This seems a little silly and I think I know the answer but you never know.

In our garage stash we had a set of brand new Athena shifters. I don't recall if there was any packaging. Anyway, we assumed they were 8 spd and put them on my bike using an 8 spd spacing kit with a 9 spd cassette. Shifting works flawlessly.

Here's the kicker. I was sleuthing around on Campy's site trying to determine the year and whether I could buy a new ratcheting mechanism to upgrade the shifters themselves to 9 spd. It's very hard to tell, but the graphics from the 1998 Campy spare parts catalog appear to match better than the 1997 graphics. I suspect the levers are 1997s because of the flawless 8 spd shifting, but it's just weird.

Does anyone know the difference visually? It's the CARBON logo on the front of the lever that has me stumped. Thanks for any help you have to offer.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Mercian/Athenalever.jpg

This seems a little silly and I think I know the answer but you never know.

In our garage stash we had a set of brand new Athena shifters. I don't recall if there was any packaging. Anyway, we assumed they were 8 spd and put them on my bike using an 8 spd spacing kit with a 9 spd cassette. Shifting works flawlessly.

Here's the kicker. I was sleuthing around on Campy's site trying to determine the year and whether I could buy a new ratcheting mechanism to upgrade the shifters themselves to 9 spd. It's very hard to tell, but the graphics from the 1998 Campy spare parts catalog appear to match better than the 1997 graphics. I suspect the levers are 1997s because of the flawless 8 spd shifting, but it's just weird.

Does anyone know the difference visually? It's the CARBON logo on the front of the lever that has me stumped. Thanks for any help you have to offer.


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b310/SadieKate/Mercian/Athenalever.jpg

With the rear cable not attached to the derailleur Push the button until it stops doing anything then count the number of clicks available on the inner lever, add +1 to get # of rear cogs supported. CARBON means that the shifter body is not metal, likely a '98 model as the carbon bodies gradually moved down in the groups.

Thanks. I got this solved over on the Serotta forums. I did not want to detach the cable and have to readjust everything when I thought someone would recognize the difference in appearance.

I also know what the carbon means but the line drawn specs aren't clear on the graphics on them, which have changed significantly year to year. It is a 1997 as I suspected when there were changes in the internals but still 8 spd shifting.

Thanks again.