Cables

[stephenmarklay]

After having one fry at the shifter today I wondered if any cables were better than others. The basic ones I had shifted fine but I am just underwhelmed.

Thoughts?

[Cicli]

I use the coated Jagwire cables. I also change them every 3-4k as to not have an issue. I had one break in a 6700 shifter. It was misrible to get out.

[djg21]

I tried numerous over the years on both MTBs and road bikes. I loved the feel of the old Gore ride-on cables and housing, especially on the MTB, but they are no longer sold. I tried Nokon housing on one road bike, and didn't think the incremental return in performance was worth the hassle. I'm really liking Yokuzuna Reaction brake and derailleur housing and cables. They have lasted multiple seasons and really improve brake feel. http://www.yokozunausa.com/cableshousing.html. I use them with a Dura Ace 7950 gruppo.

[572cv]

I tried numerous over the years on both MTB and road bike. I loved the feel of the old Gore ride-on cables and housing, especially on the MTB, but they are no longer sold. I tried Nokon housing on one road bike, and didn't think the incremental return in performance was worth the hassle. I'm really liking Yokuzuna Reaction Brake and derailleur housing and cables. They have lasted multiple seasons and really improve brake feel. http://www.yokozunausa.com/cableshousing.html. I use them with a Dura Ace 7950 gruppo.

+1. Yokuzuna makes a great cable system. I'm on board.

[Ralph]

I can't tell much difference between hi quality stainless cables for my Campy stuff. Sometimes I use Campy wire, sometimes JagWire slick wire, or Ribble brand. The Ribble "Kable" brand for a couple bucks seems same quality as any others. Lately been mostly using Kable wires for shift and brake for Campy, and lubed housing (25' last time) from Jagwire. Works fine.

I don't like the Teflon coated JagWire cables. When the coating comes off, seems to me it causes more issues than it improves. Had to replace an almost new coated cable on friends bike recently.....housing clogged up. Maybe just a fluke.

Avoid the cheap Jag Wire steel cables. They rust easily. I do think it's important to use the smaller head cables designed for campy. I'm not good at grinding down Shimano heads to fit Campy hoods.....want the cable to fit down in grove, so not to interfere with shifting. I see shifting issues a lot because of using wrong size cable heads....Shimano cables on Campy.

[ultraman6970]

Is this a shimano or a campagnolo drive train? asking because campagnolo drivetrain cables no matter the brand of the cable it will last longer than cables in shimano drive trains, shimano uses way too much tension to work IMO, besides the weird position of the cables dont help that much either, so you get forced to change them more often than in a campagnolo drive train.

[fishwhisperer]

+1 on yokozuna. it's on all my bikes except the ones with bends too tight to make the housing stay where it needs to be.

[stephenmarklay]

Is this a shimano or a campagnolo drive train? asking because campagnolo drivetrain cables no matter the brand of the cable it will last longer than cables in shimano drive trains, shimano uses way too much tension to work IMO, besides the weird position of the cables dont help that much either, so you get forced to change them more often than in a campagnolo drive train.

Yeah Shimano. I never used to have issues with them until now. I may have to move to campy.

[Ralph]

I figure I can pretty much recable a bike for less than $10 from parts I mention above. it will shift as good any other. After inspection of cables, usually cut the long shift and brake cables and use them again on short front brake and front shifter. After inspecting heads for wear and using plenty of grease around heads. It's important to inspect these good. Use new cables for RD and rear brake, new shift housing for RD, maybe FD.

I never have any issues with cables. Keep 6 bikes up for family. Keep a good stock of all sizes (Campy, Shimano, MTB) of cables, cable ends, housing, and ferules handy.

[bigbill]

I'm the lone campy user in this county but I'm also the handy guy with the tools and parts in his garage. Nearest bike shop is 90 minutes away. I've replaced a lot of Shimano shifter cables, most of them after they broke inside the STI shifter. The worst was a local with a 9000 group, three cables in one year. Shimano cable routing in the shifter is just too tight, imo. One guy rides 5700 and I put a campy cable in it last year. I don't know if it's the cable or the metric ****-tonne of grease I put in the shifter when I installed it, but it's still going strong. I backed it out in December to look at it and saw no broken strands.

[ultraman6970]

Shimano must make a ton of dough in cable sales.

[dave thompson]

Reading posts like this about cables having to turn such tight corners in Shimano shifters and breaking after not too many miles, makes me wonder if a fix might be to use the SRAM 1.1 shifter cables. Shimano cables measure 1.2mm while the SRAM measure 1.1. The SRAM cables go around tighter corners, both in the shifter and after it exits the shifter and under the bartape.

In the hand, the SRAM cables are much limper than other brands of shift cables and it would seem to me to be more willing to be abused in the Shimano shifters.

I've used the SRAM cables on all of our bikes since seemingly forever and bring a healthy stock of them to Mexico to repair and maintain the bikes I'm responsible for.

[Doug Fattic]

Jagwire has just come out with 2 new slick gear cables. These are replacing the ones that had some kind of coating. Just to review, some years ago they started running their cables through a die to take out the “bumps” caused by the multiple strands that when wound together make up a single cable. This reduced the friction of the cable running through housing and ferrules. They named them “slick” cables.

The new models are now polished and come in 2 versions. This extra polish is designed to reduce cable friction further. The pricer ultra-slick model called “Elite Shift Cable" (about $24 standard retail for one cable) is more highly polished and designed for 11 speed systems. The "Pro” model is $10 standard retail price per cable and I assume for shifting systems with fewer gears. These new models do not have any coating over the stainless cable. They continue to sell the cheaper “Slick” model.

Jagwire is coming out with new cable housing too but I haven’t seen them yet. These new polished gear cables just became available to wholesale outlets.

[bikerboy337]

I agree 100%... i've been using the "kable" wires for several years.. i just swap them out annually... i bought a huge roll of Jagwire housing that i replace as needed...

works great...

I can't tell much difference between hi quality stainless cables for my Campy stuff. Sometimes I use Campy wire, sometimes JagWire slick wire, or Ribble brand. The Ribble "Kable" brand for a couple bucks seems same quality as any others. Lately been mostly using Kable wires for shift and brake for Campy, and lubed housing (25' last time) from Jagwire. Works fine.

[Tony]

Jagwire has just come out with 2 new slick gear cables. These are replacing the ones that had some kind of coating. Just to review, some years ago they started running their cables through a die to take out the “bumps” caused by the multiple strands that when wound together make up a single cable. This reduced the friction of the cable running through housing and ferrules. They named them “slick” cables.

The new models are now polished and come in 2 versions. This extra polish is designed to reduce cable friction further. The pricer ultra-slick model called “Elite Shift Cable" (about $24 standard retail for one cable) is more highly polished and designed for 11 speed systems. The "Pro” model is $10 standard retail price per cable and I assume for shifting systems with fewer gears. These new models do not have any coating over the stainless cable. They continue to sell the cheaper “Slick” model.

Jagwire is coming out with new cable housing too but I haven’t seen them yet. These new polished gear cables just became available to wholesale outlets.

Using this cable now, purchased from Bikeman, $27.00!
Crazy routing to rear der. on a mtb and wanted to try this cable and see if it reduced friction and make a difference in shifting.
Maybe slighting better shifting, wouldn't buy again.

[benb]

I've had no problems in the past with Jagwire or whatever the LBS gave me, they'd just cut me some housing off their spool and give me a couple cables. In general with this my guess is more frequent cable changes with perhaps more pedestrian supplies is probably better overall than boutique expensive cable sets which don't get replaced as often.

However (and it probably costs me more), I've been using the OEM shimano sets on my bikes with 10-speed shimano. I've run 5700 and 6700 and because of the fear of the cables breaking off I just buy the correct Shimano ones. I don't typically let cables go for more than a year so I've had no issues. I guess I do need to be careful, my nice bike has 6700 and only goes out in good weather now so the cables are holding up really well.. wouldn't want to let them go so long that the issue with too much cable bend inside the shifter becomes a problem for me.

[jemoryl]

I think Campy OEM cables are fine. I don't usually change the inners unless I think they need it, outers every several years. Half way through a long ride last weekend, one with a lot of climbing, I realized my rear cable was getting frayed. Apart from needing to tweak the adjuster to higher tension now and then, Campy ergos have this nice feature where the broken strands start to poke you in the finger as the cable deteriorates (they always break at knob for me). Made it back without too much drama and replaced the cable.

[MikeD]

Jagwire Road Elite cables. 2+ years on my bike and still shifting smooth.

[Big Dan]

Shimano
Y60098911
What I use.
No issues.
BTW Mike Zanconato had a good post about this.
Could have been at Velocipede.

[T-Crush]

Went through a Nokon phase, which were interesting but heard rumors of them eating through stuff wherever they might rub. Reverted to OEM Campagnolo, which are fine and then picked up a set of Yokozuna on a lark. Really nice stuff and are gradually finding their way onto everything in my stable, including the Campy road bikes.

[teleguy57]

Have always been a Campy/OEM cabling guy, but recently put iLinks (standard size for both shift and brake) on my bike. Used Jawire EZ housing under the bar tape, and actually left my current Campy inners in place.

Maybe it's placebo effect, but I do feel like I'm getting just a tad more solid braking and crisper shifting. Not justifying my financial investment as the links came for free from -dustin or thegunner here (sorry, don't recall which was the generous guy this time around) and I have a full spare set of Camp cables and housing in the workshop. And they're gold :beer:

[stephenmarklay]

Reading posts like this about cables having to turn such tight corners in Shimano shifters and breaking after not too many miles, makes me wonder if a fix might be to use the SRAM 1.1 shifter cables. Shimano cables measure 1.2mm while the SRAM measure 1.1. The SRAM cables go around tighter corners, both in the shifter and after it exits the shifter and under the bartape.

In the hand, the SRAM cables are much limper than other brands of shift cables and it would seem to me to be more willing to be abused in the Shimano shifters.

I've used the SRAM cables on all of our bikes since seemingly forever and bring a healthy stock of them to Mexico to repair and maintain the bikes I'm responsible for.

Interesting thought. It seems that the limpness :) may not matter. The cable just frays right at the sharp bend. I think Shimano went a step backwards on these shifters in that regard.

[dave thompson]

Interesting thought. It seems that the limpness :) may not matter. The cable just frays right at the sharp bend. I think Shimano went a step backwards on these shifters in that regard.

My unfortunate term 'limpness' (being around a lot of non-English speakers for a long time has contracted my vocabulary) was my weak attempt to convey that the SRAM 1.1 cables go around tight bends much easier than the (relatively) more rigid Shimano/Yokozuna/Jagwire cables and may be less prone to that fraying.

[Tony]

Went through two cables in four months on my Thompson dropper. It has a very sharp bend like in this picture, to make matters worse there is a small allen screw that pins the cable at the bend.
I have a coated Jagwire cable on now, six months and still looks good.

https://www.nashbar.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10053_10052_572084_-1___204722?cm_mmc=Google%20CPC-_-Dynamic%20Search%20Ads-_-Catch%20All-_-DSA_Catch%20All

[zzy]

I've had campy cables fray in the shifter body too. But the problem is much more pronounced with 5700/6700 STIs. Just another reason why I prefer the externally routed older Shimanos.

[stephenmarklay]

Thanks so much guys. I replaced my cables with quickly available stuff I got locally.

I am going to start stocking up on maintenance items for now on. This like tires, tubes, chains, cogs, bar tape cables and housings are will fill my bins from now on. I have been bad waiting until I have a problem I guess.

[Frikki]

I've had campy cables fray in the shifter body too. But the problem is much more pronounced with 5700/6700 STIs. Just another reason why I prefer the externally routed older Shimanos.

This is interesting to me, I just swapped to a 2013-ish campy groupset and the routing seems like it would have the same, if not more issues than 57/6700 shimano stuff.
Is this of no concern?
Could it be that Shimano users have more options for low quality generic cabling (and that they're more inclined to go for inexpensive options as they haven't been broken by the the everything-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg campy experience™)

[MikeD]

I bought some Alligator 31 strand cables but haven't tried them yet. They should be less prone to fraying because they are more flexible.

[dave thompson]

This is interesting to me, I just swapped to a 2013-ish campy groupset and the routing seems like it would have the same, if not more issues than 57/6700 shimano stuff.
Is this of no concern?
Could it be that Shimano users have more options for low quality generic cabling (and that they're more inclined to go for inexpensive options as they haven't been broken by the the everything-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg campy experience™)

The cable fray problem with certain models of Shimano shifters is due to the design of the spool that takes up the cable as the shifter is operated. The spool, if that's the correct term, causes the shift cable around its small diameter and with repeated use the cable becomes weaker (much like bending a piece of metal back and forth until it breaks) and the individual cable strands start to break.

The routing of the cable isn't an issue.