10 speed rear mech with 9 speed drivetrain

[pedalsheep]

Will a Campag Veloce 10 speed medium cage rear mech work ok with 9 speed Veloce shifters, 9 speed cassette, front mech and chain and TA Carmina triple chainset? Silver Campag 9 speed rear mechs in good condition are very hard to find but there are plenty of 10 speed ones available. Some people have said it will be fine but I am concerned I may be just asking for trouble.

[foxyrider]

well i'd certainly run it and I've gone the other way too using 10s for 11s.

Some of the latest incarnations may not work well - or so I've read.

[Keezx]

Any 10 speed Campagnolo rear mech is compatible with any Campagnolo 9 speed drive train after 2000. (levers with rounded hoods_)

[Brucey]

so 'old' ergos look like this



and are compatible with pre-2000 mechs (which are 8s and 9s) and don't work with 10s mechs because they have a different shift ratio.

Post 2000 ergos look like this



and these are compatible with 10s mechs, so you can use 9s ergos that look like this with a 9s cassette and a 10s rear mech.

So it would all be very simple when buying rear mechs except that in several campag gruppos there are post 2000 mechs that are labelled as '9s' but have the same shift ratio as 10s mechs. The other thing that can catch you out is that with used ergos, they may have been converted internally to a different specification.

edit the other way of telling which flavour of RD you have is to look at the 'B' tension screw adjustment. 'Old' campag 9s mechs look a bit like shimano ones, i.e. they have a 'b' tension screw on the upper knuckle, like this (RD-RE018)



whereas 10s (i.e post-2000) mechs have a tension screw adjustment (that does the same job) on the lower pivot instead.

cheers

[pedalsheep]

Thanks guys.
My Ergos are the post 2000 type and the rear mech would be the most recent Veloce 10 speed model as they are the most widely available so it sounds as though it should all work fine.

[AndyK]

I've been running a Xenon 10-speed rear mech with my 9-speed Veloce levers and cassette for some time now. It works for me.