Recommend gear cable

[Blue Hills]

I've recently replaced the rear mech on my old faithful steel Ridgeback - used for all sorts of rides and with its new Spa wheels it may end up doing some touring.

I think the outer as it enters the new rear mech is now a bit too short, causing changing oddities, so I may as well replace the whole rear cable.

There's a surprising amount of choice out there.

Anyone got any recommendations? Please note the bike is not a racer - I'll be happy with dependable solid shifting with cables that last and are tough - I'm not after lightning racing shifts or sitting in a racers clubhouse comparing miniscule noise differences - the bike is 7/21 speed after all,.

Anyone got any views on these - stainless steel sounds good - do I need anything more? I tend to trust Edinburgh Bike Co-op's no-nonsense product choices.

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/fibrax-powerglide-sport-gear-cable-and-outer

 

[black'n'yellow]

there's bugger-all difference between any of the available cable inners and outers in my experience - just buy the ones which your LBS has in stock. They will probably have Shimano - most shops do - so buy those....

 

[Blue Hills]

PS - I note that that cable is 1.5mm thick - rather thicker than some - is that an advantage or a disadvantage?

 

[black'n'yellow]

PS - I note that that cable is 1.5mm thick - rather thicker than some - is that an advantage or a disadvantage?

1.2 is the standard inner size. I don't see how a 1.5mm wire would work, when everything else on the bike is designed to take 1.2mm....maybe it's a typo...

Like I said before, just buy local.

 

[Smokin Joe]

And hurry up about it before one of the fixed wheel bores find this thread and start advising you to convert to fixed and experience the Zen-like feeling of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Blue Hills]

Am reading some good things about Fibrax in various places so may go for their stuff - I know you can get pre-lubed cables but tend to think that my periodic squirting of GT85 will interfere with that anyway - I have a certain preference for keeping things simple on bikes.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Am reading some good things about Fibrax in various places so may go for their stuff - I know you can get pre-lubed cables but tend to think that my periodic squirting of GT85 will interfere with that anyway - I have a certain preference for keeping things simple on bikes.

hello? are you listening..? If you want to keep things simple, just buy standard.

 

[Blue Hills]

Well they sound pretty standard to me black n yellow - stainless steel wire, outer included, decent price. Admittedly not in black.

Any other views welcome of course ..

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Any other views welcome of course ..

Gear cable housings do come in two thicknesses 4mm and 5mm so you have firstly got to decide which one after you have decided you can’t live with any colour but black and you will find that the 5mm ones are probably more stout because the ads say so so you buy them and then you will find that your shifts are sh*t because your ferrules are only good for 4mm so you need to start investigating the different kinds as well as sizes of ferrules you can buy and by which time you must also investigate whether you need donuts, raincoat end covers, tongue and shield kits to keep the cr*p away from your inner which may or may not be stainless and crimps to stop it poking your dog’s eyes out and by which time becoming an expert you have to look into string-of-pearls housings from Nokon and Alligator etc. and given they are now costing nearly as much as your bike you might start wondering while they sell housing by the meter why not inner.

 

[Cubist]

^^^ Lol!
We already know why they don't sell inner by the metre though.

 

[Cubist]

I'm usually a bike snob, and a bit of a perfectionist, but on the MTB there are limits to how much crap you can keep out of the cables. For that reason I buy the cheapest inners I can find (last lot were 10 for £5) and 4mm outer by the metre in 10 metre or more lengths. I recycle ferrules and donuts. This cheap approach means that every few months when shifts get sticky I can simply replace both inner and outer. As a job I've got it down to about ten to fifteen minutes per cable. Fifteen including gear indexing, and that means that the shifts are as clean as I can get them all the time. Smug? Moi?

 

[HovR]

Any old cables should do.. Well, within reason - Maybe not a £1 special from your local pound world.

I have a mixture of Clarks and Shimano on my bikes, and can tell no difference what so ever. The Shimano cables have a shiny silver logo on them if that's your thing.

Jagwire and BBB also seem to be pretty well-regarded brands. Stainless is probably a good option if your bike will be out in the weather a lot, but with the quality of some supposedly stainless items I've seen before, I'd question how stainless they really are!

 

[MacB]

I'm usually a bike snob, and a bit of a perfectionist, but on the MTB there are limits to how much crap you can keep out of the cables. For that reason I buy the cheapest inners I can find (last lot were 10 for £5) and 4mm outer by the metre in 10 metre or more lengths. I recycle ferrules and donuts. This cheap approach means that every few months when shifts get sticky I can simply replace both inner and outer. As a job I've got it down to about ten to fifteen minutes per cable. Fifteen including gear indexing, and that means that the shifts are as clean as I can get them all the time. Smug? Moi?

Superb, I'm not sure that approach could be improved on..........oh hang on, wait a second.........did somebody mention rohloff?

 

[Blue Hills]

Smug? Moi?

Well no - very useful and to the point advice - definitely an argument against the £25 kits I've seen in bike shops and answers my question, mystified as I was by the incredible percentage difference in costs.

But pray tell where do you buy those inners and outers of yours?

 

[Cubist]

Ebay... hang on, I'll find you some from my purchases list