How to adjust your Campagnolo indexation?

For the chain to be perfectly aligned with the chosen gable or tray, it takes a little fingering. Hearing comfort but above all safety will be the winners of a good adjustment.

Mechanical summary

The tools

To adjust the Campagnolo indexation, it is your hands that will be the most useful in fact! You will have to use them to turn the cranks and act on the cable’s tension barrel. You will only need to provide a 5 mm Allen key to tighten the derailleurs cables. And if you don’t have a foot, put the bike on its saddle and brake levers!

Pictures © Frédéric Iehl

Time and difficulty

You will spend between 5 and 15 minutes performing this operation, which seems so complicated and is so simple. The whole thing is to take the problem by the right end from the beginning!

Stage 1

We first place the chain on the second pinion and stop « pedaling ». The pusher is pressed to go down to the last indexing notch without turning the crankset. The cable is therefore slightly relaxed.

Stage 2

We will tighten the barrel thoroughly and then go back 2 turns. We are here on the second sprocket. The crankset is then turned to pass on the small sprocket.

We will loosen the cable slightly and stretch it with a little softness.

The cable is then tightened firmly. Normally we won’t have to go back.

Stage 3

We are on the smallest pinion and press the mounting lever until the first click. We turn the crankset and look and listen to where the chain is.

Stage 4

We will act on the barrel by tightening it to relax the cable (green arrow) or by loosening it (orange arrow) to stretch it. In any case, we go there a quarter turn per quarter turn. The trick to remember the meaning is as follows. You have to turn the barrel in the direction you want the chain to go!

If the chain is difficult to mount or if it remains close to the small sprocket, the cable must be tightened (orange arrow).

If it rubs on the third sprocket or tends to want to climb it, you will have to relax the cable by tightening the barrel (green arrow).

If the channel seems centered and you don’t hear anything, don’t touch anything anymore it’s settled!

To perfectly adjust the Campagnolo indexing, all that remains is to perform checks. All that remains is to go back down on the small sprocket and test each indexing notch to the largest. On the ascent and then on the descent. Most brands recommend making this adjustment in the middle of the cassette. We prefer to start from the first sprocket because if your cable does not have the right tension at first you will not necessarily know it and then you will have trouble « falling » on the smallest sprocket or passing on the largest. Indeed, with a small correction on the barrel you can shift the indexation of the space of a sprocket! And there before you realize it…

Stage 5

We go down on the small chainring by pressing the pusher to look at the tension of the cable.

More than the distance obtained, it is the feeling of elasticity that matters. We need a spring! If you have a frame with an internal passage, you will have to see if it « sends » on the visible part or not…

Stage 6

We push on the lever to go to the big chainring.

If the chain rubs and does not rise, or not frankly… We will have to tighten the cable. Sometimes there is a tension barrel and we do as for the rear derailleur. Otherwise, you have to tighten the cable.

We go back down to the small tray and press hard on the pusher.

After loosening the nut, pull the cable. The strongest possible.

And we tighten the whole.

Étape 7

We press the climbing lever again.

The chain then mounts correctly. All you have to do is test ascents and descents on each gable. And you will have nothing else to do to adjust your Campagnolo indexation.

Mechanical summary