Following yet another unexplained puncture using my 2005 vintage Tacx Flow, my patience has run out and I have decided to try and move from wheel-on to direct drive trainer – specifically the Kickr Core is top of my list.
The bike I am using for indoor riding is a 2003 Kinesis Racelight with Campagnolo 9 speed Veloce gears.
Dropouts on the bike are normal 130mm quick release so mounting the bike on the Kickr Core should be no problem.
I had initially thought about getting the Campag freehub for the Core but the specs say 10 speed and above - I believe the old 9 speed cassettes will not physically fit on, so that idea bites the dust.
Next idea is to use a current model 9 speed Shimano cassette (e.g. Sora or Alivio). From what I have read I think 9 speed Campag has 0.2mm wider spacing per sprocket – in other words, with a Shimano cassette the indexing will effectively move the rear mech 0.2mm too far on each shift.
Does anyone have experience of using a 9 speed Shimano cassette with 9 speed Campag mech and shifters? I’m using ERG mode most of the time and am I’m looking for a pragmatic / workable solution rather than shifting perfection. I would be more than happy if I could get (say) the middle 5 sprockets working OK.
In the context of trainer rather than outdoor usage, is the non-perfect shifting likely to be good enough? I should be able to use the barrel adjuster on the mech to get correct alignment on say sprocket 5, that would have my mis-aligned by 0.4mm on sprockets 3 and 7. Is that going to be within useable tolerances?
I think that first 5 sprockets of the Sora cassettes are a single piece but I could always experiment with shims to space out 6,7, 8 & 9. Alternatively, I am aware of the existence of the shiftmate adaptor but would rather not use one if I don’t have too – I want to keep it as quick and easy as possible to get the bike back into “outdoors mode”.
Any thoughts of experience greatly received. Part of me wonders if I’m over-thinking the whole thing and worrying about something which will work “good enough” out of the box.
Campy 9-speed cassettes and 10-speed should be interchangeable. I use 9-speed on my winter outdoor bike because 10-speed chains wear out ridiculously fast from the sand they use in my area when it occasionally snows. My summer bike uses 10-speed components. It takes about five minutes to swap cassettes and switch wheels if a spoke breaks or the rim is damaged (I’m a big guy and used to get rim cracks at the spokes).
Campy ergo shifters are also convertible between 9 and 10 speed by swapping one or two parts.
Thanks for the info, yes, a Campag free hub and 10 speed cassette would work, probably perfectly although at the moment I am struggling to find a 10 speed cassette with 4 splines at a sensible price.
If I can get a few gears running fairly well that will be enough for my needs, hence I am hoping I can get away with a slightly bodged setup using a cheapish Shimano cassette.
Just wondering if anyone else has tried something similar and how good or otherwise the results have been?
Going back to the original reason to change (if it is the REAL reason of course), have all the punctures been with the same tyre? Trying a new tyre could be a much cheaper alternative. I had to consign a perfectly good road tyre to the bin because I kept getting punctures, but could find absolutely nothing in it to cause them despite several detailed examinations.
@Chico, Thanks for your thoughts and you are right that it’s not the only reason for the change. Before consigning the wheel-on to history my plan had been to try a few more things but the timing of this most recent puncture was just the straw that broke the camels back!
Interesting that you have had similar experience. The main tyre in question is a continental trainer tyre which has been examined very carefully other things I have tried include:
Replace tyre with a cheap road tyre, plus brand new tube and rim tape. Worked for a while then punctured
Put the trainer tyre back on, plus new tube. Punctures after a variable time, punctures are in different locations and again careful examination of everything
Make sure everything has talcum powder on it
Make sure nothing has talcum powder on it(!)
Different brands of inner tube
Two layers of rim tape
The rim is a Mavic MA2 which has never been used outside and is in perfect condition. The last option I was going to try was a well used spare Campag Scriocco rear wheel I have - that may have cured things and perhaps there is something odd going on with the Mavic wheel. I will probably never know!
The most recent install held pressure for a couple of days unused, completed a 1 hour ride OK, sat for a couple more days holding pressure, I topped back up to 100PSI and punctured somewhere near the end of a 1 hour ride.
I have now ordered a Shimano HG400 9 Speed 11-25 cassette - I’ll report back once I’ve got it all set up on the Kickr Core (which I don’t have yet). Going from largest to smallest I think the HG400 has a single block of 5 sprockets, then two individual sprockets with spacers then two sprockets that interlock (then the lock ring). If need be there is some scope for adjusting the spacing.
Just to give an update on this, I now have the Kickr Core and have got everything setup - it works!
I can reach all 9 gears without issue, the central 5 work perfectly, going one more either way is fine but slight hesitation. The two extremes are a little worse but once you have shifted they are fine, can’t imagine needing them anyway so no issue and no point in running any unnecessary risks jumping the chain off either end of the cassette
If I was using Shimano throughout the setup would be 1.85mm spacer (Wahoo supplied) then cassette then lockring.
Setup I have gone for (numbering sprockets from largest to smallest):
1.4mm spacer
Sprockets 1 to 5 (supplied as a single block)
0.2mm spacer plus Shimano spacer
Sprocket 6
0.2mm spacer plus Shimano spacer
Sprockets 7 to 9
Lockring
The thinner initial spacer means I should have the same number of turns on the lockring - the cassette is very secure.
As per Campag instructions I used the barrel adjuster to line the mech up to sprocket 6.
Probably wouldn’t want to use this setup on the road, but for the purposes of an indoor trainer it works a lot better than I had feared it might.
On a slight tanget, having just ridden Recharger, the Kickr core is brilliant. Much Much better feel than my old Wheel-on Tacx Flow.
