**NEWS FLASH on compatibility of shifting components: Campagnolo 10-speed shifters work perfectly on a SRAM drivetrain!

I put Centaur ErgoPower levers on my SRAM RED-equipped bike and have been riding it happily ever since with nary a hiccup in the shifting. I have a SRAM 10-speed chain, SRAM RED chainrings, SRAM RED front derailleur, SRAM RED rear derailleur, and SRAM RED 10-speed cogset mated with the Centaur 10-speed ErgoPower levers. This means that Campagnolo and SRAM 10-speed road shifters pull exactly the same amount of cable with each click. And it would also apply to Campagnolo and SRAM bar-end shifters as well.

So what, you say? Well, this has important ramifications for anyone who is trying to mix and match components for any of a number of reasons. For instance, this could be a godsend for those who have a Campy-equipped bike but want to be able to use all of the Shimano-compatible wheels and Shimano 10-speed cogsets they have lying around (and there are lots of these folks, because I get lots of correspondence from them, asking how to make the things work together). Just get a SRAM rear derailleur, leave everything else the same, stick any Shimano or SRAM 10-speed cogset in as is, and the bike would work fine.

It also could come in very handy for someone who wrecks a derailleur on a SRAM-equipped road bike while vacationing in Italy. In this day and age, they would be unlikely to find a replacement SRAM derailleur in an Italian bike shop, but it would be a snap to find a Campagnolo one. So they could just slap the Campy derailleur on their SRAM bike without changing the shifters, chain, cogs or anything else, and they would be golden.

STANDARD ERGOPOWER: Campagnolo Centaur 10-speed levers

Photo: Lennard Zinn

A triathlon or time trial bike with Campagnolo 10-speed bar-end shifters may seem limited by requiring the use of Campagnolo freehubs and cogs, when the world is awash with Shimano-compatible ones. But now, a simple switch to a SRAM rear derailleur opens up the possibility of using all of those wheels with Shimano 10-speed cogs. This also begs the question of why the first pro teams racing on SRAM Force and Rival in 2006 used their Campy-equipped bikes from the previous season for time trials, since SRAM was slow in coming out with its bar-end shifter. It seems clear to me that they could have equipped those bikes with SRAM and just stuck Campy bar-end shifters on them.

For those who are still wondering what I am talking about, I should explain why this discussion of SRAM derailleurs and cogs with Campagnolo levers automatically pulls Shimano cogs into the discussion. That is because the SRAM and Shimano 10-speed cogsets are completely interchangeable; the spacing is the same, they fit on the same (Shimano 8/9/10-speed) freehub bodies (SRAM cogs don’t fit on the deeply-splined aluminum 10-speed freehub bodies of current Shimano Dura-Ace hubs, but this is a miniscule part of the total freehub market).

PURE RED: SRAM front and rear derailleurs, cogset, chain and chainrings

Photo: Lennard Zinn

It is well known that a SRAM 10-speed cogset shifts perfectly in a Shimano-10-speed-equipped bike, and vice versa. But Campagnolo 10-speed cogsets have slightly wider spacing and do not shift well in either SRAM or Shimano 10-speed drivetrains. (Even though I get letters from people claiming that their Campy system works just fine with only a limit-screw adjustment when they stick a wheel with an unadulterated Shimano 10-speed cogset in, I’m not buying it, because I have tried that a lot, and I find the shifting to be highly annoying and unsatisfactory. I also have not found a set of spacers for a Shimano cogset that makes it work to my standards on a Campy drivetrain, since the spacers on the larger cogs riveted onto cog carriers can’t be changed out.)

Incidentally, I have also discussed here in years past (all of the way back to 2002!) how you can use a Shimano rear derailleur with Campagnolo ErgoPower levers and vice versa. The simplest and least costly way to hook up a Shimano rear derailleur to a Campy shifter so it will shift perfectly on Shimano cogs is to attach the cable to the opposite side of the cable-fixing bolt than it is intended. There are photos of this on the second link below.

For a simple solution involving an adaptor that you can by and install easily, you can use a Jtek ShiftMate (http://jtekengineering.com/shiftmate.htm). It appears that Jtek has even added SRAM 10-speed combinations into the list now, but I find it interesting given my above experience that one of them listed is a Campy 10 shifter with SRAM 10 RD and SRAM 10 cogs; I don’t think you need any adaptor to make that work. If you are particularly interested in using 8- or 9-speed cogsets, here is a good summary of a number of methods of doing mixing and matching levers, derailleurs and cogsets: http://www.hearingoffice.com/download/hearing/10_Speed_Conversion_screen...
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Technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder (zinncycles.com), a former U.S. national team rider and author of numerous books on bikes and bike maintenance including Zinn and the Art of Triathlon Bikes and the pair of successful maintenance guides Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance – now available also on DVD, and Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, as well as Zinn's Maintenance Tips and Skill Building for Cyclists.

Zinn's regular column is devoted to addressing readers' technical questions about bikes, their care and feeding and how we as riders can use them as comfortably and efficiently as possible. Readers can send brief technical questions directly to Zinn. Zinn's column appears here each Thursday.