Campy Wheels for ShimaNO-Equipped Bikes

Reader and friend Craig R sent in this helpful report on how even ShimaNO-equipped riders can enjoy the benefits of Campagnolo hubs:

Eric,

I built up something I figured that you would appreciate. Cat Berge is part of a 4 woman team for RAAM this year. Her main bike uses 650 wheels and is Shimano 9 speed. I built her up a spare rear wheel - and it uses the 99-06 Campy Record rear hub.

Campy makes a freehub body, part number WH-KX890 that has a Shimano spline pattern. It's easy to replace, you don't even need to remove the cassette or lockring. Even Shimano folks can run Campy Record hubs.

My wife's bike is a 650 Merlin that is mostly Campy Record 10 based. When RAAM is over, I'll put the original freehub body back in place and all will be well.

Turns out that the wheel is quite international. Hub and freehub body from Italy. Rim from Australia. Skewer from China. Spokes from Switzerland. Rim tape from France. Cassette from Japan.

I've also noticed that this generation of hub is getting to be a bit pricey on E-Bay. I much prefer it to the current model and have some front and rear ones in the closet.

I've been unwilling to move to 11 speed and have been moving to SRAM on my single bikes. I rode PAC Tour last Summer with a hybrid approach - Campy shifters and front derailleur, SRAM rear derailleur with Shimano hub and cassette. Worked well, but I've now got three bikes fully converted to SRAM. I'll be able to keep my Campy hubs going however.

Craig