Campagnolo early Gran Sport derailleur setup

[Uncle Monty]

Re:

After a bit of mucking about I have re-fitted the 14-22 Regina and re set the derailleur. Shifting is much better. I have a lot of noise, but I am using the old steel toothless jockey wheels. Some gears are quieter than others. I still have some slack in the chain when it is crossed 22-52, so I think to avoid the washing line effect on 14-42, I need to remove a few more links and get it just up to the rip the mech off stage. A bit of care will then be required to make sure I never use the large cog and ring together. One functioning brake, no bar tape, a pair of SPD pedals and flip flops. Quick test ride - seems quite nice. No I have not glued the tubs on either. The Brooks is bloody awful though. It has two well defined dents for your sit bones, and I guess my pelvis must be not dissimilar to the former owners. But the centre of the saddle tries to cut me in half! The Simplex lever is OK. I may keep that, but it uses a cable with a different end. Instead of exiting the base of a small cylinder a la campagnolo, the cable exits radially. Existing Bowden is really slim. I think a new piece would be a good idea. I guess my only option is make a brass end and solder a cable in? Rear Derailleur, I am going to use a L/H campagnolo lever on a band and probably secure a plastic guide under the bb shell with silicone.

Small cog to small chainring.

Large to large

Pulled tight

Current progress


I need to make a saddle washer for the rear brake and source some crank bolt caps. Pedals, clips and straps can be sorted when suitable parts turn up. Excuse the pedals and overly long gear outer. All temporary at the moment.

 

[Old Ned]

Large/large is not a good idea with any rear mech never mind a Gran Sport, even with modern flexible 10/11 speed chains.

Regarding operating the front mech, is it possible to source a single sided left hand band-on lever, especially a Campag one? I can't say I've ever seen one but I'm ready to be told that they are available! BITD, many riders used a Campag handlebar control lever on the left to operate the front mech with a DT one on the right. Another option - which I've only ever seen a guy named Ken Mitchell use in an early 50's Tour de France - was to have a standard DT lever operating the front mech - and have the lever positioned on the inside of his handlebars immediately below his left hand brake lever. I've no idea how effective this was! You can probably Google a photo or find one in a TdF book.

And the cable routing for front mech. Why not just run it over the underside of the BB shell, exiting between the chainstays and straight to the mech clamp bolt? I've done this for years (as have lots of people) and it is very smooth in operation.

 

[Uncle Monty]

Re:

Hi Ned.

Yes - I would rather have the correct tension on the 42 - 14 combination which is quite likely to be used than compromise to allow for a combination that should really never occur.

It is possible to get Campagnolo single sided L/H levers - I have just bought one. It should look fine mounted just above the R/H braze on boss, which is specific size, shape and thread for Simplex. I would have to make irreversible modifications to fit a Campagnolo lever straight on, or carry out a lot of work on a lever and make parts just to have them matching.

I was going to run the cable as you describe under the BB shell. There is no tapped hole to secure a modern plastic cable guide plate and again I don't want to make modifications to the frame. The guides do a nice job, and really the cable should hold it in place. I will just put a small blob of silicone rubber between the guide and BB shell as belt and braces. You can just use a noodle of plastic sleeve to do the same job. The cable will as you say run up between the stays, through the little integral guide and clamp on the derailleur.

I think I am going to find myself a 14-24 just in case....

 

[Bob w/ Gillott & Ephgrave]

I am using a Gran Sport on a 5-speed Regina freewheel on my newly restored 1951 Gillott but am having trouble with the Campag as it keeps jumping out of gear and always climbs down to the smallest sprocket as soon as I start pedalling. I am using a lever with a high-friction return but that hasn’t helped. Can anyone out there offer any advice or tell me whether it is possible to adjust the rear mech. somehow? It's a bit frustrating to be limited to one speed only!

 

[keithglos]

I have seen frames flexible enough to pull the cable every time you pedal.
Check by standing by the side of the bike and putting some weight on a pedal.
If so you could use cable outer for some of the cable route.

 

[Bob w/ Gillott & Ephgrave]

Many thanks: I'll have a look.

 

[Bob w/ Gillott & Ephgrave]

Hi again. I've studied it but can see no discernible deflection. It seems to me that the return spring is applying too much force for the lever to work against but I don't see any way of adjusting that. Does anybody else have any ideas?

 

[jim haseltine]

I'd say there's something wrong with your lever, there's no way that a Campag return spring from that era should be strong enough to pull a correctly setup and adjusted friction lever.

 

[keithglos]

Perhaps the flat blued washer is not in the lever .
This is deflected by the chrome outer convex washer to create adjustable friction.

 

[Old Ned]

I would say that Keith's suggestion is a distinct possibilty. There should be a spring steel washer with the 'oval' cutout to go on first, then the thick chromed washer with the domed inner face and then the securing screw. Later versions of the Campag DT lever seem to have a plastic 'inner' washer to provide resistance to the lever but these are much later productions than the Gran Sport era.