My current road bike has a road 53/39 chainset in the front and a 12-28 on the back.

I am struggling with hills and as its an old campag chainset with a bcd of 135 I can’t run a smaller chainring on the front.

From what I can tell, the cheapest (if not the most elegant solution) is to run a mtb mech and a cassette with 34-36 teeth.

Its running campag 10 speed ergo, so I think I can do 9 speed xt or 10 speed SRAM.

I already have a 9 speed xt mech, is this my best solution or should I get the SRAM and if so why?

thanks

With 10spd Ergos and a shimano mech you’d need to run an 8spd (shimano) cassette so would need a new rear wheel if your current one is campag.

No idea about mixing campag with Sram.

Rear wheel is shimano already, so its just getting bigger gearing really

A #3 one of these… http://jtekengineering.com/resources/shiftmate-compatibility/ will let you run an xt 9spd mech and 10spd with your shifters or a #5 will let you run a Sram mech and 10spd.

How are you managing to run a campag shifter (and presumably mech) with a shimano rear wheel? Assuming it’s not 11 speed?

I have used Campag shifters with a SRAM rear mech on a Shimano wheel and the shifting was ok, but not great.

Your best/easiest/potentially cheapest solution is just to get a compact chainset (providing you don’t mind using a Shimano one).

I was hoping to do the shimergo thing.

There was a thread on the web on the web somewhere.

The only reason not to change to a compact is that I quite like a 36/39 chainring.

Pick a mech, put it on and see what happens. You’re clearly not that fussy when it comes to shifting as campag 10spd shifters / rear mech and a shimano 10spd wheel/cassette really don’t work that well together but you’re clearly happy with it 🙂