The lack of cable pull is precisely the problem with trying to use the mavic retrofrictions and the modern campy derailleurs, which require a relatively large amount of cable pull to move the rear derailleur from cog to cog. In order to shift the full range of cogs on a 9 or 10 spd cassette, you'd probably end up moving the shifter 180 degrees or more.
Campy made a retrofriction shifter with large barrel that will shift the modern derailleurs sometime in the late 80s and I don't find particular problems using it with a 9 or 10 spd cogset. You might be able to make a modern campy derailleur work with mavic/simplex retrofrictions, or pretty much any older shifter, with a pulley setup like the shiftmate:
http://jtekengineering.com/
I think the mavic shifter would probably work ok with a modern shimano derailleur since it requires less cable pull.
Baird
___________________________ Baird Webel Washington DC, USA
On Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 03:03PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org> wrote:
>
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>
>Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:31:11 -0700
>From: "Mitch Harris" <mitch.harris@gmail.com>
>To: "Cheung, Doland" <CheungD@bv.com>
>Cc: CR <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: Re: [CR]Mavic retrofriction shifters with modern 9/10sp systems?
>Message-ID: <8801bb250611141131r60bb833fl929e7c3fbddf5417@mail.gmail.com>
>In-Reply-To: <ABD079F38D58E54FBCC327A1D1BBD86302AB8FEC@kaci-mail-10.na.bvcorp.net>
>References: <ABD079F38D58E54FBCC327A1D1BBD86302AB8FEC@kaci-mail-10.na.bvcorp.net>
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>The Mavic shifters ought to be the best friction shifters for the use you
>describe since they have pull less cable for a given amount of arc.
>
>Mitch Harris
>Little Rock Canyon, Utah
>
>
>On 11/14/06, Cheung, Doland <CheungD@bv.com> wrote:
>>
>> Anybody have success using the Mavic retrofriction shifters with the
>> modern 9/10 sp systems out today? Something along the lines of using
>> the Mavic shifters on current Campy 10sp rear derailleur and cassette,
>> for example.
>>
>> I was wondering if at some point, the spacing between gears gets so
>> narrow that it would be difficult to find a gear in friction mode and
>> that the "click" in an index shifter fixes this problem. I've used 8sp
>> in friction mode with an HG cassette and it worked fine, but I noticed a
>> lot less shifter travel for a gear change.
>>
>> Doland Cheung
>> SoCal>