Campagnolo Veloce maintenance?

ahardy66 said:

I wanted to ask anyone who's got any experience of Campagnolo Veloce brake lever / gear change integrated units.

Annoyingly my upshifting with the thumb trigger now leaps from low gears to high gears without stopping on the gears in-between which it should when changing up.

I can't find out how to adjust it, my local bike store says I have to replace the whole unit for £200 - is it bust? I can't believe I need new units after relatively low mileage and only 2 1/2 years.

Would really appreciate any advice!

Thanks
Adam

I think your bike shop is giving you a load of [censored]. The first thing you need to do is make sure your derailleurs are properly adjusted. This is an easy task that takes very little time.

Park tool has online guides for working on your bike. Here is one for the rear derailleur, and here's one for the front derailleur.

IMHO, the Campagnolo instructions are better. They are attached below as pdf's.

ahardy66 said:

I wanted to ask anyone who's got any experience of Campagnolo Veloce brake lever / gear change integrated units.

Annoyingly my upshifting with the thumb trigger now leaps from low gears to high gears without stopping on the gears in-between which it should when changing up.

I can't find out how to adjust it, my local bike store says I have to replace the whole unit for £200 - is it bust? I can't believe I need new units after relatively low mileage and only 2 1/2 years.

Would really appreciate any advice!

Thanks
Adam

Ahhhh, another bike shop that is CLUELESS about Campagnolo, what a surprise.

Lever needs an overhaul, replacement of 2 shift springs and maybe a spring carrier. At my shop, that's about $70, IF you need a spring carrier. $60 if you don't.

Find a shop that speaks Campagnolo and can overhaul these levers.

ahardy66 said:

I wanted to ask anyone who's got any experience of Campagnolo Veloce brake lever / gear change integrated units.

Annoyingly my upshifting with the thumb trigger now leaps from low gears to high gears without stopping on the gears in-between which it should when changing up.

I can't find out how to adjust it, my local bike store says I have to replace the whole unit for £200 - is it bust? I can't believe I need new units after relatively low mileage and only 2 1/2 years.

Would really appreciate any advice!

BTW. If the LEFT shifter is labeled 'QS' then some of what has been mentioned may not be applicable [the 'age' of your shifters puts them in THE possible time frame when Veloce shifters were Xenon-based] ...

AFAIK, the 'QS' label on anything other than a CHORUS shifter designates a shifter with the Xenon-based mechanism ... rebuilding a Xenon-based shifter is apparently problematic because of parts availability ... that is, I've never seen anything other than the hoods listed, but that doesn't mean the parts aren't available.

Because the shifters should probably not need servicing if the use has truly been limited -- AND, based on my quick look at the Xenon-based mechanism (if that is what you have) way back when -- then, your best bet is to do some maintenance on your derailleur + cables & cable housing AND/OR consider squirting some of the dreaded WD-40 (!) into the rear portion of the shifter where the thumb-lever exits the body of the shift mechansim just-in-case it is simply a matter of the "escape" mechansim becoming gummed up rather than being worn out.

Cleaning-and-lubing and/or replacing the derailleur cable(s) & housing is periodic maintenance which should be considered regardless of the immediate source of the problem of your shifters.

Thanks for the advice everybody.

There is a "QS" on my left shifter, so I guess it must be Xenon-based then.

I have cleaned up everything, replaced the cables and adjusted it as seems best but this made no difference to the problem here.

I'll try spraying some WD40 into that thumb lever opening - it's gone midnight here so I'll try it tomorrow and hopefully have a positive result to give you.

ahardy66 said:

Thanks for the advice everybody.

There is a "QS" on my left shifter, so I guess it must be Xenon-based then.

I have cleaned up everything, replaced the cables and adjusted it as seems best but this made no difference to the problem here.

I'll try spraying some WD40 into that thumb lever opening - it's gone midnight here so I'll try it tomorrow and hopefully have a positive result to give you.

Less than 3 years old? Get it warrantied.

Peter@vecchios said:

Less than 3 years old? Get it warrantied.

Yes, bought in Sept 2007. Well, actually about six months earlier but the bike shop had to ship the frame back to the makers to get changes made. But I think April 2007 which definitely isn't 3 years.

I'll try the original bike shop then.

And sadly, the old 'squirt a bit of WD40 in the thumb lever' had no effect 🙁

Maybe if they're under warranty I'll get some new ones?!? I just hope they go with it, but the bike shop were I bought it weren't that encouraging during my previous experiences with them.

Hi All,

after the advice you all gave me here, I took the bicycle back to the original bicycle shop where I bought it and fortunately they seemed to know what they were talking about since they said they knew the problem and would send them back to Campagnolo.

I've had a bit of hassle* with this bike shop before so I was wondering if I could get people's opinion on the latest situation with this. So the bicycle shop has had the shifters since mid-December, and I emailed them about this to find out how much longer I'll have to wait. This is the reply I got:

" I have checked with Graham at the UK Campagnolo Service Centre on the progress with your levers. Unfortunately he is still awaiting delivery of the spares from Italy and therefore has not been able to finish the repair. Apparently he has a fair few customers in the same situation. He has assured me that he will update us as soon as he has received the necessary parts. "

Another bike shop said that the warranty is between me and the shop, so they should just replace them - and that the situation with Campag is the bike shop's affair. Is that right?

Secondly Campag repairing them sounds like rubbish since they already told me these shifters cannot be repaired.

Am I being given the run-around? Unfortunately I don't trust this bike shop much. I get the impression they or Campag are hanging around waiting for an old shifter of the same model to turn up - shouldn't they just replace it straight away, with a newer model if they can't provide the same model?

Can I get tough with them or do I just have to wait more?

* for instance typically when the mechanic removed the Campag shifters from the bicycle, he cut through the new gear and brake cables to get them off rather than taking the time to pull the cables out. Presumably that's £15 I'll have to pay to buy new ones. I'd just put new cables on the bike in an attempt to fix the shifter problem.

Does anyone know what my rights are with this (or any) bicycle shop? Are they obliged to replace my Campagnolo shifters by the warranty within a certain time or anything?

Hi

Graeme from the Campagnolo Service Centre in the UK here.
Sorry, I'd not seen this thread before.

Regarding repairs to QS- or "Escape" type shifters ...
The fix from Campagnolo for the problem that you have is a new body complete with internals, or a swap of the existing internals into a new body only, depending on the availability of parts.

This is a 100% repair in either case, as the part that has failed is part of the lever body itself. Basically there are two pins set in the lever body that the mechanism's escapement system (hence "Escape"😉 rotate around. Under some circumstances, the relative positions of these two pins can change (the pins bend slightly) giving the symptoms you describe.

We have been out of parts to rectify this problem for some months now, but have just met with Campagnolo to resolve the issues that have led to this shortage.

I am hopeful that following that meeting and the agreements we reached there, that many of the long-term issues that we have had with parts availability will now be resolved.

So - our apologies for the length of time this has taken, but the end is now in sight ... and if you tell me which shop sent the lever (so I can identify your job), I'll get some cables sent out to you with your lever ...

All the Best
Graeme

Well, it sounds like your question has been answered.

BUT, because the forums are telling me that I haven't posted in a while, I had the same thing happen to my Centaur QS right lever a year and a half ago. Bought the gruppo online, but took it into my LBS (already knowing the problem though, thanks to these forums). It was exactly the problem that P@Veccios described above. They sent it up to the Campy distributor around here once I proved to the LBS that I didn't steal the part, and the distributor warrantied the lever and sent me a new one within a week.

Maybe that was an unusually frictionless experience, but it's something to judge yours against for future reference.

LewisBricktop said:

Well, it sounds like your question has been answered.

BUT, because the forums are telling me that I haven't posted in a while, I had the same thing happen to my Centaur QS right lever a year and a half ago. Bought the gruppo online, but took it into my LBS (already knowing the problem though, thanks to these forums). It was exactly the problem that P@Veccios described above. They sent it up to the Campy distributor around here once I proved to the LBS that I didn't steal the part, and the distributor warrantied the lever and sent me a new one within a week.

Maybe that was an unusually frictionless experience, but it's something to judge yours against for future reference.

I'm assuming that was in the USA, Lewis?

Campagnolo have a subsidiary in the USA who look after warranty and their system is, I believe, different to the one that we have in the UK.

Normally, when we have no parts issues, out turnaround is good, though we are always looking to improve it!

Hi, I noticed your post. If your levers were purchased within a three year period, I think they will be covered under warranty. I have experienced exactly the same issue and having changed my cable sleeve and cables which didn't help, I then sent them back to the place of purchase I now await my replacement. Hope that helps and good luck

Hi Graeme I have just returned my lever to Evans on line and I received an email to the effect they are now liaising with distributor for a replacement....can you help?