Cable broken near the shifter

[j-ms]

Yesterday the gear 14 cable on my wife's bike broke, not completely but enough to jam the cable.  The break was just at the point that the cable enters the shifter when the shifter is is between gears 8 and 9, the position it needs to be in to be able to free the cable nipple.  After battling to push the cable out as per the Rohloff manual and video for almost an hour but not making any progress because the cable was insufficiently stiff to overcome the resistance of the fraying, I eventually removed the shifter and used another piece of cable to support the the broken cable and force the nipple out of its seating.  The attached image shows how short the cable was at the point of the damage.

Just posting this in case anyone else encounters a similar situation.

[PH]

Nasty!
was it a Rohloff specific cable?  Any sign it was on it's way out?
I've never had a Rohloff cable go, but know what a pain campag ones stuck in an Ergo are.

[j-ms]

This was the original cable as supplied by Thorn so I assume it was a genuine Rohloff part.  It was over 22000 Km old so it was due for replacement.

What may have precipitated the break was that my wife had a tumble the previous week and broke the twist shifter clamp.  I assume something solid struck the clamp (which a curved piece of aluminium about 2cm long) during the fall.  This is very near to where the cable was broken but I have no proof that this was the cause.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

was it a Rohloff specific cable?

Yes that's a genuine cable, easily identified by the hexagonal barrel.

[jul]

Do you recommend to replace the Rohloff cable regularly ? ( as every 20000 kms ) or it can resist much more time ? 

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

Do you recommend to replace the Rohloff cable regularly ? ( as every 20000 kms ) or it can resist much more time ?

Like many things on a bike is down to the conditions its used in, we only say to replace cables when either an increase in resistance is felt or the outer casing starts to degrade (perishing/cracks etc)

Hope this helps,

Dave