Campag/Sachs experts here?

[mattsccm]

I have always assumed the the Sachs badged Ergo shifters I have were 8 speed. I have found no indications anywhere to suggest other wise including at least a dozen years of use.
Now setting them up on another bike I find they they over shift into the spokes. Hmm. So I set the gear stop and sort it but in the process find that the Ergo's have 8 clicks. ie Starting at the smallest cog I can shift to the biggest of 8 and then 1 more click. I am damn sure that there was no way of converting 8 speed Ergos to 9 but has any one come across 9 speed Sach badged Ergo's? I was told by Mercian that they were either Chorus or Record spec, having the Carbon BB graphic on them.

 

[pigman]

maybe someone has put a different ratchet system into them to make em 9 speed. Campag has the advantage that you can buy spring and ratchet kits to make any ergo lever any speed. A fiddly, job, but can be done by a confident bike DIYer.

 

[hamster]

You can swap the ratchet units as pigman says. My 1994 ergos (originally 8 speed) have 9 speed ratchets inside.

It's not a hugely big job to do the conversion. As far as I know, the Sachs versions had Shimano-compatible 8 speed indexing, so yours might now be Campag-compatible.

There is a kind of click at the end of the ratchet above top gear which is an overshift to make sure that the change occurs - the lever then returns to the top gear. Setting the end stops on the derailleur will stop it shifting into the wheel anyway.

 

[mattsccm]

Thats news to me. Everyone I have spoken to including, Mercian say that 8 to 9 speed doesn't work. The ratchets are not compatible. Have yet to decide on the actual indexing. I always assumed that everything was standard as they index on 8 speed Shimano perfectly. Just come back and they were real sweet. However the other wheels for the bike are Campag 8 speed and once I had set the little sprocket to the same distance from the dropout as the other wheels they are identical to feel.Without looking I can't tell whch wheels are in there. .2 of a mil I suppose is less than the play in a chain or mech.
Hang about. Am I right in saying Mercian as importers in the past of Campag or do I mean some one else? Either way it was the importer I spoke to and who offered me rebuilds of everything except 8 to 9.
The plot thickens

 

[pigman]

it is (was?) mercian who perform the conversion, so it would appear you spoke to knowledgeable people. I'll back off on this one, on the grounds that I've never actually done one, so might be innaccurate. If you look on the ctc forum, there are some conversion experts on there who may be able to answer your query.

 

[hamster]

To go into some more detail, there are two types of 9 speed, pre'01 and later. Mine were definitely done with pre-'01 ratchets.
I'm told (but haven't done it) that there is some filing to do on the earlier ergos to take the later ratchet unit. Campag also changed some elements of their ergos over the years even though the exterior appearance was the same. For example, I understand that a lot changed between 1994 and 95, certainly there are fewer springs and washers in my 1994 Record compared to later pointy top types.