What happens if you don't use cable outers?

[Mile195]

So in summary....
Gear cables really no stretch, so precise pull
Brake cables slight stretch but stronger?

I couldn't tell you if there's necessarily more stretch in the brake cables when new, but yes - it is certainly true that they have to be designed to withstand bigger forces than gear cables. All that said, gear and brake cable inners have different ends, so you'd never be able to mix the two up anyway even if they weren't packaged.

 

[Cubist]

The basic visual difference is that brake cables have a spiral shaped reinforcing layer, which gives a bit, and the gear outers have linear reinforcement strands parallel to the inner.

 

[Asa Post]

@summerdays
See if Sheldon's explanation makes sense to you.

 

[Fab Foodie]

@summerdays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowden_cable

 

[Globalti]

Gear cable outers need to be very incompressible. Brake cable outers need to be flexible. Brake cables do have spiral reinforcement but if you ever reached the level of power where you were actually compressing them you'd have gone over the bars long before.

 

[summerdays]

@summerdays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowden_cable

I'm surprised that they were invented so long ago, I wonder why I had a bike with rod brakes in the late 1970's (I know it was second hand but even so). Interesting link

 

[jonny jeez]

I started to change my brake cable, thought I had all the bits, so removed all the old stuff, and then realised I didn't have the bits that go at the end of the brake outer casing. I had to quickly replace all the old stuff though it was a right pain passing the old bent cable through the old outers.

I wondered what would have happened if I temporarily skipped the outer sections and just redid the brake cable? I didn't, but I would like to understand how the outer helps the cable perform.

Could you not have just popped the old ferrules back on?

 

[summerdays]

Could you not have just popped the old ferrules back on?

They had been clamped onto the cable presumably by the shop at a previous service as I wouldn't have done that myself, and yet I'm sure I've changed cables before.... Maybe I used one of those free service at an event last time, I honestly can't remember.

 

[jonny jeez]

They had been clamped onto the cable presumably by the shop at a previous service as I wouldn't have done that myself, and yet I'm sure I've changed cables before.... Maybe I used one of those free service at an event last time, I honestly can't remember.

Are you talking about the small metal cable ends that are clamped to the end of the inner, to stop it from fraying, or the black plastic end to the outers, that the Inner feeds through as it leaves the outer? (Like a little collar)

The cable ends are clamped with snips or pliers but if you are in a fix, you can often reshape them by squeezing them with pliers...across the clamped bit rather than along the same plane, which sort of opens then up.


Either way, I hope it's sorted now.

 

[summerdays]

Not sorted yet, but ferrules ordered and I'll complete the job when they arrive. It's the plastic caps that go on the end of the cable outers.

 

[Blue Hills]

(and it would be much harder to pull) and your brakes wouldn't work.