At wits end with Campag Athena 11s front derailleur...

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nminichiello
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 5:37 pm

by nminichiello

Hi,
Did you happen to figure out your problem? I am dealing with it right now and I've been working on it for 2 hours now. My problem is when I adjust the FD and I try shifting between small and big rings I'm not able to get back into my big ring after I've made the adjustment to reduce the rubbing.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks,
N

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bikerjulio
Posts: 1900
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:38 pm
Location: Welland, Ontario

by bikerjulio

Start again, these are sensitive to alignment which needs to be just right.
There's sometimes a buggy.
How many drivers does a buggy have?

One.

So let's just say I'm drivin' this buggy...
and if you fix your attitude you can ride along with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GekiIMh4ZkM

by Weenie


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Illuminate
Posts: 404
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 4:18 am
Location: Australia

by Illuminate

Hi, I run Athena 11s on my Lynskey r230 commuter. I built the bike up myself and have it working fine. To me, it sounds like either:
Not enough tension on the FD cable (just a small amount can pull the FD away from the chain enough to prevent rub)
FD Limiter isn't set high enough.

Please let me know if you need a scan of the manual that comes with the FD or some pics of my setup.

Cheers,
I

After reading Graeme's post below, to further the above information:
1. I run a KMC 11s chain.
2. Rear hub is a White Industries H3 32H laced to CX-rays and DT R585. (now if I could just solve the problem of the spokes rubbing the RD... :)
Last edited by Illuminate on Tue May 06, 2014 1:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

graeme_f_k
Shop Owner / Manufacturer
Posts: 609
Joined: Mon May 26, 2008 12:21 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

by graeme_f_k

Some things it would be useful to know:

1. Chain manufacturer?
2. FD on a "braze on" on the frame, or a clip?
3. If a clip, integrated or separate?
4. If separate, size and Campagnolo or other?
5. Campag rear wheel or other (affects cassette position relative to frame centre-line)
6. BB system - if BB30 or any of the press-fit clones, Campag or other adaptors used (may influence chain line)

As Bikerjulio says, as there is no trim click down from big ring to small, setting of the height and inclination of the FD needs to be right - Campagnolo now make a tool (UT-FD020) to assist in this process.

Provided that chain line is right and that the frame conforms to spec (and there are some that don't. AFAIK there are no probs with Canyon, though, if it's the Canyon in the signature that the OP is fitting to), it should be possible to get all 11 sprockets at the rear without chain-scrape on the FD itself, on both rings.

What you may be looking at is an accumulation of small errors that whilst not problematic if taken in isolation, when added together are giving a problem with function.

The KMC chain, if that is what it is, has an overall rivet width slightly greater than Campagnolo. The FD mount may have the FD slightly too far forwards or backwards, changing exactly what part of the cage the chain passes and therefore the shape of the cage at that point. That influences both gate width and also how far the FD needs to move to achieve the shift. If the BB has the chainset slightly too far "out", say (chain line is awkward to measure, but should be 43.5 mm +/- 0.5 mm) and the rear wheel has the cassette slightly too far "in" relative the the frame c/l, that may give problems, and so on.

What we *do* know is that there are thousands of Athena 11s groups out there, behaving correctly, so much as I hate to say it, the chances are that it is possibly partly, or maybe even wholly "pilot error" if all the other conditions for correct function are met ...

One additional point - if you are running compact and you are getting noise on the "small-small" combination, check that it's not the chain tapping the back of the big chainring - this will happen if the rear triangle of the frame is at or close to Campagnolo's minimum length (405 mm) and the KMC chain (if that is what it is) is more prone to this causing a problem than the Campag chain - though in fairness, the Campag chain also does it. Of course you should never be in this gear anyway :-)

If you get really stuck, PM me and we'll see what we can do by phone / email etc to help out ...

HTH
Graeme
A Tech-Reps work is never done ...
Head Tech, Campagnolo main UK ASC
Pls contact via velotechcycling"at"aim"dot"com, not PM, for a quicker answer. Thanks!

mjduct
Posts: 657
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:19 pm

by mjduct

I was having all kinds of trouble with my rear mech on my super record, turns out the rear derailler was bent outward a touch. One tweak with the proper tool and a good shop and it was flawless in no time. I recommend finding a good shop in your area who specializes in campagnolo. Too many kids out there working at shops to get a discount on their stuff who are clueless at anything mitre advanced than changing flats...


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robhall2003
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:18 pm

by robhall2003

I purchased this Campagnolo original tool for fitting and aligning Campagnolo front derailleurs (Campagnolo tool UT-FD020). It comes with two tools, one for std cranks and one for compact cranks. Funny thing was the only place I found them for sale was from a Campag shop in Czech Republic. I contacted them, writing in English and they posted them to me for a reasonable price. It was about 20usd including postage.

Anyway, they work perfectly which is great for me as I am pretty much useless at correctly aligning front derailleurs!

See the links below:

http://www.campagnolo.com/repository/do ... _02_14.pdf

http://www.campagnolo-sirer.cz/naradi/n ... gnolo.html

beachhutboy
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2015 10:20 pm

by beachhutboy

Know this is an old post, but just put Record 11 on my bike with an Athena F/D. After a lot of messing around i think it is ok. One shift up onto the outer front ring and appears i can access the whole rear cassette, on the inner ring i have 3 clicks which allows me to access the whole cassette. Is this right? On my older Record 10 i had some micro shifts on both rings.

Thanks in advance

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