New Shifter Cables - Lovely

[freddered]

I replaced the shifter cables last week after a friend said how much better it made shifting.

My Raven Tour is 2.5 years old and it's done 13,000km.  The shifter cable outers were cracked where they enter the first set of headtube guides and visibly rusty.

I ordered the cables from SJSC and watched the Youtube video (which descibes the process perfectly)

Cable Change

The only thing I did differently was to bypass the cable guides on the headtube as I feel they put too much stress on the cable outers when the handlebars are turned.

The shifter action is wonderfully light now, highly recommended way to spend an hour.

Don't forget to buy a size 20 Torx/Star driver

I also bought a new bayonet connector becasue the allen key was stripped on the grub screw. 

I ordered some tiny (6mm M4) allen bolts from www.stagonset.co.uk for a few pence (you can buy individual replacement grub screws if you need them, I got some just in case).  I fitted one bolt to the male bayonet end and it gives you some purchase when disconnecting/connecting with cold/wet/oily hands.  Trust me, they are a bugger to use when repairing a puncture in the rain and dark.



Here endeth my tips.  Use or not.

[stutho]

Hi Freddered,
Did you go for any particularly make of cable?

[lewis noble]

Hello Freddered

Those bolts things look an excellent idea - to describe the originals as a bugger to use sometimes is an understatement . . .

Lewis

[freddered]

Hi Freddered,
Did you go for any particularly make of cable?

They are Shimano and are the ones sjsc sell specifically as replacements for shifter cables

The bolts also have a bigger allen key hole making them less prone to 'rounding' and now I can always use Mole-Grips if all else fails.  If I was going on a long tour I'd probably fit bolts in place of every grub screw. 

[avdave]

I've had the same issue with cracked cable outers on my Catalyst, so I'll bear that idea in mind when I change mine. Having said that mine were cracked and rusting after 6 months and now at over 2 years the gear change is still as good as new and the bike is used every day as a commuter, currently off road. I have found reconnecting the bayonet fittings tricky in the past but I have found that as long as I reconnect the bottom one first it's easy.

[freddered]

Originally my shifter cables has absolutely no slack in them and no adjustment left in the (screw) cable stops so it required a real effort to squeeze the cables together. With cold hands it was touch and go whether I could even do it.

The instructions for changing cables says to unscrew the cable stops a couple of turns (giving you only about 1 mm of adjustment/play) but I unscrewed them half way to give me lots of available adjustment.  I didn't see the point of having all that screw thread available and not using it.

I suppose I'd betther think about replacing the inner cable now.

[davefife]

http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1361.msg6426#msg6426

I posted on this before as the cracking and corrosion on the outers happened to me soon into RST ownership, I reckon the shimano are what they sent me as replacement, no problems since, its the way that the wire in the outers is wound that makes the difference.

Thats a  ;DTOP tip with the hex head bolt and would overcome the inevitable corrosion alu/steel interaction that causes the grub screws to seize, may try that out; thanks freddered.
Also what are your cables like now that you bypassed the cable guides on the headtube?

[freddered]

My rear brake cable and my 2 shifter cables all run via the right-hand side of my head tube and into the first set of guides under the top tube, none of my 3 headtube guides are used.

I think the headtube guides are more of a liability really and that my finished result is neater and 'friendlier' to cable outers.

Having said that I use drop bars so my shifter is low down on the steerer.  If you have flat bars then the problem will not be so accute (although I still don't like the headtube guides).