Camapagnolo post 2015 compatible with pre 2015?

[wilwil]

Im checking out a friend's bike to see that he has a post 2015 Chorus rear mech when everything else is pre 2015. He says the gears work much better since the mech was changed (I dont know how bad they were before). Can I expect to achieve perfect shifting with this combination? I know Campag say the two should not be mixed...

[BRM]

Camapagnolo? Whats that?

You should be banned for 5 years . . . . . . lol


(Graeme's posting history is a reliable source of information for those with Campagnolo related questions)

2014 and previous Ultrashift levers with 2015 mechs:

FD - tends to throw chain off to the inside - the 2 click" bar on the LH shifter is designed to stop this. The 2015 mech is more prone to doing this as the derailleur cage and the gate through which the chain passes is narrower than it's predecessor, so that with the correct shifter it controls the chain better on downshift, whilst contributing to a sharper upshift.

RD - cable pull ratio is different - the shift 1-> can be dialled in, 2->3 is "OK", 3->4 is barely acceptable, 4->5 very poor, mech skips a sprocket in the middle of the cassette, then 6->7 back to barely acceptable and so on. So don't do it. Pointless.

2014 and previous mechs are freely available from the factory and any ProShop or come to that, any other retailer can order through the normal supply channels. From a retailer perspective, there are some sales guys at the distributors who haven't read the memo and think that the 2014 mechs are discontinued in production but this is not the case - they *do* now have to be ordered as a "spare part", not as a "stock item" in Campagnolo's ordering system, that is all.

[bikerjulio]

In discussing compatibility issues Graeme sometimes deals in fine degrees of perfection, that us mere mortals would not notice. In this matter though
he seems very adamant that it won't work.

2 questions:

why was the RD changed out?

has the hanger alignment been checked?

[wilwil]

Apparently the mech was changed because the 'old one was bashed about a bit'. I can feel it is not as snappy, precise and is inconsistent. But, it works, just not as well as it I know it should.

[bikerjulio]

Apparently the mech was changed because the 'old one was bashed about a bit'. I can feel it is not as snappy, precise and is inconsistent. But, it works, just not as well as it I know it should.

That sounds like a big red flag for needing to check alignment.

[graeme_f_k]

The biggest problem that pre- (and indeed post-) 2015 RDs suffer with is wear in the o-rings that set the float of the top pivot bolt.
Assuming the hanger is straight - and don't assume, measure - any excess angular movement of the derailleur relative to the upper pivot will lead to poor shifting.

Typically, this wear and tear is grossly accelerated by lots of volatile lube being sprayed about in that area of the bike - stuff like WD40 and any mineral-oil based lubricant in a spray can will find it's way into the upper pivot housing and eventually degrade the material of the o-rings (hence the recommendation in Campagnolo literature for synthetic lubricants).

It's fixable by having anew top pivot bolt assembly installed by a SC. We (and one or two of the other SCs - it's not a Campag requirement that we do) also keep a range of o-ring sizes on hand so that if the wear and tear in the upper pivot sleeve itself is excessive, it can be dialled out with new o-rings.

What bikerjulio says is true, I do deal in fine degrees of perfection. All this kit costs a lot of money - it should work to spec - otherwise what the hell is the point? Otherwise we might as well not bother trying to develop better shifting, braking, etc because it all *works* already and works better than most people are ever going to need, in a functional sense ... and has done since time immemorial! The point is, part of what all of those pounds, euros, dollars or yen is buying, when you buy top end cycling equipment, just as when you buy top end hi-fi or cameras (my other two obsessions), are incremental improvements on something that is already so far removed from simple functional norms that to talk in terms of stuff "working" becomes non-sensical. We are talking about "working as designed" which is something totally other.

That and the fact that I am a pernickety so-and-so ...

[wilwil]

I wonder why they've made the top pivot non user serviceable now...