Originally Posted by
cxwrench
If you ride regularly (3-5 days a week) once a year is the longest you should go between replacing them.
I do ride that much per week. But why should I replace them if they are working just fine? I don't know anyone that replaces their cables and housing once a year. If the cable/housing is going bad I'm thinking it would start showing itself in the form of hard shifting performance and I don't have that. I'll replace when there is evidence of wear.
Like I said...I have a bike from 2016 and 2018 and none of the shifter cables or housings have been touched and they still shift perfectly fine. Only thing replaced on them is chains, chainrings, cassettes and derailleur. My other 5 bikes are 2020 and newer and nothing has been changed on them yet.
I would think the biggest factor would be riding conditions and whether or not if it's a partially sealed or fully sealed cables. A hard and fast rule of every year seems a bit excessive.
Take care of your equipment. I've got a story about a guy that ended up dead because he completely ignored his commute bike and his bars broke due to corrosion.
My mountain and road bikes have carbon bars. No corrosion.