Do better shift cables improve performance?

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Do better shift cables improve performance?
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flag kixx
Posted: Sep 30, 2011 at 2:02 Quote
jagarcia89 wrote:
kixx wrote:
shifting cable housing doesn't make much of a difference (be it spiral wound or linear wound) as long as it has teflon coating on the inside (bowden or whatever it's called) and proper caps installed. the inner cable is the important one. shimano teflon coated cables don't rust, stretch less and run smoother. no need to spend extra on jagwire, gore or other mumbo jumbo stuff.

Sorry not accurate. Linear vs spiral wound does matter. Spiral compresses so you do not want it on shift housing, it has modulation built in so it's good for brakes. Also Cables do not stretch, common misconception. Housing compresses and ferrules settle. And teflon cables are a wast of money, sure they don't rust where their exposed, but thats where it doesn't matter, the teflon coating will quickly wear off in the housing, then its just a normal cable now sliding through debris that was once the teflon coating.

nope ..... i have to argue with you Smile last year i ran all season brake housing cable for shifting. didn't have anything else lying around the house on the moment (too lazy to go out and buy) and didn't bother changing it later as there was no difference at all. i changed it after the winter because of normal wear and tear. as for teflon coated cables, i never had a problem with one, and i never saw one properly lubed that lost it's coating, even while i was working at a bike shop (and that was over a year). also a mate of mine is running his x7 with an original sram black coated cable for well over a year, and yes ... the coating is still there. it's true it's gone here and there, but not along the inner housing. Salute
flag bburke42
Posted: Sep 30, 2011 at 5:15 Quote
Yeah new cables will make your shifts easier and feel better, if it has been a year on the same cables i'd say switch them. I change my cables and casing pretty much every month but I do a lot of riding.
flag bburke42
Posted: Sep 30, 2011 at 5:20 Quote
kixx wrote:
jagarcia89 wrote:
kixx wrote:
shifting cable housing doesn't make much of a difference (be it spiral wound or linear wound) as long as it has teflon coating on the inside (bowden or whatever it's called) and proper caps installed. the inner cable is the important one. shimano teflon coated cables don't rust, stretch less and run smoother. no need to spend extra on jagwire, gore or other mumbo jumbo stuff.

Sorry not accurate. Linear vs spiral wound does matter. Spiral compresses so you do not want it on shift housing, it has modulation built in so it's good for brakes. Also Cables do not stretch, common misconception. Housing compresses and ferrules settle. And teflon cables are a wast of money, sure they don't rust where their exposed, but thats where it doesn't matter, the teflon coating will quickly wear off in the housing, then its just a normal cable now sliding through debris that was once the teflon coating.

nope ..... i have to argue with you Smile last year i ran all season brake housing cable for shifting. didn't have anything else lying around the house on the moment (too lazy to go out and buy) and didn't bother changing it later as there was no difference at all. i changed it after the winter because of normal wear and tear. as for teflon coated cables, i never had a problem with one, and i never saw one properly lubed that lost it's coating, even while i was working at a bike shop (and that was over a year). also a mate of mine is running his x7 with an original sram black coated cable for well over a year, and yes ... the coating is still there. it's true it's gone here and there, but not along the inner housing. Salute

Sorry but I don't agree with you K, linear vs. spiral matters. I would be fired if I put brake housing on all shifters, it only works fine on a friction shifter. I am sure it may have worked for you, but I bet performance would be better with proper shifter cable, especially because of how they are made(i.e shift being rigid) and that brake cables are actually larger then shift cable so there is more room in the housing for dirt and grim to get in and cause more friction
flag jagarcia89
O+
Posted: Sep 30, 2011 at 6:45 Quote
bburke42 wrote:
kixx wrote:
jagarcia89 wrote:


Sorry not accurate. Linear vs spiral wound does matter. Spiral compresses so you do not want it on shift housing, it has modulation built in so it's good for brakes. Also Cables do not stretch, common misconception. Housing compresses and ferrules settle. And teflon cables are a wast of money, sure they don't rust where their exposed, but thats where it doesn't matter, the teflon coating will quickly wear off in the housing, then its just a normal cable now sliding through debris that was once the teflon coating.

nope ..... i have to argue with you Smile last year i ran all season brake housing cable for shifting. didn't have anything else lying around the house on the moment (too lazy to go out and buy) and didn't bother changing it later as there was no difference at all. i changed it after the winter because of normal wear and tear. as for teflon coated cables, i never had a problem with one, and i never saw one properly lubed that lost it's coating, even while i was working at a bike shop (and that was over a year). also a mate of mine is running his x7 with an original sram black coated cable for well over a year, and yes ... the coating is still there. it's true it's gone here and there, but not along the inner housing. Salute

Sorry but I don't agree with you K, linear vs. spiral matters. I would be fired if I put brake housing on all shifters, it only works fine on a friction shifter. I am sure it may have worked for you, but I bet performance would be better with proper shifter cable, especially because of how they are made(i.e shift being rigid) and that brake cables are actually larger then shift cable so there is more room in the housing for dirt and grim to get in and cause more friction

yup sorry K your just wrong here.I would be fired as well if I did this at my shop. And I have about 8 times more in shop experience than you
flag hampsteadbandit
Posted: Sep 30, 2011 at 12:58 Quote
outer cable makes a HUGE difference Wink


as a professional mechanic (with 20+ years experience) working as a workshop manager for one of the prime shops in the UK's biggest quality bike chain (48 stores and growing..) I have the experience to back this statement up


as a real world example, a couple of years ago, at a different shop, our boss cheaped out on the outer gear cable because the distrib. offered a closeout deal - we got some unbranded outer which looked to be reasonable quality in terms of construction.

we did a summer season of work on customer bikes and had nothing but ongoing gear shifting issues

laggy shifting and an inability to set reliable indexing, it was always off either in the bottom end or top end of the cassette, at times could be set and customer would come back next day with indexing problems

I sourced boxes of Shimano SP-41, and every single bike with these issues came back into the workshops, had the cabling replaced FOC, and the problem immediately disappeared

I have used both shimano inner cable and generic inner cable, and found no difference in shifting, its all about the outer cabling because this is where the compression and friction occurs in the shifting system

when a gear cable "stretches" its not the inner getting longer (it physically cannot), its the inner cable bedding into the liner of the outer cable

good outer cable is absolutely critical for proper gear shifting and Shimano SP-41 is as good as it gets
flag jagarcia89
O+
Posted: Oct 1, 2011 at 6:19 Quote
+1. I hope the guy claiming outter cable doesn't matter, it's all inner cable has sufficient evidence to change his opinion due to the 30 or so years experience arguing against
flag kixx
Posted: Oct 1, 2011 at 12:39 Quote
jagarcia89 wrote:
+1. I hope the guy claiming outter cable doesn't matter, it's all inner cable has sufficient evidence to change his opinion due to the 30 or so years experience arguing against

it's not i reject your reality and substitute my own, but more like you learn new things every day Salute
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