Subject: Re: Flat Bar Shifters Posted by: Al on August 09, 2006 at 04:43:55: In Reply to: Re: Flat Bar Shifters posted by steve on August 08, 2006 at 22:01:28:

Message: >>Would a 8speed alivio shimano shifter brake combo designed for flat bars work and mesh with an old 8speed campy record drivetrain. I want to convert an old Merckx into a commuter with flat bars to get it back out on the road and keep all the old stuff just in case I ever want to switch it back over. Currently Merckx has downtube 8speed campy. I thought I could just pop in a flat bar and shifters and switch downtube shifters for barrel adjusters on the braze ons. Thanks for any help. >Unfortunatly, the spacing between gears is different for shimano 8spd than it is for campy 8spd, there for the indexing of the shifters will not work well with the campy cassette. That's not quite true ... the respective Shimano & Campagnolo 8-speed cassettes have virtually the same spacing. The problem people encounter when trying to swap Campagnolo & Shimano wheelsets is that they do not take into account the fact that the Campagnolo hub (more so with the 9-/10-speed) hub may best be described as being aligned differently than a Shimano hub ... so that, the largest cog will be closer to the non-drive side than the largest cog on a Shimano hub. Consequently, the high-low stops have to be adjusted (but, not in YOUR case since the rear derailleur's stops are already set up for the wheel in your frame with THAT particular rear derailleur) when various Shimano wheelsets are mated to Campagnolo drivetrains, and vice-versa. Now, if the question is whether your Alivio shifters will work with the Campy front & rear derailleurs ... well, that IS another issue ... You can get a Campy rear derailleur to index MORE like a Shimano by anchoring the rear derailleur cable at 9 o'clock JUST AS you can similarly tweak a Shimano rear derailleur -- re-anchoring the rear derailleur cable may-or-may-not allow it to index properly with a Shimano Alivio 8-speed shifter. You can probably 'kludge'/kluge the indexing on the front derailleur to work ... I suspect that you would need BOTH "indents"/clicks on the front to move the front derailleur & chain between chainrings ... Trial-and-error is probably the best way to assess the components you have on hand ... I mix-and-match components ALL THE TIME!