New project, new dilemma

A friend has donated my an unloved bike. It's a late '90s Ribble 753. The frame has some surface rust, but I can scratch down to good metal so I'll be getting it blasted and sprayed at some stage.

The components present a bit of a dilemma. It's 8 speed Record, apart from the crank which has been replaced by an alloy compact Veloce.

The brakes are a bit stiff, but in OK condition, so I'll clean them up.

The rims are Open SUP CD with little wear because the previous owner is a fearless descender. They'll be re-used.

The hubs are probably Record, but have a lot of play, including in the freehub.

The levers are Record, and are scratched and slightly fluffy on the indexing.

The mechs are alloy Record and are good.

So the dilemma: do I refurb the rear hub and shifters and stick with the 8 speed, or rebuild the wheel with a 9 speed Daytona hub I have and get some 9 or 10 speed shifters.

I suspect the latter will be cheaper and easier - I don't really know where to start with the hub.

Question: will the 8 speed rear mech work in a 9 or 10 speed setup? It would be a real shame if not, it's a really nice one with ti parts.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Yeah rebuild the wheel if you have the parts anyway and not sure how to go about refurbing what is on it, sell those on Ebay or here and it'll help fund the project. Although I'm not sure it would be cheaper to replace all those parts rather than refurb the hub...

I don't honestly know whether the 8 speed mech will work with an 9 or 10 speed set up, I would imagine so as it is only a matter of adjusting the travel. I'm sure that someone on here must have some first hand experience.

I'd guess the mech wont work. When campag first went 9 speed, their mechs were compatible with both 8 & 9 speeds and the 9 speed ergos were suited to those mechs running on a 9 cassette. This is commonly known as 20th century campag. After the turn of the century, they revamped 9 speed with new ergos and mechs(known as 21st century campag), which arent compatible with the old (20th cent) stuff. But I believe the 9 speed hubs and cassettes are the same. So you could buy new campag hubs and a 9 speed cassette and providing the mech throws far enough you'd be ok, BUT its gonna damn hard to find 20th century 9 speed ergo levers, which are rare and command good prices.

However, the ergos are rebuildable (welcome to the world of Campag, not like the nasty disposable fishing tackle ).

You can get new insides for them, which are identical fit for 8 and 9 speed and enable you to modernise old shifters. Mercian cycles do them, also they do a rebuild service for the ergos for around £30 if I remember right.

I run a set of 9s Record ergos which originally started life as 8s.

Absolutely correct. You can make all 8-speed ergos into 9 speed but you can't make Pre-2000 9 speed ergos into Post-2000 9 or 10 speed.

TBH.... I'd stick with the 8-speed as cassettes are still readily available. You should be able to refurbish the FH body with new bearings if necessary.

Thanks all, this is interesting!

I dissasembled the hub last night and it's pretty bad, although I'm sure it can be re-built. The shifters need to be serviced anyway, so I might get them done to 9-speed and rebuild the wheel with a nice NOS Daytona 9-speed hub I have in the parts box. That way I get to keep the mech and shifters and can swap in wheels from my other bikes if need be.

You got any pictures of this heap chief?

dbmtb":1zrc4jhl said:

Absolutely correct. You can make all 8-speed ergos into 9 speed but you can't make Pre-2000 9 speed ergos into Post-2000 9 or 10 speed.

Click to expand...

Certainly any post 1998 lever (rounded top) can be upgraded to 10s.
Apparently it works for the older pointy top ones, even though the Campag website says it cannot be done - but I won't confirm that as I have not seen it for myself.

Byercycles were doing Campag 8s cassettes for around £32 the other week.