rpenmanparker 

I'm prety cynical about most thngs, and the value of a periodic cable overhaul is no exception. But my Ti road bike was filthy, and while cleaning it up I noticed the cable inner wires looked like hell. Rust spots, frays, etc. Also this bike has always had very stiff shifting despite having een assembled with SRAM's Red Gore cable. Red derailleurs and brifters. Zero Gravity Ti calipers.

I bought a set of Jagwire Pro Road cables (shift and brake together) for $35 delivered on ebay. There are lots of colors available. Lubed outer cables. Teflon coated stainless inners. And linear support wires (not spiral wound) on both shift and brake cables. All ferrules, etc. included. Rode the bike today for the first time since installing the new cables. OMG! What a difference. Shift levers move much easier and shifts are super crisp. Brakes felt so hard, I had to open up the calipers to get better modulation. Now the're great.

What a cheap upgrade. Highly recommended. Unbeatable for the price.

erief0g

$35 bucks followed by "OMG what an upgrade".. sounds like sweet music.

Thanks for the heads up and enjoy the upgrade!

Nagrom_

Try Yokozuna Reaction next.

rpenmanparker 

I looked it up. Seems very similar to the Jagwire in construction except for the wound layer and clear coating. The Jagwire has the linear coaxial layer but the covering is more traditional. Except on the silver and gold versions which have the silver and gold threads braided under a clear coating. I also have the gold ones and really like them. It appears the price is about 50% higher on ebay. It would be nice if someone reading this could comment on a comparison between the two. I would hate to spend more just to get the same result. And it is hard for me to fathom anything being better than the Jagwire I just installed. But having learned a lesson about such cynicism, I am open to being corrected. Thanks for the suggestion.

on the path

Uh, sorrry... Comparing old, dirty, frayed cables to brand new, high end cables is meaningless. Do an A/B comparison of brand new standard replacement cables to brand new high end cables, and then you'll have something to talk about.

rpenmanparker 

Exactly how do you do that? I'm not Consumer Reports. I'm comparing new high end cables to what I remember about a different high end cable set from when it was also new. Basically saying these are the best cables I have ever used. There are plenty of standard cables in that have used category, and they were all new once.

erief0g

sure are more opinion police than grammar police on this forum.

on the path

I can tell you what I did. I replaced original cables with new inner and outer cables. I used, as recommended by a mechanic, oversized 5mm outer cables. I did that twice, with disappointing results. I installed the high end cables (not jagwire) not very long after the second replacement of cables, so they were still fairly new. The difference with the new, high end cables was significant, if not remarkable. I think that's a more meaningful comparison than if I was comparing old rusty cables to brand new ones. That said, I'll wait at least another 1000 miles to declare victory, that springing for the high end cables was worth it.

RomeoTango

I have a set of Road Pro cables in my "maintenance/upgrade" pile of parts waiting on good weekend to begin. Thanks for the validation on my purchase! Got mine from ebay as well for the same $$. White.

YOJiMBO20

Fixed

rpenmanparker 

But my point is you didn't go to all that trouble out of scientific curiosity. Besides I don't need to compare the two cases just days apart to know the bike has never shifted and stopped this well. What I don't understand is if you had the results you said were needed for a valid comparison, why didn't you just tell us about them right off the bat?

gc3

$35 for a set of cables doesn't approach anywhere near "high end high priced" in my estimation. Any significant performance improvement in a critical function for minor cost is well worth it. In this case, you're justified ignoring the scientific experiment patrol...

YMMV...

on the path

Oh... don't be so sure of yourself

I'm always curious as to what makes things work, and what makes things work better. As a kid, the first thing I did when I got a new toy was to take it apart to see how it worked. Drove my parents nuts.

Because it was a lot more fun to set you up I'm messing with you, for sure. But my original point was valid. Anything new with moving parts will almost surely will work better than something that is old and dirty and rusty. Compare apples to apples. That's a big step towards being more scientific..

rpenmanparker 

That's something I can't argue with.

Leukybear 

I literally had to wrestle this stuff; the housings are SO stiff.
Prepare yourself. You've been warned.

ibikestickers

Thanks for the encouragement to upgrade every now and then! I've been putting it off and having some encouragement is helpful!

buffalowings

I use the jagwire road cable kit too, $35 isn't unreasonable for a full set of brake/shifter housing and cabling.

dstrong 

Note to self: Replace cables and housings.

TrojanHorse

If it's any help, I went through 3 sets of cables in less than three years (changed frames and the housing lengths needed to be longer each time) and the three sets included Gore RideOn that came with my red shifters, a set of DuraAce cables and lastly the jagwire.

Except for the brake ferrules, the jagwires are at least as good as those Gore cables (which were still in excellent shape when I replaced them) and much cheaper, and also better than the much more expensive DuraAce cables. They work great! Why pay more? The color selection is nice too.

rpenmanparker 

Word!

Looigi

FWIW, I've been running those for some time and will be replacing them with set of Jag Pros that I have on the shelf for that purpose. The Yok brake housings made a big improvement in lever firmness switching from the previous Gore cables which generally sucked.

rpenmanparker 

Your comparative critique would be very informative. Please post something here when you make the switch.

Jed19

Easily the cheapest way to get 'a new bike' every time.

Tycho Brahe 

Yeah, but how much do they weigh?

rpenmanparker 

Assuming your serious, I'm glad you asked. I have some no-name outer cable lying around and compared the two. The derailleur outers are exactly the same, 0.83 g/in. The brake outers are 1.45 g/in for the no-name and 0.95 g/in for the Jagwire Pro Road. Nice savings. As for the inner wires, I don't know. At the same diameters, they must be just about the same.