Campy Cassette with Shimano Derailleurs?

PeterF said:

I currently have a Shimano Ultegra 9 bike that is in desperate need of wheels. I have two sets of Campy Wheels (Eurus' and Protons) and would like to use my Proton's with my Ultegra bike. Is the spacing on a campy 9 speed cassette incompatible with 9 Speed Shimano? I do understand that Wheels Mfg sells a spacer kit that will allow the use of a loose cog campy 9 cassette to work with a Shimano derailleurs, but is this absolutely necessary? Another route would be to purchase a hyper glide freehub body for the Proton's but they seem to be hard to find, and I'm not sure I want to swap the freehub body whenever I switch the wheels around. The Ultegra bike is my winter trainer, so it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does need to work. Any thoughts you may have would be most appreciated. Thank you.
Pete

Seems that you have already done your research. Another possibility is to put a Jtek shiftmate on the ultegra bike and use with Campy 9 cassette. Of course, this would make it difficult to go back to a Shimano 9s wheel without removing it or using a campy spaced cassette on the shimano freehub. I like the idea of spacing a loose cog Campy cassette to shimano spacing with the Wheels manufacturing spacers. About $35 plus the cost of a 9s cassette (if you don't already have one).

John M said:

Seems that you have already done your research. Another possibility is to put a Jtek shiftmate on the ultegra bike and use with Campy 9 cassette. Of course, this would make it difficult to go back to a Shimano 9s wheel without removing it or using a campy spaced cassette on the shimano freehub. I like the idea of spacing a loose cog Campy cassette to shimano spacing with the Wheels manufacturing spacers. About $35 plus the cost of a 9s cassette (if you don't already have one).

I will look into the Jtek shiftmate. Having both Shimano and Campy, I can say that I prefer the Campy. I've even dabbled with the idea of swapping out the Ultegra for Centaur (shifters and derailleurs), so I can run Campy 10 on both bikes. I have three sets of Shimano-compatible wheels. 2 are ready for the dumpster and the third is about to be put on my third bike and shipped down south so I'll have a beater to tool around on while I visit my in-laws. I hate to buy another set of shimano freehub wheels, since I see myself sticking with Campy for future bikes.. Thanks for the advice.