Black hole of mixing Campagnolo and Shimano

[Damien]

Hey all, hoping to tap your collective knowledge on this topic. I have a pretty standard Albatross-Riv-Shimano set up on my Sam (Deore RD, Tiagra FD, 11-36 9 speed cassette with Sugino triple up front, Microshift 9 speed bar end shifters) and am exploring the idea of converting to drop bars and using 9 speed Campagnolo Centaur shifters (since I love the way these look and feel), potentially using a JTek Shiftmate 3. 

It sounds simple, but as with most things, I imagine it's not as simple as it sounds. Before I start getting parts together for this mess, would love to know if anyone feels strongly about this working well together, not working well together, or if it's not worth the hassle and I just stick with my Microshift bar ends on the drops. I figured that it would be nice to keep the whole upright stem-handlebar-levers-shifters combo in tact if I want to go back upright, and since I'm changing bar styles, why not consider another option?

Anyways, would love all of your thoughts on this, especially if you have first-hand experience. Thank you all in advance!

[Brett Callahan]

Here's an old but helpful article on the subject.  I have not tried but have always been curious.  https://www.cxmagazine.com/shimano-campagnolo-ergopower-compatibility

-Brett

[Kurt Manley]

Campy 10 or 11 speed shifters work perfectly with shimano 9 speed. Unless you already have the 9 speed levers I'd shop for 10 or 11 speed levers.

good info here,    https://www.cxmagazine.com/shimano-campagnolo-ergopower-compatibility

On Friday, November 20, 2020 at 11:52:46 AM UTC-8 Damien wrote:

[Brewster Fong]

I have a friend who is doing this and one caveat he found, mixing DA 9 drivetrain with Campy 11 shifters is only possible if you use Campy 11 shifters from 2011-14. The newer ergo shifters, from 2015+, have a different "pull" and will not work with his DA 9 drivetrain. 

He is trying to find the earlier Campy 11 shifters, but I think ebay may be his only source.

I know, Good Luck!

[Tom Matchak]

I recently did a Shimano/Campy blend on one of my personal bikes that I was selling to a friend on the condition that I could drop in a set of Centaur brifters onto a bike that had a 9-sp Dura Ace drivetrain and bar-end shift levers. Using a Shiftmate adapter, it turned out great, and he says that it shifts better than his other all-Campy bike.

There was, however, a moment of doubt when we first got everything hooked up and tried out the Centaur lever. Couldn't get more than 2 or 3 good cog jumps in a row before the shifting would start to fail to hit the mark. My friend had been super careful to source the proper model of the Shiftmate adapter, but the actual unit that he received had absolutely no markings to identify the model number. So, with two engineers standing there looking at a stalled-out experiment, I did what I was trained to do. I took off the Shiftmate, removed the little pulley, turned it around and put the pulley in backwards, reattached the Shiftmate unit, and ...... it worked perfect!  It seems that a single pulley can produce two complimentary factors on either side of neutral, like multiplying cable pull by 0.95 or 1.05, depending on how it is positioned in the greater Shiftmate housing. It's likely that this was an assembly error at the factory, but putting an identifying mark on the critical component would help the QC function.

So yeah, it all worked out great. But, if you have a problem, check that little pulley.

Cheers,

Tom Matchak

Glen, NH

[Richard Borneman]

I have a couple bikes set up with Campy pre-2001 "pointy" levers and Shimano drivetrain and #4 Shiftmate. Works great. The Campy levers are much better than the Shimanos.

 Richard Borneman

[Mojo]

I have my two roadiest bikes set up Shimergo, using Campy Athena 11speed brifters with Shimano 9 speed cassettes and Ultegra/XT rear derailers. Works swimmingly, see attached (apologies for all the ski gear...tis the season, just.)

I also have a set of Campy Veloce 10 speed brifters that work well with Shimano 8 speed. I keep thinking I will use them on my utility bike, but then I wouldn't own a downtube-friction-shifter bike and that would be a damn shame.

Joe in Grand Junction