When Do You Replace Shifter Cables?
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When Do You Replace Shifter Cables?
I once thought that one advantage of mechanical shifters is that you don't have to be concerned about your battery dying. But yesterday I had a shifter cable break. It's the second time I've had this happen on a bike I've had less than three years. So, that advantage isn't so much of an advantage after all. A cable break prevents you from shifting almost as much as a dead battery does for electronic shifters. (Only one cable breaks at a time, so some limited shifting is possible.) Yesterday, it was the cable to my front derailleur. Previously, the cable to the rear derailleur broke. This is far from a tragedy, of course, and I was able to complete my ride, albeit at reduced speed because I was stuck in my small chainring. It got me to thinking that it might be worthwhile to change the cables periodically before they break. Does anyone do this? I can manage a broken shifter cable every so often, but I was wondering if others replace the cables as preventive maintenance.
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But yesterday I had a shifter cable break. It's the second time I've had this happen on a bike I've had less than three years. So, that advantage isn't so much of an advantage after all. It got me to thinking that it might be worthwhile to change the cables periodically before they break. Does anyone do this?
PS: This belongs in the Mechanics subforum rather than GC. Just saving cxwrench the trouble of pointing this out.
Last edited by Koyote; 04-30-22 at 07:43 PM.
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#3
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I’ve never had a shifter cable break in hundreds of thousands of miles of riding. I’ve broken a couple derailleurs, and had brake cables pull loose, but never broken any.
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I once thought that one advantage of mechanical shifters is that you don't have to be concerned about your battery dying. But yesterday I had a shifter cable break. It's the second time I've had this happen on a bike I've had less than three years. So, that advantage isn't so much of an advantage after all. A cable break prevents you from shifting almost as much as a dead battery does for electronic shifters. (Only one cable breaks at a time, so some limited shifting is possible.) Yesterday, it was the cable to my front derailleur. Previously, the cable to the rear derailleur broke. This is far from a tragedy, of course, and I was able to complete my ride, albeit at reduced speed because I was stuck in my small chainring. It got me to thinking that it might be worthwhile to change the cables periodically before they break. Does anyone do this? I can manage a broken shifter cable every so often, but I was wondering if others replace the cables as preventive maintenance.
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Interesting. I'm definitely a novice compared with you. I've been riding less than five years. But with two cable breaks in less than three years on this bike, I was thinking that this must be fairly common. Maybe I've just had some bad luck and cable breaks are less common than I was thinking.
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I have never had a cable break in over a half century of riding bicycles. I had also never had a chain break until I boasted about that in a chain thread a few months ago. I better go check my cables now.
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It's not unusual. Shimano 11sp is kind of known for shredding them inside the STI lever. I've had that happen in as little as 2,000 miles on a new cable. Granted, I live in an extremely hilly area, so my shifters get a lot of use.
OP: sounds like you should replace them every year or so. Though realistically, you shouldn't have to do the FD cable as often.
OP: sounds like you should replace them every year or so. Though realistically, you shouldn't have to do the FD cable as often.
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Your experience is certainly at odds with Koyote's earlier comment that an internet search (I didn't do one) would reveal that it's a good idea to replace shifter cables at regular intervals. But it appears, from your experience and others, that breaking shifter cables is unusual, although it's happened to me twice. I've been riding less than five years so you have ten times the experience that I have, and I appreciate your sharing it.
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Just kidding! On a much smaller scale, though, I resonate with your comment. I have a Trek mountain bike that I bought 22 years ago, which has a low-end Shimano (3x8) drivetrain. I have a nice road bike a couple years younger with an Ultegra (3x9) drivetrain. Each bike has 6-7,000 miles on it. I'm still on the original shift cables. Since I'm an older guy (think "70Plus"), I tend to shift a lot.
I *have* had the occasional issue with the pawls in the shifters (trigger-types on the Trek and STI on the Airborne) getting stuck and failing to shift, but these have responded to soaking in WD-40 followed by spray lithium grease. Perhaps I've been lucky.
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Where did the break happen ? Are the housings properly cut and well seated ? Did the cable move smoothly inside them ? Did they break when you tried to overshift ?
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Your experience is certainly at odds with Koyote's earlier comment that an internet search (I didn't do one) would reveal that it's a good idea to replace shifter cables at regular intervals. But it appears, from your experience and others, that breaking shifter cables is unusual, although it's happened to me twice. I've been riding less than five years so you have ten times the experience that I have, and I appreciate your sharing it.
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Actually Koyote's mention of the STI cables does make me want to consider replacing them on my bike with them. All of my other bikes through the years have not had STIs and have had friction shifters where it is easy to see if there was a fraying or damaged cable. I think what he described is a classic out of sight out of mind thing that I will look into.
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11sp about every 1,100 miles
9 sp about every 9,000 miles
8 sp about every 8 years
Those are assumed theories.
9 sp about every 9,000 miles
8 sp about every 8 years
Those are assumed theories.
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Good questions, holytrousers, and mostly, I don't know. The bike seemed to be shifting OK prior to the cable break, and I don't think I was trying to overshift. On the front deraillieur there is only one shift to make. But since it appears that my having broken two cables in less than three years is unusual, I can't rule out that they are breaking because of something I'm doing.
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I once thought that one advantage of mechanical shifters is that you don't have to be concerned about your battery dying. But yesterday I had a shifter cable break. It's the second time I've had this happen on a bike I've had less than three years. So, that advantage isn't so much of an advantage after all. A cable break prevents you from shifting almost as much as a dead battery does for electronic shifters. (Only one cable breaks at a time, so some limited shifting is possible.) Yesterday, it was the cable to my front derailleur. Previously, the cable to the rear derailleur broke. This is far from a tragedy, of course, and I was able to complete my ride, albeit at reduced speed because I was stuck in my small chainring. It got me to thinking that it might be worthwhile to change the cables periodically before they break. Does anyone do this? I can manage a broken shifter cable every so often, but I was wondering if others replace the cables as preventive maintenance.
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I should change cables on my most used road bike, but I had the same thought last year and didn't do it.
The current ones work fine, but its $8 for new cables and housing so of course I should do it as preventative maintenance.
...but its also 30min and I seem to never prioritize.
Oh well.
The current ones work fine, but its $8 for new cables and housing so of course I should do it as preventative maintenance.
...but its also 30min and I seem to never prioritize.
Oh well.
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That's what I was asking about, cxwrench. Nobody had ever suggested to me that I should replace my shifter cables as preventative maintenance, so I was asking what others thought and did. I'm fairly new to cycling (been riding less than five years) and I'm fortunate to be able to learn from wiser and more experienced BF members like you. How often do you change your shifter cables?.
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If you ride regularly then once a year, and replace the housing too. I've worked in shops since '95 but my main background and most meaningful experience is being a pro road team mechanic. On the race bikes I'd replace cables/housing every few weeks/once a month depending on conditions. The one season I worked for a mtb team, every race. Same with pro/elite CX race bikes...every week.
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Every ~2,000 miles. I had a cable break in the body of a Shimano STI lever at around 2,500 miles (I think the 105 5800 shifters were notorious for this), and after having to drill holes in the shifter to extract it, that was when I decided 2,000 miles was a nice round figure to replace cables and do a checklist of other maintenance items. Re-grease all contact points, check all bolt tensions, check the hubs, spoke tension, wheel true, hanger alignment, inspect / adjust / bleed brakes. Having a shift cable break mid-ride is not the end of the world since you can easily fix the cable to a middle'ish cog and have a single / dual speed bike for a bit, but again, it's a big problem if it breaks inside an STI lever body.
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If you ride regularly then once a year, and replace the housing too. I've worked in shops since '95 but my main background and most meaningful experience is being a pro road team mechanic. On the race bikes I'd replace cables/housing every few weeks/once a month depending on conditions. The one season I worked for a mtb team, every race. Same with pro/elite CX race bikes...every week.
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I once thought that one advantage of mechanical shifters is that you don't have to be concerned about your battery dying. But yesterday I had a shifter cable break. It's the second time I've had this happen on a bike I've had less than three years. So, that advantage isn't so much of an advantage after all. A cable break prevents you from shifting almost as much as a dead battery does for electronic shifters. (Only one cable breaks at a time, so some limited shifting is possible.) Yesterday, it was the cable to my front derailleur. Previously, the cable to the rear derailleur broke. This is far from a tragedy, of course, and I was able to complete my ride, albeit at reduced speed because I was stuck in my small chainring. It got me to thinking that it might be worthwhile to change the cables periodically before they break. Does anyone do this? I can manage a broken shifter cable every so often, but I was wondering if others replace the cables as preventive maintenance.
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If you ride regularly then once a year, and replace the housing too. I've worked in shops since '95 but my main background and most meaningful experience is being a pro road team mechanic. On the race bikes I'd replace cables/housing every few weeks/once a month depending on conditions. The one season I worked for a mtb team, every race. Same with pro/elite CX race bikes...every week.
You got me to thinking. I am not racing but I am overdue to change cable & housing. Been about three years. Time slips away from me these days..................
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Once, when I first overhaul the bike.