Campagnolo Ergopower Shifter Rebuild: My First Attempt
Standard Bike Repair’s Philosophy of Watch/Help/Learn sprinkled into the story of Tulio Campagnolo’s focus on Quality and Repair-able Components
Campagnolo is the one of the few brands of bicycle part manufacturers that design their products to be rebuilt. A bike mechanic’s enthusiasm for repair services is a function of his outlook on life plus the ingredients of the bike. By ingredients, we mean “Is there quality bike parts on this bike?” If the mechanic has a bad outlook on life and the bike you brought him is a dirty piece of junk, he is going to be mad. We know that you need your bike fixed and we will do it. At Standard Bike Repair, Ryan is a less angry mechanic because he involves you, the customer, in the tune-up. We call it “Watch/Help/Learn”. It is a by-the-hour service that fixes your bike on-the-spot. Even though, one of the main reasons that Ryan considers himself “a less angry bike mechanic” is the fact that the customer helps fix their own bike, you do not have to don an apron, wear gloves, bust out the brass bristled brush, grab a rag, roll up your sleeves, tie back the hair, and hang bike into the repair stand. Watch/Help/Learn, an on-the-spot service, is still available if you would like to sit and chat or grab a workbench and hook up to the wi-fi. Tea and coffee are a standard if you are there for more than a half hour.
Many people like to wear aprons, help us clean the bike, and use the simple tools to make the fine tuning adjustments. Our slogan is “We clean your bike. We fix your bike. You will like your bike better.” If you bring us a dirty bike, the joke is on you, because you have to help us clean it. By ingredients, we mean bike parts. When the issue is with a Campagnolo component, he is comforted knowing that the product was built with intelligence and meant to be fixed. Many bike parts theses days are considered to be disposable.
Boring Life of a Bike Mechanic
Life as a bike mechanic can get boring. Half of everybody has the same junky bike parts. Fixing them because they are dirty. The rest of you are racers, serious commuters, and mountain bikers. When Campagnolo walks through the door, you get a whiff of old time where bikes were steel and rear derailleurs either worked well or they didn’t. Quality components had a competitive advantage and the eminently repair-able Campagnolo name stamped on the cover.
Tulio Campagnolo designed his components to be repaired from the start. Even Super Record EPS 11sp shifters can be fixed with the know-how and parts. But I don’t know how to fix those yet. I feel like an elegant machinist when I have a vintage Campagnolo bike in the stand.
Today, we are going to look at the mechanisms of the Campagnolo Ergopower shifter lever. You may notice a lack of written step-by-step instructions. That is because it is hard to explain. Your best bet to learning this is to simply watch the video a lot.
Tullio Campagnolo, the founder of Campy, started as a racer and shifted to building better bikes for himself and others.
Bike parts riveted in rivets sheathed in plastic are dead-ends. Traveling through the annals of a Campy shifter is like discovering new places to go in an underground mine that is operating like a giant mouse trap game.
The Campagnolo Ergopower shifter is a 2-in-1 mechanism. It can operate the brakes and pull the gear cable to maneuver a derailleur.
The shifter/brake lever that sits on the cyclist’s left side when he is in the saddle runs the brake on the front wheel and the front derailleur which pulls the chain up and down the chainrings on the crank. The crank is the spider shaped component that holds the chainrings and extends into two crank arms that hold the pedals.
If you would like to see the Ergo lever parts breakdown, check out the link.
The purpose of this article is to share with you what I learned from taking apart an 8 speed Veloce lever.
The keys to this project are: taking the shifter apart and laying the pieces down sequentially along the table while maintaining a clear headspace and workstation.
- Watching the word-less Campagnolo Shifter Rebuild Video multiple times. Geniuses will understand how to load the springs from the first watch. I watched it 50 times. It took me three to fours hours from start to finish.
Rebuild Tool List: Time, Patience, Needle Nose Pliers, 5mm, 3mm
The first thing to do when something is broken is to take it apart. Then clean it and put it back together.
All the shifters are basically the same. No matter which speed or side of the handlebar the integrated brake and shifter sits on.
Watching this YouTube video with a two hour block of time was all I needed to put the shifter back together.
A third and final link to visit on the hows and whys of Campy shifter rebuilds.
To find Campagnolo shifter lever parts: visit the online giant:Euro-Asia Imports, Doug at Branford Bikes or Jim at Vecchio’s. .
According to Wikipedia, ErgoPower Shifter Levers came about in 1992. From 1992, whether they be 8,9,10 or 11speed, the basic mechanism with the three springs has not changed. For instance, the video, shows the rebuild for a 2008 Campagnolo 10sp shifter lever. Ryan’s first and only shifter lever that he worked was for an 8speed rear cassette. Fundamentally, the 8sp and 10sp are the same.
If you are wondering how Ryan gets the gumption to teach something after only doing it successfully, wonder no more: he did not know how to tighten a brake cable when he started Standard Bike Repair. And after the first bicycle wheel that he built, he attempted to teach a Wheel Building class the next week.
