Campag Ergo seized...
- Thread starter Buckled
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Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
Campagnolio shifters are repairable
You can find some videos on youtube and also in the campagnolio website. It looks easier that it is I think
You can find some videos on youtube and also in the campagnolio website. It looks easier that it is I think
Graeme_FK
Veteran
- Location
- Wherever there are sick bicycles
2008 Campagnolo Veloce is unlikely to seize, but other problems can and do occur.
Levers from before 2007 are fully strippable and repairable, those post 07 are not.
The best bet is probabaly to send your lever to us at Velotech and we can take a look at it for you. We are the main UK Service Centre for Campagnolo, appointed and supported directly by the factory.
Kind regards
Graeme
www.velotech-cycling.ltd.uk
Levers from before 2007 are fully strippable and repairable, those post 07 are not.
The best bet is probabaly to send your lever to us at Velotech and we can take a look at it for you. We are the main UK Service Centre for Campagnolo, appointed and supported directly by the factory.
Kind regards
Graeme
www.velotech-cycling.ltd.uk
accountantpete
OAP
Campagnolo changed the design circa 2007 from a system whereby the thumb shift actually pushed the drum holding the cable around to a really naff system where the drum was spring loaded and the thumb shift released the ratchet and allowed the drum to turn.
I have repaired post 2008 types and you can get most working but the performance is not 100%.
You can tell the difference as the old types thumb shifters have a metal interface with a metal toothed cog like in a clock. The later models have a plastic drum ( may be white plastic) instead.
I have repaired post 2008 types and you can get most working but the performance is not 100%.
You can tell the difference as the old types thumb shifters have a metal interface with a metal toothed cog like in a clock. The later models have a plastic drum ( may be white plastic) instead.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
Although you work for velotech I think you are wrong. The videos on Campagnolo website show 2009 models ( I think) being stripped down and put back together.
SEE HERE
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Graeme_FK
Veteran
- Location
- Wherever there are sick bicycles
Actually, no. In practical terms, I am right.
This is part of the service that we supply to Campagnolo and have done for over 5 years ... and I have been working with Campagnolo since 1986, so have seen most things - to the extent that we are now the only company in the world (outside of Campagnolo subsidiaries) who are permitted by Campagnolo to deliver technical training on a fully factory-accredited basis.
As a result of what we do looking after service and warranty issues and technical training matters, we deal with these types of queries on a very regular basis.
As another post suggests, it is sometimes possible to repair these levers but repair is rarely, if ever, 100% successful without access to full spares.
Although Campagnolo themselves supply full strip and rebuild instructions and the video that you refer to, the main fault that occurs with these post 2007 entry-level levers - generally refererred to as "Escape type" as they work on an escapement principle - can only be fully rectified with the transfer of some or all of the original lever internals into a new body shell.
Up until 2009, the post 07 type units had full spares available, however, as the 10s items were redesigned for the 2010 season, the decision was taken to withdraw full spares support. That included the full body shell.
Hence, in order to carry out almost all repairs of the post 2007 levers, it is necessary to strip another lever and transfer parts - with no guarantee that the lever body in question does not or will not suffer from the same problems as the body one is transferring parts from.
The only part where this is not the case in the newer Escape type levers is the "inner lever" (or "lever 2" as we normally refer to it) which is still available as a spare as it was until recently shared with other Campagnolo after-market units and is still used in two OE units.
As the OP refers to a seized thumb lever (lever 3), and as both lever 3 and the escapement which it has to operate in very accurately-timed co-operation with, are both permanently fixed into the lever body shell, then if lever 3 really has seized and it is an Escape unit, then repair is possible but unlikely to be totally successful, especially as the most common fault with Escape type levers arisies from the timing between the actions of lever 3 and the escapement being dsturbed by a distortion of the fixing pins that attach them into the lever body.
Any attempt to free up the motion of lever 3 might risk causing that distortion, either through the use of force, or the use of aggressive penetrating oils which may attack the plastic composite that the pivot pins are anchored in.
However, if the fault is not a seized lever 3 at all (and I should say that we have never seen that in an Escape lever) then there is a possibility of repair - which is why we suggest the option of sending us the lever. Whilst Campagnolo no longer supply full spares, we still have a fairly complete selection, although we no longer have the body shells themselves, having long ago run out of stock.
Lever 3 problems in Escape are usually related to the part of the lever that is designed to hold the spring loaded ratchet still whilst the escapement disengages from it not meeting the ratchet correctly, so lever 3 will not depress or will only depress a very small amount.
This can have several causes, but lever 3 & escapement pivot alignment is one of them.
As a result of these complications, our default position is that Escape levers are not repairable - as when repair is carried out, other than in comparatively rare circumstances, we can't guarantee function.
Pre 2007 units are another thing entirely.
The most common lever 3 fault with these (if one discounts general vagueness or failure of shift) is that the pivot that allows the drive pawl on lever 3 into contact with the ratchet on the cable bushing (as we refer to the part that sets the index interval) can seize. In this case there are two fixes - a new lever 3, or sometimes the use of penetrating oil and a lot of movement of the pivot to free it up is successful.
The essential difference that can be seen without removing the lever from the bike is that lever 3 is of all-plastic construction in an Escape lever, and there is no visible metal ratchet adjacent to it (plus the hood, if the correct one is fitted, has a simple, small, tear-drop shaped hole in it through which the lever passes).
Non-Escape levers have a lever 3 which has a plastic upper part that the thumb presses, but a metal chassis that also carries a pawl that engages on a metal ratchet as lever 3 is depressed. The correct hood is slotted for lever 3 to emerge as it's travel is much longer than in the case of the Escape type.
We would, as a general policy, always prefer to repair than to replace if function can be assurred, whether we are looking at an Escape-type or a non-Escape ErgoPower unit.
Kind regards
Graeme
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berty bassett
Legendary Member
- Location
- I'boro
blimey - what an answer ! now are you sure 
accountantpete
OAP
You are correct - but Campy retained the old design for the top models built after 2007.
That video shows the Record with old style design. These are perfectly repairable.
For lesser models the escape mech differed and the thumb shifter was permanently fixed to the shell of the shifter as Graeme says.
You can try to fix these with some filing of the stops on the plastic drum but it is not a perfect solution.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
@Graeme_FK thanks for a very comprehensive reply. Not sure if campagnolo is misleading people with those videos or no. I have two sets of 2010 Veloce Ultra-shift shifters and I always thought that they were repairable. I'm so glad I managed to get hold of a brand new set of 2006 record shifters.
accountantpete, thanks for pointing out that a Record shifter was being used in the video and that they maintained the design from pre 2007. That helps to clarify things for me.
goody
Veteran
- Location
- Carshalton
When my Veloce shifters started playing up I didn't want to send them off for repair as I use the bike almost every day. Bought a new pair from Ribble for about £68 which includes a new cable set and sold the old pair (describing the fault fully) on ebay for £40ish. I was a bit disappointed that they couldn't be repaired easily as two broken 105 sti units was what made me go with Campag in the first place.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
Similar decision here although I now prefer Campy to Shimano.
It's disappointed that only the best shifters from Campagnolo are made to last, my understanding is that Veloce and others are made with plastic components.
oldroadman
Veteran
- Location
- Ubique
That's two Americanisms in this thread, the abbreviation is Campag.......
Campy best describes certain TV presenters!
Old bloke pedant mode off. Time for a little potter in the cold.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
I get it, using the term as I've seen it being used. Not trying to appear american at all.
youngoldbloke
The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
Me too. Looked into getting it repaired (RH shifter only had a major problem - would drop all the way through the cassette when you wanted to get a higher gear), but it was not cost effective. Mine were 2007.
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goody
Veteran
- Location
- Carshalton
That's how mine failed and the replacements seem to be going the same way, changing up a gear to the smaller rear sprockets seems very 'light'.
