dellwilson

I say argh because I'm back already. I just bought a 2009 Giant Seek 0 used a few weeks ago and I'm on my second or third post because I have to fix something. The upside is that I'm learning maintenance on this bike through necessity.

Today, my bike stopped shifting properly. It effectively became stuck in 5th gear. The shifter would go down to 1st, but the hub would not shift down past 5th. It would shift up to 6th with quite a bit of tension, but took some coaxing to get it back down to 5th. It would not shift up to 7th or 8th at all due to the tension.

By inserting a small hex key in the cassette joint pulley, I found that I could shift the hub all the way up and down with ease. That told me that the problem was in the cable.

I took the shift cable loose from the hub and found that it was indeed the problem. When I slid the plastic cap (that fits into the outer casing holder) off the outer casing, I found one thread of the inner cable wound up in there. I was able to pull it out, but it is broken off and not long enough to get into the cable fixing bolt. The only thing I knew to do was to break it off as far up into the cable housing as possible in hopes that it doesn't get fouled again, but I know that is wishing on a miracle. It's working well again, but I'm certain that I need to replace this cable to feel confident about it again.

I've reviewed the documentation on the shifter and the installation looks like something I can do. I do have a few questions though...

1. The manual says that I need a cable with one inner cable drum. Where can I get this?

2. Do I also need to replace the outer cable housing? Or can I be confident that once I pull out the frayed inner cable that my problems will come with it?

3. Do I need to grease or lubricate the inner cable in any way?

4. Any other hints, tips, or tricks that will help me?

Thanks y'all

tatfiend 

IIRC the inner cable is a standard Shimano shift cable as used on all of their shifters, including derailleur ones. Should be available at any LBS.

Sounds to me like the cable as misinstalled originally. Unless you bought the bike on line the LBS you bought it from should do the repair for free under warranty.

Inspect the outer housing and unless a visible problem with it there should be no reason to replace it on a relatively new bike.

People seem to disagree on cable greasing. Modern lined cable housing claims to not need it but I note that many LBS mechanics do grease cables as part of installation. They claim less drag on the inner cable.

I built my own Alfine hub bike and use the Jtek bar end shifter on drop bars.

dellwilson

Thanks for the info.