Will 10 speed cranks work with an 8 speed freewheel?

Question

I'm looking at building a road-bike, and I've just purchased some wheels with campagnolo hubs, with an 8 speed freewheel on the back.

Can I use Campagnolo Daytona / Veloce cranks on the front? I understand that they state 10 speed on the cogs, but can I use them with my 8 speed on the rear?

Answer 1

According to Sheldon Brown's website:

New Chainrings, Old Chains Going the other direction, using wider chains with chainrings intended for narrower chains is not generally a major problem if there's only a one- or two- generation difference. The only problem you might run into is that the chain will be more liable to rub on the inside of the bigger chainrings in the small/small crossover gears, gears you shouldn't be using in any case.

You may run into some poor shifting performance, but the system should still function. If you are unhappy with the performance, 8 speed chainrings will mount on your current crankset, so there's no need to change-up everything.

Answer 2

First, to answer the question asked: you can use them physically, but the shifting performance will suffer.

Second, there is no limitation on the wheel, for a campy 8 speed hub. Put a 10 speed campy group on the bike. 8/9/10 speed are all the same, unless you truly have a freewheel, as opposed to a cassette. For 8 speed campy, that is fairly unlikely, but I'm not looking at your bike.

If you don't have the option to run a new group without new wheels because of the freewheel, then my experience is that running an 8 or 9 speed drivetrain with a 10 speed chain ring set will produce slow and noisy shifting on the front chain rings, when shifting up to the larger ring, and pretty normal shifting when moving from large to small rings. It will also rub on the small chain ring, when in the bottom 2 or 3 cogs in the rear.