letter when installing them— The shifter can only be oriented one way on the base to provide proper performance, yet there are two different ways it is possible to connect it. If it is not oriented properly, it will seem to work, but all of your shifts will be off. Install it properly and you have one sweet set of shifters.
-Marc
John and johnA are right, Expensive and no friction. They work great as all campy stuff.
I know some guys that use it for the new duraace 10speed
“who in the hell would ever use that?”
If you have a bike will full internal cable routing there is often so much drag between the cable and housing that your indexing will not work properly. Plus you don’t have to be so anal about keeping your cable tension just right. I always run my TT/tri bikes in friction mode.
I have never had an issue with Gore cables and friction…I know the Metawire is supposed to be great as well.
Oh, there was one more thing. The campy bar ends are fully serviceable, you can actually upgrade the 9sp to 10sp - try that with Shimano…
disclaimer: I ride campy.
Thanks for the feedback guys but set me straight here I am a bit confused. When you say it doesn’t have friction setting that means that it “clicks” on every shift or not?
it clicks.
no!
It clicks beautifully and forever will!
It clicks on every shift, and will ONLY click. The Shimano levers can be switched into retro friction mode where there are no clicks. If something goes wrong with your indexed shifting, you can put in friction and make it work.
The difference mentioned about the brake calipers deserves mentioning also. On Shimano, there is a small lever on the caliper (the part that actually touches the wheel to stop) that allows it to open wider than usual, facilitating easy wheel removal, while allowing you to run the pads close to the rims in ‘normal’ mode. The Campy calipers lack this lever. The same function is done with the Ergo (Campy STI) brake/shift levers, but since you are running bar ends you lose this feature. It’s no big deal if you run narrow tires and ‘loose’ brakes, but if you don’t like a lot of ‘take up’ on your brake levers, and/or run wider tires for training, it could make removing your wheels harder.
I am not bagging on Campy, but they aren’t ‘exactly’ the same thing.
“The campy bar ends are fully serviceable, you can actually upgrade the 9sp to 10sp - try that with Shimano…”
But you can buy a set of Shimano 9 speed bar end shifters AND a set of 10 speed shifters for less than ONE set of Campy 10 shifters. Or you can just set your old $40 Shimano 8 speed shifters to friction and not have to buy anything.
Disclaimer: I ride Campy, Shimano, Sachs, and a bunch of other stuff and I have no bias.