Cycling UK Forum

drossall wrote:I'd want to see whether I could keep it going. Sounds a nice bike.

Odd that it's mated with a Shimano rear wheel. Shimano and Campagnolo have different shift ratios. Now the thing that matters is the cassette - you'd normally expect a Shimano rear wheel to take a Shimano cassette, and I'm not totally clear whether you can get a Campagnolo freehub for a Shimano rear wheel.

If the gear levers are Campag 10 speed and the rear wheel/hub is Shimano 9 speed then it would work.
That's the combination I have on my three bikes and the gears shift flawlessly.

Thanks to every one of you who has taken the time to reply. It's helped a lot. I'll hang on at the mo' to see whether to split the S-Works until the cold light of day. Perhaps I can post a few images to help explain what I have. And I'll root out the Aldi special and have another bash on it. The biggest difference I found is that it takes lots of effort to go, and loses speed very fast, if that makes sense.
G'night all.

at dealer rates it is certainly not an economic proposition to fix the thing you have. However depending on just how bad it really is (it may be unfixably bad) it may or may not be a dead loss if you are wondering if you ought to do it up DIY style eg using a mix of new and secondhand parts.

For example new head bearings in the headset might cost you £20 and the shifting mismatch may not even be a problem. Even if it is, a small tweak to the way the cable is positioned in the RD pinch bolt may resolve it. New cassette and chain (they are consumables anyway and shimano 9s is hardly expensive) and maybe a replacement wheelset (used but almost new R500 wheels cost about £50 a pair) and you have a working bike pretty much.

You can use any cycling/bike to experiment with riding position; best to get good advice about this. Even with good advice you probably won't get the bike and/or the riding position right first time; it is all part of the learning curve.

cheers

ibgarrow wrote:Thanks to every one of you who has taken the time to reply. It's helped a lot. I'll hang on at the mo' to see whether to split the S-Works until the cold light of day. Perhaps I can post a few images to help explain what I have. And I'll root out the Aldi special and have another bash on it. The biggest difference I found is that it takes lots of effort to go, and loses speed very fast, if that makes sense.
G'night all.

If you're mountain bike has wide knobbly tyres you could change then to something more suitable for road use. This could buy you a bit of time to look around for a better bike that will suit your needs.

bogmyrtle wrote:

ibgarrow wrote:Thanks to every one of you who has taken the time to reply. It's helped a lot. I'll hang on at the mo' to see whether to split the S-Works until the cold light of day. Perhaps I can post a few images to help explain what I have. And I'll root out the Aldi special and have another bash on it. The biggest difference I found is that it takes lots of effort to go, and loses speed very fast, if that makes sense.
G'night all.

If you're mountain bike has wide knobbly tyres you could change then to something more suitable for road use. This could buy you a bit of time to look around for a better bike that will suit your needs.

Sensible advice. A heavy MTB frame with knobbly tyre will have a lot of rolling resistance and will slow down quickly on uphills. I have a tandem (all be it a short wheel base one) and when it was loaded with child and kit it would slow down very rapidly on anything that was anything other than completely flat......

But it is certainly worth using the MTB for a while giving you breathing space to look around and decide what you may want...

If you feel you are 'over the front wheel' on the S-works, it might be that you are unused to the position... it might also be that the frame is too small? Too short on the length of the top tube....

Good luck

I agree with the above posts. Put some slicks on the MTB and ride it. I'd also try to work with the S works. the first thing is whether it fits you.

Member 531colin has a DIY guide to bike fitting here http://wheel-easy.org.uk/wp-content/upl ... -2017a.pdf that might help with the S works.

If it is not the right size, by all means sell it. If it is the right size, I might consider keeping it.

The dealer will prefer to sell you a new bike. Getting the bits for the old one can be a hassle, especially as it's a bit hodge-podge. That makes them work for their money. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the best thing for you or your money.

It may be worth finding out what's under the decal.

OK.
Got a pair of R500s with an Ultegra 10-speed cassette in good nick. Ordered head bearings and new chain. Let's see what comes out...

OK. Just to repeat that a (Shimano) Ultegra cassette is not designed to work with Campagnolo 10-speed gears - different spacings. But you can try.

ibgarrow wrote:OK.
Got a pair of R500s with an Ultegra 10-speed cassette in good nick. Ordered head bearings and new chain. Let's see what comes out...

Also be aware that as a chain wears so do the parts it articulates around ie the chain rings and regularly used sprockets... a new chain may not mix with worn components.

let me get over getting all this stuff done first, then I'll see whether I need to replace the front chainring(s)! Hopefully not.

ibgarrow wrote:let me get over getting all this stuff done first, then I'll see whether I need to replace the front chainring(s)! Hopefully not.

Good luck, oh and welcome to the forum.

It looks a really good bike.Assuming the frame is ok , and it is your size, then a budget set of wheels and maybe replacement groupset would have it as good as new. If you do not go this route , the bike will need a good service which will cost over £100 and will not cover bits that need replacing and so will not be a complete fix.

drossall wrote:I'd want to see whether I could keep it going. Sounds a nice bike.

you'd normally expect a Shimano rear wheel to take a Shimano cassette, and I'm not totally clear whether you can get a Campagnolo freehub for a Shimano rear wheel. If that's what you have, and if it's a Campagnolo cassette, no problem. If they don't match, it will show up as gears slipping however much they are adjusted.

You can get campag spacers for shimano sprockets, 9 speed cassettes (era of the bike in question) are more frequently found with the through bolts and thus spacers are all seperate. I run my early 90s team replica Gitane with Campagnolo but use a Shimano cassette with campag spacers on the cassette so it's not that difficult.
That said I've seen more Campag wheels with Shimano freehubs than the other way around.

But I agree, ride the bike and maybe get used to its quirks, raise the stem a bit and bring the saddle forward and that might alleviate the feeling of being too far forward. If the OP still doesn't feel right after a few weeks/months it's hardly going to reduce the value of the parts.

I wouldn't scrap the frame anyhow, everything has a value, even one that isn't perfect and I have a pair of Time Composite forks on my Gitane that are still going just fine, there's some value in those 1" forks particularly if the steerer is fairly long.

Where do you get the Campag spacers?

Head bearing advice needed
I've begun to address the head bearings by removing the top bearing cap.
The top bearing inner ring came off too revealing about 20x3mm ball bearings adhered with a stiff, brown paste in the bottom ring
The bearing cap says "sealed bearings"
Q. Do I simply renew the ball bearings, seeing the poor condition of the surfaces they'd run on?
Or can I drift out the bearing itself from the head housing which is Time Millenium?
And if so, any ideas on where I can get new bearings?
Presumably whichever course I take, I repeat for the bottom bearing (which is in a worse-looking state!)