Campagnolo’s Ekar gravel groupset can be quite painful to install and setup, even for the experienced mechanic. Over the course of a few months, I spent tens of hours researching and working to get my setup on a Giant Revolt Advanced Pro build right. Thanks so much to people in communities like Paceline for taking the time to explore solutions with me – the process has made working on non-Ekar bikes a relative breeze.
Here’s what I felt ultimately help me in getting my shifting right:
- Leave more shifting cable than you originally intended to run through the bike. Slightly more will be better than slightly less.
- Full housing may not work well – you may want to use full stop (cable housing is external to frame, no housing inside the frame)
- Set the b-screw at maximum closeness to the cassette – every mm helps. Ignore Campagnolo’s guidance.
- Don’t start with a waxed chain – use a normal chain, get it right, then wax it and ride it for 10-15 miles so it the shifting returns to the pre-wax state.
- Check that your derailleur hanger is straight.
Here are other topics that I noted in my research, and not all are necessarily things I’ve encountered myself. Click to go to the appropriate section:
Detailed checklist for shifting issues #1
Detailed checklist for shifting issues #2
Stretch Shifting Cable at Setup or Use Pre-Stretched Cable
Cassette Interference with Wheel Spokes
Right Shifter Adjustment to Prevent Shift Lever from Sticking
Using Ekar 9-36 and 9-42 Cassettes on the same Chain (length)
Brake Disc Rotor Play (Side to Side Movement)
Cassette Creaking / Overtorqing the Cassette to Alleviate Shifting Issues
Tools for Hydraulic Brake Setup
———–
Detailed checklist for shifting issues #1
That’s a common problem with Ekar if the set-up isn’t quite right.
Things to check …
1. Gear hanger tightness (I’m assuming that alignment has been checked with the hanger in situ, using the wheel as a reference – normally, anyway, mis-alignment gives problems first in the mid-range, not the ends of the travel, unless it’s extreme).
2. Top pivot bolt torque
3. Campagnolo Maximum Smoothness gear inner (not the standard inner / 3rd party)
4. Outer cables ends cut square and nylon liner ends “belled” slightly to minimise friction
5. Do not lubricate the inner – this can cause cable stiction as it tends to “hydraulic”, i.e. the oil or grease can actually end up impeding motion
6. Metal ferrule with a “tail” (as supplied in the Maximum Smoothness cable kit), not plastic, at the RD adjuster
7. Through-axle torque.
8. Any play, with through axle at correct torque, in the wheel bearings.
9. Cassette lockring torque 55 – 65nm (normally 65nm is the absolute factory-tested max)
10. No play in the cassette body
11. Chain length
12. Check the high limit screw setting – it’s easy to be misled on Ekar as the derailleur cage flares “out” slightly at the bottom.
13. Check the B-screw setting – most very wide range cassettes are extremely sensitive to this. Basically, run the RD as close to the sprockets as you can, without the cage blocking against them at any point in it’s travel.
I’ve also found it useful to check / do three other things …
14. It’s good practice – but many mechanics don’t do it – set the high limit screw *without* the cable pinched at the pinch bolt, so that you absolutely ensure that the only thing limiting the outwards movement of the RD is the limit screw. This ensures that you are not unwittingly pre-tensioning the cable.
15. When you pull the slack out of the inner cable, make sure that the cable adjuster is screwed almost all the way in and try to manage how tight you manually pull the inner cable through, so that the adjuster stays screwed into the RD as far as possible – that limits how much the adjuster “waggles” in the threads. Again, this is good practice in almost any index derailleur system.
16. Once everything is in place, shift part way up the cassette to put tension on the inner cable, undo the Ergopower mounting bolt a turn or two and push the lever hard “up” the bar to make absolutely certain the outer cable is fully seated against the washer at the base of the cable port, before re-tightening. With Ekar I have found it doubly useful to wind insulating tape all the way from the lever to the point where the bar tape will end, to secure the outer very firmly to the bar – this prevents any cable movement / creep under the handlebar tape (as well as making it easier to change the tape when you get to that point …)
I’ve set up Ekar probably 100 times now with no issues … but it does repay careful attention to the above points – being 13s, tolerances are correspondingly finer than 11s (the jump many people are making), or even than 12s, for obvious reasons .
From Paceline
And:
I personally like to set the high limit screw (for the smallest cog) just at the point that it will shift down but as close to not shifting down as possible.
I then set the low limit screw (biggest cogs) so that it will shift up from the second biggest cog to the biggest cog quickly and nicely.
After that, I will have poor downshifts (to small cogs) until I set the B-tension to be just right. After that, shifting is all good.
From Paceline
Detailed checklist for shifting issues #2
Quick summary post on some of the things I’ve read over the last few weeks on this thread …
Hangers – new hangers themselves can be straight as a die (if they are CNC’d, they will be) but the bed that they fit against may not be, so they may still need slight “adjustment” post-fitting. Not uncommon, I’m sorry to say – but given the inaccuracy in press-fit BB shells and in DB mounts, also no great surprise.
Hangers retained on the end of the through axle may shift slightly according to the torque on the through axle – it won’t be a lot but it can throw fine index adjustment “off” and adjustment on 13s is quite fine … I’d recommend using a torque wrench to set the through-axle tightness. This can also help with consistent disc brake caliper positioning. On races a fair few of us use a 10nm preset electric screwdriver for through axle wheel changes now, or something like the small PrestaCycle beam type torque wrench (more practical out on the trail, for sure).
As a general rule (and it’s in the spec), if you have a +/-2T difference in the chainring size from the size used when assembling the bike, you shouldn’t need to change chain length in most cases.
I say “in most cases” because this is a function of the exact geo of the frame and therefore, the exact point that you join the chain at – there is a possible variation of just under 1″ / 25mm in where the chain gets joined, because when determining the “not through the derailleur” length, a frame might not allow a male / female join by a fraction of an inch / mm so you have to add a full link to find the “first place the chain can be joined” – or it might be that the “first place the chain can be joined” allows a fraction of an inch or a couple of mm of “slack”.
The B-screw will always require tweaking to accommodate a change in chainring size, or, by the same token, a change in cassette range where the 4 teeth total is also accommodated in the case of 9-44 vs 10-42.
B screw setting is sensitive in Ekar. 9-42 and 10-44 more so than 9-36. The best way I have found to do it on a fair few (100-ish) Ekar set-ups is to use the “rule” in the manual as a start point but then to ease the top jockey “in” so that it runs as close as possible to the cluster without the derailleur cage physically “blocking” against an adjacent sprocket on shifting.
Careful cable prep pays dividends!
When cutting the outer, be a little more generous than you would be with 11 or 12s, perhaps, without going overboard – you don’t want to lassoo passers-by but neither do you want to introduce super-tight bends that the inner cable will bind on. Angling the shift / brake levers inwards (unless you take the “rear of bar” route) can cause problems with this, depending on the exact shape of the bar.
Cut the cable ends dead square and file or grind them flat, then be sure to open the nylon liner out into a “bell” – if you don’t have the specific tool to do this, you can use an old cable, run it through, pull it to one side at the exit and spin it through 360 degrees around the cable end so that it pushes the liner evenly sideways against the wire of the cable housing to “bell” the nylon liner.
Use the Maximum Smoothness inner. It is not only, as the name suggests, physically smoother than the standard inner but the teflon impregnation and the higher number of finer wire strands means that it is slightly more flexible than the UltraShift inner cable – it moves better in the outer, wears the nylon liner less and gives more consistent shifting. I now use MS inners on all of our Campagnolo builds – yes, it’s considerably more expensive but the increased service life of the outers, distributed over that service life, makes it at least as cost-effective as the standard inner and it copes better with complex routes.
Use the “tailed” metal ferrules – the plastic ones that many third parties supply tend to compress and bend about – not ideal in any gearing system but a general no-no with Campagnolo. The “tails” do help at the RD and where there is bare cable, at the exit from the front section and the entry to the rear section.
Not so common these days but worth a mention – be careful around cable guides on externally-routed cables. A plastic guide on the BB shell needs to fit tight to the profile of the BB shell, with no “gap” between the guide and the shell – it also needs to be held firm, with no possibility for it to twist and to be in good condition – nylon guides, especially off road or in poor winter conditions do eventually “keyhole” and as the cable cuts into the guide, the guide grips it, increasing friction significantly enough to affect shifting. Beware the exit of the cable from the guide – sometimes it runs across & rubs on the bottom of the BB end of the chainstay and so extra friction is added there.
Make sure that there are no kinks introduced into the inner cable that then get “hidden” in the outer – so when threading the cable at the shifter, it’s advisable to guide the tip of the cable immediately through the guide on the lever, without letting it form a tight loop there, that can result in a kink – I use a small, flat screwdriver to hold the cable down into the guide as I push it through. If you *have* to form a loop – do it in the first 50mm or so of cable which on most frames, won’t be included in the tensioned part of the cable at all.
Any kink in the tensioned section is bad news as a fraction of the first index movement of the lever will be used in straightening that kink out, plus, in a full-outer situation it’ll cause extra friction – and friction is your enemy.
I’ve typed it, it seems in the last however many years, a million times – but cassette lockring torque matters! In Ekar (and actually, in 12s too) this is more important because of the construction of the cassette. In Ekar, the spacer in the rear section of 9 or 10 sprockets rattles when the cassette isn’t torqued down – when the torque is sufficient, the 9/10 sprocket section compresses width-wise onto that spacer, so setting the exact inter-sprocket distances. Too loose and you won’t get the compression (and the sprockets tend to creak), too much and the ends of the spacer can deform (although you have to go well beyond the maximum recommended torques for that to happen).
If you take the cassette apart to remove / clean the spacer (Campagnolo don’t recommend it, but …) make sure to note the orientation of the spider at the back of the cassette relative to the cassette itself. You will see that there is a drilling at the base of one of the teeth on the last sprocket. The stepped tooth in the spider’s cassette body splines goes at 90 degrees to that drilled hole. It’ll only work one way. This guarantees the orientation of the top cluster relative to the bottom and keeps the shift sweet across the junction. If you take the spider off, reassemble with Loctite 222 or 248 on the screws and torque to 10 nm.
Hope that helps.
From Paceline
Stretch Shifting Cable at Setup or Use Pre-Stretched Cable
my recommendation is you stretch the hell put of you cables when you install them. easiest method is to start in the 11 and shift up the cassette very aggressively with out turning the cranks.. a couple of runs at this and you’ll have to reset the pinch bolt
From Weight Weenies
Cassette Interference with Wheel Spokes
The first gen Ekar cassettes have button head bolts on the back of the cassette that will interfere with the spokes on non-Campy wheels. Apparently, there will be a second gen cassette with flat counter-sunk bolts that should remedy the issue, and there will also be an update kit available from Campagnolo to remedy existing cassettes (Campagnolo USA tells us the part number for the update kit will likely be CS-EK100 when available).
From Swiss Cycles
Right Shifter Adjustment to Prevent Shift Lever from Sticking
Initially, I had issues with the shift lever jamming up on the brake lever–you’d shift, and the lever wouldn’t return to its home position. But what started as a major annoyance turned out to be a simple adjustment. There is a hole for a tiny 1.5mm allen wrench on the shift paddle, which allows you to adjust the fore/aft position of the paddle itself. I simply needed to adjust it back a bit to provide some room between the shift paddle and the brake lever, and the jamming issue was solved.
From Swiss Cycles
Using Ekar 9-36 and 9-42 Cassettes on the same Chain (length)
Has anyone tried to run Ekar 9-36 and 9-42 cassettes without adjusting the chain length? I know official advice from Campag is it will cope with a 4t total change, so you could swap 9-42 and 10-44 without issue but not 9-36 and 9-42, but has anyone actually tried this? Reason for question: 1 bike, 2 wheelsets; 1 for road and 1 for gravel.
Since Ekar copied the horizontally swinging paralellogram from Sram 1x – which positions the upper pulley via chain tension – a smaller cassette than the max allowed one *has* to work.
The derailleur will autmatically adjust to every possible cog size within the possible range: A larger cog takes up more chain, the lower part of the chain gets shorter, the lower pulley is pulled forward and the cage thus moves the upper pulley down to accomodate the larger cog. Same thing in reverse when shifting to a smalle cog.
From Weight Weenies
Brake Disc Rotor Play (Side to Side Movement)
I am having a small issue with the Ekar disk rotors on a new build. The rotors are mounted on DT-Swiss 240 hubs and there is a lot of play in the spline fit, much more than I have experienced in the past with campag rotors on campag hubs. I heard AFS and centerlock are compatible but maybe the tolerances are not the same?
I had hoped that the play would go away when I tightened down the lockrings, but no. If I sit on the bike, hold the brakes and allow the bike to roll backwards with my weight on it I will hear the discs ping. They will then ping back when I use the brakes normally.
So two questions:
1. Have others had this same experience?
2. Any reccomendations for non Campag rotors I could try?
I had this issue on two different DT240 wheelsets. What I found is that:
1-Without the lockring the Campag rotors definitely exhibit more play than Shimano rotors (RT-99, RT900 and MT900 tested)
2-With the RT81 internal lockring with thin silver washer tightened down 40nm, no play on either Campag or Shimano rotors.
3-With M8010 external lockring WITHOUT washer, there is play with the Campag rotor but not with the Shimano rotors when tightened down to 40nm
4-With M8010 external lockring WITH washer, no play with either Campag or Shimano rotors when tightened to 40nm
Also what might help for rotor retention is something like the November Wheels or Boyd centerlock rotor shims. It seems like the centerlock interface of the Campag rotors’ carrier is just that tiny bit smaller than Shimano rotors, so if you can do some micro-shimming it should help in providing the additional needed friction surfaces.
From Weight Weenies
Cassette Creaking / Overtorqing the Cassette to Alleviate Shifting Issues
– The bike developped a terrible creak in the rear within a few weeks, which I could not get rid of. Might be in the cassette. Canyon fixed it, still don’t know what they did exactly.
That occurs between the two cassette pieces, all you need to do is put a very thin layer of grease between the two and crank the bolt to spec, it goes away. Many shops don’t actually tighten the cassette locking according to Campag specifications.
From Weight Weenies
I put superglue to both ends of the cassette sleeve, that made it quiet. The cassette spider / freehub body interface needs to be greased well also. The seam between the two cassette parts starts creaking occasionally though, especially after washing the bike. The cassette could be improved.
From Weight Weenies
The cassette squeaks that I have had have reliably been due to two things: 1. dirt finding its way between the cassette and the freehub and 2. the bolts holding the upper (larger) part of the casstte together can get loose”ish”. For #1, remove the cassette and clean up the contact surfaces; for #2, tighten the upper cassette assembly bolts – I have not been able to find a torque spec for those bolts in any of the Campy literature on Ekar.
Anyone know what the torque spec is for those bolts?
I fixed the cassette squeek by greasing the two parts of the cassette. Not a peep for the last 1500+ miles.
From Weight Weenies
Brake Caliper Leaking
| LBS says my new Ekar rear caliper is leaking at the interface of the the two halves…. Torx bolts have been checked and we are trying to get Campy USA to warranty the caliper. Problem is, they don’t answer the phone nor do they (East Coast rep) return messages…. Any suggestions? |
Email Jerry, tell him Peter sent ya
Or call the SoCal office.
760-931-0106, ext 1
From Paceline
Tools for Hydraulic Brake Setup
If your kit is coming packaged up, you’ll need a hydraulic line cutter and olive tool. For torquing the hydraulic lines into the calipers, you’ll need a crow foot or Magura open socket.
A Campagnolo compatible bleed kit helps as well if you don’t have one.
From Paceline
Ferrule Setup for Shifting
I am also setting up Ekar, but my chain is in the mail. If you are running full housing you just need one ferrule at the RD. I have housing stops on my frame so I’m using two there. You don’t use one at the shifter.
From Paceline
I Spit Hot Fire 