Shimano man tries Campagnolo

Spoiler alert - I am Campagnolo's lead tech in the UK, providing technical training for retailers, wholesalers and OEM, so the info here is from the factory ...

One of the challenges that all manufacturer's face in instruction leaflets, is actually just how much into to give. Until around 2009/10, Campagnolo used to provide a deeper set of fitting instructions than they do now.

The challenges for all makers now are around paper (yes, really), how many languages it's now appropriate to cover - and liability.

The liability question is the tricky one. When I provide online technical help to final customers or shops, I always have to be very aware that a customer who has a problem after following the advice I've given, might come back with a "you didn't tell me that so-and-so had to be done" and that is so much more the case for manufacturers that are basically putting  a product into the market & then only ever have two options - support it via mechanics that they have tried to ensure have either training or access to technical information - or support it directly themselves.

Shimano have si-shimano.com, SRAM have a technical downloads are and Campagnolo have the Documentation area on their website, all of which contain the kind of information that the user above wants - how to access the cable installation port on the levers, for instance ... what's provided with the component is more akin to a "quick-start" guide.

On the cassette body issue, not all Mavic hub designs will properly accept all of the Campagnolo cassettes - which is more of a Mavic problem than it is a Campagnolo one - it's known amongst mechanics familiar with Campagnolo, in any case, that sometimes it is advisable to fit a 1mm spacer hehind the cassette to bring the cassette closer to where it should be, relative to the dropout. The final cog on the cassette usually only engages around two thirds of it's depth on the end of the cassette body, anyway. The spacer helps when swapping between wheelsets, as well, where customers may have a set of Mavics and a set of Campag, say - not all makers' cassette bodies "sit" in the same place relative to the locknut.

On the chain, Campagnolo have long said that a riveted joint is the most secure. They have now, in 12 & 13s, yielded to market pressure and make, in house, alongside ther own chain production, a joining link - but my own advice is still rivet for absolute security. To do that well requires a tool and because they too are made in-house, to be both very high-precision and durable, they're relatively expensive. There's no way around that.

There's unlikely to be an 11s joining link made, now - 11s is only available in Centaur, all the otheer groups are now 12 or in the case of Ekar / Ekar GT, 13s.

UltraTorque is probably one of the most misunderstood elements of Campagnolo design. You have a fixed distance between the bearings and some variation in distance between their locations, whether they're screwed in or pressed in. To fix that, you can, as Shimano did, have an axle that slides along the axle and is anchored with two pinch bolts (essentially, a threadless headset turned on it's side). That means a bulkier crank which leads to a wider Q factor, as does using a threaded ring, in the fashion of SRAM DUB - the crank width is better controlled but the threaded ring takes up 5 or 6m of BB axle length, so pushing the Q factor out as it's necessary to maintain some degree of ankle clearance, too (you can't just make the LH crank straighter to compensate, or at least, not a lot straighter) ...

UTs Q factor in 10 and 11s is the same as their historic square taper cranks (146.6mm), with an improved U factor (ankle clearance). It's a fraction wider in the most recent 12s & 13s cranks (151mm).

In Campagnolo's case, the use of the wave washer applies a known pre-load to the BB bearings, so long as the BB is within the +/-0.8mm of width tolerance away from nominal. This exceeds the +/-0.5mm of width tolerance specified in most press-fit mountings and allows for a sufficient amount of dimension error from necessary practices like facing, in threaded mountings (English, Itlaian, T47, etc).

The spring clip anchors the RH crank in it's location relative to the frame, allowing it a very small side-to-side movement (of the order of 0.3mm total) so ensuring that the chainrings are held in place relative to the front derailleur, to make front shifting secure and accurate - it's name of the "safety clip" is a long-standing mis-translation - in English it should arguably be called a "securing" clip, but the word used for both can be the same in Italian ...

Finally, why anchor the BB bearings on the axle rather than in the cup? In any cartridge bearing system that is going to be taken apart, there needs to be one slip-fit and one interference fit. General convention is that the slip fit is on the moving element, the slip fit is on the static. Think of a wheel bearing - the hub shell is moving, so the bearing is a press fit into that, whilst it is a slip fit on the axle.

In a BB, the moving element is the axle, the fixed element is the cup (it's useful to consider how a sealed bearing square taper BB is made).

Shimano reverse the convention and sleeve the BB bearing down to make a slip fit on the axle, having the bearing (which is actually the same size as Campag's), captive in the cup, where it's press fitted. If the bearing seizes, the axle can then turn in the sleeves but may become scored or damaged in the process. Experienced mechanics see this from time to time. In Campagnolo's case, if the bearing seizes, it will turn in the cup, which is rather cheaper to replace, in the event of damage, than a HT crankset.

Meanwhile, the axle can be split and the beraing cleaned and lubricated easily because the inner face is "open", so improving opportunities for maintenance, rather than replacement.

Sorry, that was quite long but hopefully you can see that there are reasons why things are the way they are - there are a lot of different ways to engineer things, Shimano take one approcah, SRAM another and Campagnolo a third - sometimes that is driven by paternt, sometimes by what is fgelt to be best engineering practice, sometimes by cost - or maybe an element of all 3 ,,,

Quote:

The chain has got of those snap-off joining pins (that Shimano have stopped doing), so we’re on KMC until I can save £180 (for real?) up for the recommended tool.  My chain tool includes a clamp on the far side, I assume it will to the job?

Just push the pin through with the chain tool until it's flush on the side you're driving from, snap off the end with pliers, check flush on the inner side, lightly file if not. What does the £180 tool do extra?

I thought that the cable ferrules are there just to prevent damage to the end of the cable outer and the frame as there could be a sharp bit left after cutting. They also keep the outer aligned nicely in case the cable was cut at an angle. I don't think they need to do any compression as that happens from the tension of the inner cable.

Ah! The peening tool...