Is it just me but is it more sensitive than anything in the whole world to set up?

The other thing I have found is that there is a small amount of play between cassette and free hub but lock nut is bar taught and definitely no play in freehub which is a mavic aksium with under 150 miles on it. 0.5-1mm I would guess on largest sprocket.

Is this normal as I cannot help thinking this isn’t helping my skipping drive train.

All parts barely worn/used and its xenon 9speed

Any top tips for setting up? Any road specific issues I may not have though t of?

I know how to set up gears (a total drive train swap on the mtb would normally take about an hour mechs and all) but I am finding this stuff a total git

Put the spacer behind the cassette-problem solved.

Indexing wise, 9speed campag is about as easy as it gets IMO. Could it possibly be that the cable is the wrong side of the clamp on the mech or cable kinked?

Thanks.

No spacer. Struck me as odd so checked the instructions for the wheels and it says no spacer (none on the old wheel either).

Pretty sure the routing is ok but will double check tomorrow.

It’s campag-what the manufacturer says will work & what actually works can often be quite different-it is Italian after all!

Indexing wise, I’m afraid I don’t know what else to suggest as it’s usually as straight forward as anything else.
Assume you’ve checked the obvious such as wheel in the dropouts properly, mech hanger is perfectly straight, correct chain etc?

Thanks gw.

All the kit is original apart from the shifters (which were replaced like with like following a car bike interface).

I bought the bike new 8 years ago and barely road it until last summer then didn’t use it much again until this month after the collision with a car. It’s probably done 500-1000 miles in all.

” (none on the old wheel either) ”

was the old wheel an Aksium ?

goldenwonder – Member

It’s campag-what the manufacturer says will work & what actually works can often be quite different-it is Italian after all!

based on what? cars?

if you are running old mavic askiums and 9speed campag IIRC there is a spacer required as mavic had a funny freewheel

Most Mavic wheels need a spacer.

Ill be surprised if aksiums dont

Tried a spacer and double checked the instructions. Spacer for big S not for campag.

Put a generic spacer in to be sure (c 1mm thick) and cassette falls off outer end. Put the cassette on the old wheel and it snugs up just fine.

Beginning to have suspicions that the free hub or bearings may be the issue.

One or two experiments left to try but that’s for the morning.

Thanks all. They are nearly new askiums (2014 model year) so old rules I guess don’t apply.

I know about the spacers more generally from other mavic wheels I have (shimano) hence why I checked the manual.

big_n_daft – Member
goldenwonder – Member
It’s campag-what the manufacturer says will work & what actually works can often be quite different-it is Italian after all!

based on what? cars?
Based on over 10 years in the bike trade as a mechanic.

Not changed the cable routing from the ergo ?
That can “upset” them too … if the curves are particularly tight radius

Campag of that era is bomb proof and so easy to get right. I was going to say that it will be hub related.

A bit late to this party, sorry 😳

You need to check the freehub is tight (remove non-drive side cap, 10mm Allen key in making sure it’s seated correctly – 5mm Allen key in drive side then try and tighten). If that doesn’t sort out the play then it’s new freehub time.

I doubt it’s Campag to blame, Italian it may be but boy does it work.

[edit] Should have said, I may not have 10 years experience wrenching in a bike shop but I do have the hands of the most cack-handed person you’re ever likely to meet, if I can get it to work faultlessly, without any faff then it’s Campag all the time for me (once indexed, that I manage to do first time, then it never needs adjusting until I replace the cables yearly).

I’ve just gone through all this with my Roubaix SL4 with Ultegra.

Firstly there shouldn’t be any play between the cassette and the freehub, that lockring should lock everything down tight. You may need a spacer.

Replace the cable outer where it curves round to the mech as they get rusted and crudded up. Fit a quality inner cable, Shimano are good ones. Most importantly get the hanger alignment checked; my bike got blown over by a gust of wind and last night my buddy and I checked and found the checking gauge to be about 12mm out from the rim at 12:00 when set on the rim at 6:00. There was corresponding impact damage to the finish on the mech. Finally check the B screw isn’t screwed in too far; too great a clearance between upper jockey wheel and cassette means shifting will be less precise. A bit of careful bending and a new cable, unscrew of the B screw and the shifting is now much more nappy and precise. Shimano’s 10 speed “hidden cable” shifters aren’t their finest so let’s see how it all works on the next ride.

Mavics have a specific spacer that you must use.

to throw my hat into the campag debate. I have 3 year old chorus. maybe done 15,000 on my road bike. 4 chains. never had to re-index, or alter front or rear mech…

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/mavic-freehub-body

read the comments …

for 9 speed campag on ed11 you need the spacer.

a 0.55mm spacer. NOT a 1mm spacer.

Thanks again everyone. Spacer or not the free hub is definitely on the move (couldn’t see it in artificial light but in day light it was much more obvious).

As they are only 150miles old the lbs is going to look at warranty and check spacer issue too which may be further complicated by the fact its a Miche cassette (to fit campag).

Looks like I may be on the old rear for a week or two which will give me a better work out spinning what feels like a 3kg rim!

Ah, it’s a Miche cassette. I have never had great shifting from them . The chain always hesitates to drop into the next sprocket.

” Put a generic spacer in to be sure (c 1mm thick) and cassette falls off outer end “

So without the 1mm spacer, the cassette has side to side play, and when you fit this spacer, which pushes the cassette only 1mm outward, the smallest sprocket falls off the end ?

How’s that possible ?

BTW – I have ’09 Aksiums with an old 8spd Record cassette, and it needs the 1mm spacer. 9spd Campag cassettes are 1.3mm wider (they’re 38.2mm), so in theory you shouldn’t need the Mavic spacer. Can you measure the width of the Miche cassette ?

One issue you might have is that the Campag freehub that Mavic fitted to Aksiums has very thin splines so that it can fit everything from modern day 10 speed Campag srockets, right down to old 8 speed Exadrive sprockets (which is why I bought my Aksiums incidentally). In my opinion, these freehubs don’t give as quite a snug fit as dedicated Campag freehubs with Campag sprockets of the same generation. So this could mean that Miche sprockets are an even ‘wobblier’ fit, so it might be compounding the issue. That’s just though….could be completely wrong of course !