Lubricating Gear Cables

[Witterings]

What lubricants best for shifter cables, I have 3 in 1, wet lube, gt85, silicon spray and good old fashioned grease to hand .... ideally I don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to.

[JohnW]

What lubricants best for shifter cables, I have 3 in 1, wet lube, gt85, silicon spray and good old fashioned grease to hand .... ideally I don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to.

In the days when cables were not lined with the very small diameter plastic/nylon inner tube, I used to liberally grease the cables with bog standard grease - anything to hand - and then liberally pour (or squirt from an aerosol) any suitable lube into the outer cable before inserting the inner cable - until the lube came out of the other end. Then, from time to time, I'd pour/squirt more lube into the cable.

I found that the "Superspray Lube with PTFE" aerosol, in the small white can tin, was the best for me, without needing to grease. A bit of an expensive way of doing it though

In even earlier days, before the inners were stainless steel, I found that I had to be even more liberal with the lube. There was a time when aerosol sprays were not compatible with all greases - the bog standard basic greases being worse for this - and sometimes congealed. Some early aerosols (e.g. LPS3) set very stiff, so beware of that.

Currently, with the modern cables which do have the nylon/plastic liners and stainless steel inners, I put nothing in and I've not had a problem. The liners do wear from time to time, and we're advised to change cables from time to time anyway.

[alexnharvey]

If I weren't so tight I'd buy that fancy Shimano cable lube.

https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shi ... can-490951

I've not yet succeeded in finding out the OEM for it.

[Mick F]

Like JohnW says!

If you have modern cables be they gear or brake, they need nothing.
Campagnolo for instance with their Ergo cables, say they are lubricated for life. The ones I have on Mercian, have never been touched since installation.

[Cugel]

What lubricants best for shifter cables, I have 3 in 1, wet lube, gt85, silicon spray and good old fashioned grease to hand .... ideally I don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to.

With bare woven-wire Bowden cables, I trickle WD40, GT85 or similar down the cables. Careful application lets a bead travel down the wire to hidden parts. This is not so much a lubricant (although it does seem to keep the cables freely-sliding) as a means to prevent cable-rot, since it displaces any moisture in the cable weave. Minimum amount only, mind. You don't want it anywhere other than in and on the cable.

My cables last for decades. I only ever have to replace one if I muck up the end when undoing it from a gear or brake clamp. You still must clean out muck from the cable guides - although the WD40/GT85 does seem to prevent corrosion even there, if muck is in for a while.

I presume this is of no use to fully-enclosed cables, especially if the cables are also coated with plastic. But those seem to degrade rapidly, as the inside of the outer, and the coating of the inner, break up and clog things.

Cugel

[rjb]

Last set of campag cables i installed came with the outers prelubricated with white grease at one end with instructions to insert the inners from the same end. The grease looked similar to finish line teflon grease, which is what i use to lube my cables.

[Brucey]

cable outers vary and so do cable inners. Best to follow the manufacturer's advice really.

Variations in cable outers include;

- liners in PE, PTFE, PP, Acetal, or other polymer.
- liners that are smooth surfaced or textured
- no liner
- housings with sealed ferrules
- variations in liner diameter vs the cable size fitted

Variations in cable inners include;

- galvanised wire
- galvanised wire with an anti-friction treatment
- stainless steel
- polished stainless steel
- highly polished stainless steel
- coated stainless steel (with various coatings)

Coated inners are a mixed blessing; the cables have very low friction when they are installed, but can easily go bad as the coating comes off; this can partly (or wholly) clog the cable at which point it is doing more harm than good.

I do not recommend that you use no lube unless the cable manufacturers explicitly state this is the way you should do it. IME such cables are a bit (or a lot) draggier than they would be otherwise and worse yet if the cable housing has a low spot in the run, this can collect water and (amazingly) the cable inner can corrode there, even it if is stainless steel. Stainless steel can corrode if the oxide layer can't reform quickly enough and conditions inside a flooded cable housing can turn that bad, that anaerobic.

There are potential problems with lubricating cables too. If you use any kind of a grease, it can be so gel-like that to start the cable moving requires an excessive force, and whether the lubricant is a grease or a fluid normally, the cable can get very draggy if it sees lubricant all the way. If the lube comprises a grease that is an oil and a thickener, chances are that you will be left with just the thickener once the oil has run out of the end of the cable or been absorbed. Most cable liner materials are susceptible to swelling or softening in a range of common lubricants; obviously this can be a double-whammy; the cable can dry out because the liner absorbs the lube and the soft liner in combination with the remaining lube thickener can make for a draggy cable. Softened liners will drag worse and wear more quickly. If a synthetic oil is used, it is less likely to react with any (unknown) liner material, but if it does react it might be worse than a mineral oil. Mineral oils react differently depending on the oil in question and (of course) the liner type.

In LBSs near me they fit new cables with a coating of oil over the inner wire. The cables run smooth but the lube a) won't persist, it will run out the ends and b) may soften some liners. This means in the long run it won't work.

There are a few lubes that are meant for cables:

Shimano grease; works Ok but is fantastically expensive (it may be a silicone grease BTW)
Rock'n'Roll 'cable magic'; works OK when new but (according to some who have tried it) dries out leaving the thickener only (a chalky mess) and this stops the cable from working.

For quite a few years I have used a smear of Finish line Teflon grease on the inner and I have added some synthetic oil to the cable as it is run into the housing. The logic behind this is that the grease -even if it is small fraction of the total lube present- will help thicken the mixture so the lube won't come out of the cable under its own steam. The base oil in the FL Teflon grease is synthetic and the thickener is mostly PTFE which is a lubricant in its own right. Both things swing the chances in your favour. The cables usually last until they fatigue somewhere on a road bike, but even if installed with so-called 'sealed ferrules' may need de-lousing from time to time on a MTB, because when there is that much dirt flying around, some will still get in. The lube persists pretty well; I have some (polished stainless) cables which have been installed with this lube, on sensitive indexed gear systems using SP41 housing, and they are coming up to 20 years old now (on bikes that see very occasional use only ) and they still work fine.

I have some silicone grease and I intend to try that (with other things added) as a cable lube. The other thing that is worth trying is silicone spray lube; there is some that Hope recommend for their DOT fluid brakes (which is actually a plumber's spray lube) and that might work OK in cables too. Silicone lubes have the advantage that they should cause little or no swelling/softening in any housing liner material.

Other things that I have heard folk use include
- spray on furniture polish
- running the cable inner through a block of wax before it is installed

but I can't vouch for any of these schemes. One thing I can say doesn't work well (in a linered cable) is a #2 grease with a very high solids content. Just the job in an unlinered cable, but with a liner it just makes for a very draggy cable. It will probably last forever, but just won't work right in the meantime.

Any cable (including ones with a nipple at both ends like SA hub brake cables) can be lubricated without disassembly using one of these hydraulic oilers;



(which are really meant for motorbikes); the end fittings and the rubber seal are split so that they can slide over the inner cable. The nipple on the cable sits inside the hydraulic oiler in use. If the force required to drive the lube into the cable is too high, probably the cable will be a bit draggy too. These oilers are however pretty messy to use.

cheers

[Witterings]

A big thank you to everyone for all the responses ... I don't know what's fitted on there as I bought it as a 2nd hand bike so not sure what the manufacturers recommendation is so I guess the real answer is swap them out for new.

The gears have only just started to stick a bit changing into higher gears on the rear ... you may have to slightly push the lever a bit after the click to get it to change and they don't cleanly drop down to the smallest cog either.

Murphy's law this starts just before my 1st ever charity ride on Sunday and what will also be the longest ride I've ever done and it's hilly (which I'm really not used to) so ideally want predictable gear changes.

I thought about taking it in having them changed but whilst it's not ideal at the moment I can make do and don't to run the risk they ended up really out of syc after changing them.

I think I'll just try and use a small application of silicone spray and see of I can ease them up as a short term fix for the ride and then get them changed afterwards ... or probably learn to do it myself when it doesn't matter if something goes wrong.

Thanks again for all the input!!!

[JohnW]

............The gears have only just started to stick a bit changing into higher gears on the rear ... you may have to slightly push the lever a bit after the click to get it to change and they don't cleanly drop down to the smallest cog either.......................

Beware though - that the cause may be something else!

[tim-b]

Hi

The gears have only just started to stick a bit changing into higher gears on the rear

Beware though - that the cause may be something else!

I couldn't agree more, however, as a non-betting man I'd replace the last loop of outer casing that runs from the chainstay to the rear mech, these always rust first and it's a quick job. Clean that section of inner cable if it's rusty rather than necessarily replace it should keep you going
I use Cable Magic with Shimano SP41 outer casing and plain stainless inners; the lube has never been a problem but the outer always rusts on that last bit eventually
Regards
tim-b

[Cunobelin]

What lubricants best for shifter cables, I have 3 in 1, wet lube, gt85, silicon spray and good old fashioned grease to hand .... ideally I don't want to buy anything else if I don't have to.

With bare woven-wire Bowden cables, I trickle WD40, GT85 or similar down the cables. Careful application lets a bead travel down the wire to hidden parts. This is not so much a lubricant (although it does seem to keep the cables freely-sliding) as a means to prevent cable-rot, since it displaces any moisture in the cable weave. Minimum amount only, mind. You don't want it anywhere other than in and on the cable.

My cables last for decades. I only ever have to replace one if I muck up the end when undoing it from a gear or brake clamp. You still must clean out muck from the cable guides - although the WD40/GT85 does seem to prevent corrosion even there, if muck is in for a while.

I presume this is of no use to fully-enclosed cables, especially if the cables are also coated with plastic. But those seem to degrade rapidly, as the inside of the outer, and the coating of the inner, break up and clog things.

Cugel

Old trick that I was taught and seems to work....bot depends on how the cables are fitted, it won't work if they are under handlebar tape.

Loosen cable and detach brake at lever

Get some plasticine and make small basin around the end of the outer. fill the basin with a lower viscosity lubricant

Tape to lever so that the basin is upright, and leave overnight (or weekend is better) the lubricant will trickle down into the cable

[iandusud]

Hi

The gears have only just started to stick a bit changing into higher gears on the rear

Beware though - that the cause may be something else!

I couldn't agree more, however, as a non-betting man I'd replace the last loop of outer casing that runs from the chainstay to the rear mech, these always rust first and it's a quick job. Clean that section of inner cable if it's rusty rather than necessarily replace it should keep you going
I use Cable Magic with Shimano SP41 outer casing and plain stainless inners; the lube has never been a problem but the outer always rusts on that last bit eventually
Regards
tim-b

+1 for replacing the last loop. It is here that I find the lining breaks down first, presumably because of the tight radius, which is also why I replace them with a longer length to increase the radius.

[Witterings]

As I didn't want to disconnect the cable have just cleaned all under the rear loop and and used some silicone lube and it seems to have done the job for now .... will use it for the ride as is and then swap the loop out afterwards.

Thanks again for everyone's help!!!

[Witterings]

EDITED: FOUND THE ANSWER

I've found a new gear cable in the garage so probably will swap it out ... when you re-attach the new cable at the rear ... how do you know how tight to pull it before doing up the bolt and securing it in place?

I watched videos on how to change it and then adjust so the changes are smooth between them but it's the one piece of information they don't seem to give.

[JohnW]

EDITED: FOUND THE ANSWER

I've found a new gear cable in the garage so probably will swap it out ... when you re-attach the new cable at the rear ... how do you know how tight to pull it before doing up the bolt and securing it in place?

I watched videos on how to change it and then adjust so the changes are smooth between them but it's the one piece of information they don't seem to give.

I put the chain on the little chainring and smallest sprocket (AKA cog) and then pull the cable as tight as I can but trying not to disturb the rear changer from the 'natural' position it has taken with the chain in that position. The inner cable will stretch after a hundred miles or so, and you may have to re-tighten it.