Converting Ultegra

ba

having a complete Shimano Ultegra groupset, is it possible to change:
Levers, Front Derailler, Rear Derailler, Caliper Brakes to Campagnola Centaur without changing the chain/cassette? i dont want to change the Crankset either as it is FSA carbon.

ideally i am changing 4 items. so i do not have to buy a complete groupset.

i know there are compatibility issues between the two manufactures but i dont know how far this goes.

thanks.

blorg

I think you would have spacing issues with the cassette and would have to change that too. Potentially that could get you into a wheel change although there may be ways around that with a specialised cassette. Cassette should be cheaper than most of the rest of the stuff anyway. <-- Note all this AFAIK from reading the interwebs, not an expert. Why do you want to do this anyway?

ba

because i'm buying a bike with Ultegra. i wanna know before i take it that the shop will fit it with Centaur no problem. plus campagnola looks way cooler, and has nice design details about it. i know there will be a price difference too.

Chips Lovell

Well you'll have no problem with the crankset. As for the casette, 10 speed in both Shimano and Campagnolo are very similar. I know it works the other way around, because I've got Ultegra with with a Campagnolo cassette and I've no problem. I think Campagnolo chains might be narrower though, so you might want to investigate that, could have problems with the RD and a Shimano chain.

ba

alright cool. the shop will try to convince me that i should stick with ultegra, they already have. but i cant resist those carbon levers - sweet.
performance will be much the same i guess, save some slight differences with the changing gear method (thumb shifters).

so...chain,levers, both deraillers, caliper brakes all need to change for purposes of compatibility. (possibly the cassette too)

the shop will add the difference in cost against the value of ultegra, i hope it doesnt cost too much.

rob1891

Do you really need to change the brake calipers, I wouldn't have thought so. I know my brother is running shimano tiagra calipers with 1 campag lever and one shimano lever (it's a training bike, the other original shimano lever broke, he doesn't care for symmetry). So I think that the brake calipers are cross compatible and you shouldn't need to change them. I also run shimano 600 calipers with campag levers, but they are more than a decade old :-)

Rob

rob1891

should note that my brother is also using the left hand campag lever with a shimano front derailleur without problems, so you may not need to change that. Even Sheldon says:

JimP wrote:
> I currently have Campagnolo 10 speed group on my commuter bike. I want to
> swap my double crank for a mountian crank (46, 34, 24). The front derailleur
> that I have on hand is a XTR M950 ('03 group M952). I want to know if this
> will work... i.e. does the Campagnolo front shifter take up enough cable to
> move the XTR der. through it's entire range?

Campagnolo shifters are compatible with every cable-operated front
derailer ever made, this is one of the major advantages of that system.

Sheldon "Universality" Brown
+

---

+
| The difference between truth and fiction: |
| Fiction has to make sense. |
| --Mark Twain. |
+

---

+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com