Recommended Cables

[olivermleach]

Hi all,

I have seen lots of references to the quality of cables being a significant factor in braking performance.

I'm in the process of completing a build (Bowman Palace R with Shimano 105 5800, standard brake calipers) and was wondering what people's thoughts were in terms of which cables to go for.

There are a wide range of options of varying quality and price. I understand the importance of stainless steel +/- pre-stretched, but beyond that I'm a bit lost. Shimano's current premium cables are PTFE-coated (teflon?) but I'm not sure if it's worth paying the extra.

I've also heard that campag cables are well finished and last a long time. They are stainless steel and pre-stretched but don't mention any extra coatings. They just mention a 'special grease' (typical campag!).

I found this thread (viewtopic.php?t=46851) which seemed to bring out a variety of opinions, and is also potentially a bit out of date now, I'm not sure.

Opinions would be appreciate. If economy can be had I'm keen, but also happy to pay a premium if longevity is better.

[Brucey]

jagwire polished stainless inners are pretty good, and not too much money. Decent housing, decent lube and decent prep and you are set.

Mind you if you are buying new campag shifters they should come with cables?

cheers

[NUKe]

you do realise that Shimano cables and campag are incompatible ? and you will need to buy the ones compatible with your group set?

[olivermleach]

Different build Brucey...I have splashed out this autumn. The campag is a different build. I'm finishing off a Bowman Palace R with 105 5800 groupset:
http://road.cc/content/review/222693-bo ... adset-2017

I had forgotten you got cables with the shifters. Anyway on this build I've recycled the 105 shifters and rear mech from my winter bike, so need new cables and housing too as it's going on a brand new frameset.

Incidentally, in case people are interested, just because braking/gearing performance appears to be grand this can be misleading. Everything on my Ribble seemed to be working fine (apart from a draggy rear brake) but when I got the cables out they were in a bit of a state. Only two years old, but bike has seen some fair use in that time.

[olivermleach]

Are Clarks cables any good?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/clarks-universa ... igodigital

Same diameter as the standard Shimano cables, stainless steel but non necessarily pre-stretched? Cheap.

Shimano's standard cables can be had around the same price though:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... -prod19054

[Brucey]

Clarks are not quite as smooth as some. Probably some are more likely to fray inside an STI than others too.

If you want cheap cable inners Decathlon sells polished stainless inners for not much money. The nipples are (IIRC) sized for campag which means they are not 100% snug in shimano brakes and shifters.

cheers

[olivermleach]

Okay. I had a job getting some of the cables out of the Ribble. The front mech gear cable had frayed and was nearly impossible to extract for the interior of the unit. And I think that was a shimano cable. Probably shouldn't have tried to get away with leaving them a full two years (although I wouldn't say the bike had particularly heavy use in the time, although it was repeatedly exposed to the elements).

[Gattonero]

you do realise that Shimano cables and campag are incompatible ? and you will need to buy the ones compatible with your group set?

Provided you are not useing the old ø4.5mm Campagnolo housing&ferrules on Shimano shifters, you can use Campagnolo wires on Shimano shifters but not the other way round: Shimano wires get stuck in Campagnolo shifters.
Same for Sram, you can use Sram wires on Shimano shifters, but is better to not use Shimano wires in Sram shifters (the Sram wire is 1.1mm as opposed to 1.2mm Shimano/Campag)

[olivermleach]

Okay, good to know.

Brucey suggested Jagwire, but which do you use?

[Brucey]

FWIW if you use campag fit cables in shimano levers it works fine (despite the fit which is not snug) until the cables get slightly draggy. Then the lever (be it gear or brake) can return (eg under spring action) and the cable nipple can unseat itself briefly. This can sometimes cause all kinds of weird things to happen.

If you keep on top of your cable maintenance it is unlikely to cause a big problem, because the cable will never get that draggy.

BTW one theory about in-STI gear cable fraying is that it is accelerated when the cable is very slightly draggy, and the cable inner instead of paying out in a straight line, buckles briefly (in compression) on every upshift. The extra flexing of the cable may be enough to make it fail prematurely. This mechanism is unproven, but it has many times been observed that the same cables last virtually indefinitely with standard gear levers, so something is different for sure. Then again, it may be as simple as the number of shifts carried out though.

cheers

[Vorpal]

The thread on lubrication of gear cables might be of interest viewtopic.php?f=5&t=114040&hilit=gear+cable&start=30

FWIW, I'v bought the teflon coated ones. I can't say that I've noticed any difference between them and teflon added as a lubricant. However, I have several bikes, so none of them currently have year round use or thousands of miles per year or anything like that, so the difference between them might have to be large for me to notice.

[Roadster]

Jagwire's Road Pro brake cables tick all the boxes:- http://jagwire.com/products/diy-cable-k ... -brake-kit
Their less expensive Universal Sport brake cables have unreinforced coiled housings, which are plenty good enough for my roadster but perhaps not for a fast Road bike ridden hard... Yer pays yer money...

[scottg]

[snip] you can use Campagnolo wires on Shimano shifters but not the other way round: Shimano wires get stuck in Campagnolo shifters.
Same for Sram, you can use Sram wires on Shimano shifters, but is better to not use Shimano wires in Sram shifters (the Sram wire is 1.1mm as opposed to 1.2mm Shimano/Campag)

Campaq shift cables work nicely with Cyclo & Simplex shifters too, Shimano heads don't fit.
They don't fit well in Osgear though.
Note for folks running quality mechs instead of modern rubbish.

[olivermleach]

Brucey, I expect the under-tape routing didn't help the cables, plus the shifter had seen some heavy use. Now I come to think of it it may have been the rear mech shifter after all, which would better explain why it had even heavier use.

Thanks for the link Vorpal that was very, very useful, and I hadn't found that one by searching. Also has some good opinions on choice of cables from different people. It also reminded me of applying a thin layer of teflon grease to cables on a previous build years ago, a habit I had got out of (since this didn't seem to be particularly recommended or appear to be done on new bikes - but let's not open that can of worms re: shop bikes...I particularly remember reading a post from Brucey at some point about taking pleasure in taking apart a new bike and putting it back together 'just so' - I am certainly more liberal with grease generally than the average factory build and I'm sure this is the same for most of the people on here).

The Jagwires seem a little pricey, I ordered a set of the standard (non-PTFE) Shimano road cables off CRC. Will try adding some of the teflon grease and see how they get on. They will be once again routed under bar tape...'haters gonna hate.'

As an aside, I was planning to post a question about how people lube their bike generally after a full clean. I realise people will not agree on what a 'full clean' entails or whether it is truly necessary. But I'm wondering generally which bit people concentrate on to re-grease/re-lube. Brake pivots and derailleurs spring to mind as moving parts, but the above has also got me thinking on cable ends as something requiring more frequent attention. Wondering if anyone on this thread can link me if this has been discussed previously, otherwise will get round to posting at some point.

[Brucey]

downwards facing cable ends, if generously lubricated, quite often weep a little lube. With these it is simply a question of giving them a little wipe from time to time to remove any dirt that has been picked up. If the frame has slotted guides, the housing can be unhooked and slid along, allowing some ad-hoc fettling of the cables without really taking anything apart or disturbing any adjustments.

With parts like brake pivots, if they are disassembled and greased, they then stay good for a long time. The main thing is then to remove dirt before it has a chance to penetrate the workings, and to use some kind of spray lube to displace water following a wash. If you don't do this then occasional sprays with an aerosol SFG will probably work well enough.

With a front mech, and rear mech parallelogram, using a spray lube is pretty much all you can do. WIth the lube freshly applied, if you work the mech back and forth and any black crud oozes out of the pivots, maybe you left it too long.

Rear mech pulleys benefit from being stripped and regreased. At one time I had several ultegra and XT-equipped bikes on the go and I had a spare set of pulleys ready to fit to whichever bike needed them. With these pulley sets (which are different now I think) the top pulley had a ceramic bushing (easily overhauled) and the lower had a small cartridge bearing in it. The seals could be popped from the lower bearing and it could be repacked with grease. I never wore a set of pulleys out this way, even when MTBing daily. 5800 pulleys are not so durable as ultegra/XT ones but they will still benefit from routine maintenance.

STIs get an occasional shot of SFG as required. They tend not to get very dirty inside, which is just as well. However if you work hard and sweat gets inside the mechanism, that can be very corrosive.

WIth shimano 11s stuff there are some special considerations. For starters the standard gear cable inners have had various forms of PTFE coating on them and some folk have found that the coating comes off and can even jam the workings. Whether this is an inherent feature or is as a result of sharp edges (e.g. moulded in to plastic ferrules or substandard cable housing prep) is not clear. On the plus side the shift ratio is a bit more forgiving than 10s road stuff.

BTW Jagwire claim that their best quality polished stainless inner cables (they do several different ones) run freer than PTFE coated ones. I dunno if this is really the case or not. Fortunately an LBS near me is about to embark upon some experiments and hopefully there will be a clear result.

cheers