magicpie55

Hello Everyone ... I have an Electra Townie I have rode the heck out of for 3? years and am thinking of replacing the shifter cable ... Question is should I put it back with the internel routed cable or use the easier way ..not thru the frame ...Does it make a difference ? Thank You

veganbikes

You will want to replace cables and housing if you are doing it and you will want to route it as they have. You could kludge somewhere but I wouldn't. If they built the bike well, which from what I remember of Electra maybe not, then it shouldn't be hard to route new housing (and you can use the old housing to help pull the new through) but if they didn't build it well it can be tough to route it. A lot of modern manufacturers have guides or tunnels in the frame to accommodate internally routed cables removing the faff but a lot of older stuff and low quality stuff doesn't

cyccommute 

Some manufacturers have guides. In my experience most don’t. That’s what make internal routing such a pain to deal with.

Saying what I said above, I’d probably still run it through the frame. Attach a piece of cabling to the old cable before you pull it out. Tape works but keep it as small as possible so that it can pass through the openings in the frame. When you pull the cable through, try not to pull too hard.

Park Tool makes a clever internal routing kit but it is a bit pricey. However the frustration I’ve experienced with internal cable routing would make the price worth it if I owned one of those damned bikes.

FBinNY 

The bike doesn't care. Internal cable routing was mainly for cosmetic and marketing reasons.

If you're able and willing to route externally using cable ties or clips to secure the housing to the frame, then feel free to do so.

magicpie55

Thanks for the reply ..Gonna follow your suggestion ..I have added wider bars and a basket to the front with the way they route the cable from right to left side and then thru the frame seems a little crazy to me ...Just picked up some shifter housing and a new inner cable ... I'll leave the oldone where it is for now and try routing it different ...3 years old I'm sure it won't hurt to change it ...If I mess it up somehow I'll just take it to my LBS I have a good mechanic on "retainer" ha ..I'm starting to have a little shifting problems ..the chain and casette are over a year old .... so that may be next ..Thank You For Your Help ..

Lombard

^^^This. My 2014 Synapse Carbon is a real bear to change cables. And it doesn't help that the entry points into the frame are so tiny. The part of the cable inside the frame is bare. In order to change a cable, I need to use a housing liner that I stripped the cover off of and guide it through the frame around the existing cable. Then once the housing liner is sticking out both holes, pull the cable out. Then I guide the new cable through the housing liner and finally get rid of the housing liner. There is that chance the housing liner falls out of the frame at which point I visit my friendly LBS.

I bought this kit and in my case, it was less frustrating to do the housing liner method I mentioned above. A real PITA regardless.

Unless you ride over 6,000 miles per year and have neglected your chain lubing, neither your chain nor your cassette should need to be replaced.

mdarnton

As veganbikes mentioned, you really need to change the housing as well--that's the part that's more likely to explode than the cable!

Mtracer

Why replace the housing? Can’t a new cable simply be slid through the exiting housing in the frame?

veganbikes

Because it is a wear item and can get gunked up, rusted, damaged and provide drag. Plus it is an easy way to upgrade your shifting and braking performance for less money than a new derailleur or brake caliper.

Lombard

Only if you have housings in the frame. Granted housings car wear inside and create friction.

Mtracer

I know they can require replacing, but why is the OP wanting to replace their housing? Is there a problem that needs fixing with the housing? Or some visual clue that it needs replacing.

It just seems throughout this discussion that replacing the cable assumed replacing the housing and the issues that entails with internal routing. Maybe I missed something the OP said about why they have a need to replace the housing.

veganbikes

It has been three years with the bike and they thought they might need to replace the cable but if you are replacing cable you replace housing. They were wondering about internal vs. external routing.

Mtracer

"but if you are replacing cable you replace housing" Perhaps I've misunderstood you. Are you saying that you would replace the housing every time you replace the cable? That's certainly not something I would ever do. I'd be replacing my rear shifting house twice a year if I did that.

veganbikes

Pretty much yes, unless the cable is damaged but pretty new I would generally replace cables and housing together. For you maybe I might consider once a year but keep in mind housing can easily get gunked up and full of debris or cable coating if you use coated cables (I don't recommend it use polished stainless steel for best results) so it will improve your shifting performance. I am curious why the frequent cable replacement, it is a good thing that a lot of people don't think about but potentially seems excessive unless riding a whole heck of a lot which is another good thing.

Mtracer

Not sure if I'm riding a "whole heck of a lot". But I ride 4,000 - 5,000 miles a year. The cable wears out at the tight turn inside the Shimano road type (STI?) shifters. I also do most of my riding on one bike. This was about the same frequency whether 105 or my current GRX shifters. I've found the cables start fraying at about the 7-8 month mark (~3,000 miles), so I just replace the rear every 6 months to avoid the shifting problems when strands start breaking.

I also have a lot of variable terrain. So perhaps more shifting to accommodate grade variations, than say someone riding in Florida.

Like you, I use uncoated polished stainless cables. Some flavor of Jagwires. I live in Albuquerque New Mexico (desert southwest USA). It's very dry here so I rarely need to ride in wet conditions. Therefore, much less crap in general gets on my bike. I.E., pretty easy environment on all the hardware.

veganbikes

Yeah that is a decent to a lot of riding. Probably would replace yearly at least. Frayed cable internally are a huge frustration. Externally they are a really bad sign on your end but internally there is nothing you can do besides what you are already doing it seems like some Shimano STI levers do tend to chew up cables a bit more especially with a lot of shifting.

Lombard

I have the same issue with Shimano shifters eating cables. I was replacing a rear shifter cable every 1500-2000 miles. I sure as heck don't need to replace my housings that often. In fact, I went 10K miles with the same housings and shifting never suffered until the cable frayed inside the shifter. I finally replaced the housings when I changed my shifters and derailleurs to SRAM Force 22 since the SRAM equipment came with its own set of cables and housings.

cyccommute 

Unless there is obvious corrosion of the inner cable, I wouldn’t replace the housing when changing the inner cable. There’s really no need. I’m currently running cable housing that I installed under the toughest handlebar tape ever made in 2014. It’s got around 11,000 miles on it in all kinds of weather and still going strong.

My shifters are 9 speed units with the cable coming out of the side so I don’t fray cables quite as much…like never.

Lombard

Yes, it appears the problem with Shimano cable eating shifters started with the generation that routed the cables under the bar tape. As usual, aesthetics has its downsides.

cyccommute 

Yup. There are times where I wonder how Shimano has come to dominate the bicycle industry.

Lombard

Well it appears Shimano is rectifying the problem by gradually phasing out mechanical shifting. What can I say, if you can't fix the problem, just discontinue the product.

mdarnton

Unlike the brake cable housing which is a steel spiral and the plastic is decorative and on the inside a lubricant, shifter cables are made of long parallel wires held together only by plastic. Because shifting isn't life-or-death like brakes the housing doesn't have to be bulletproof.

Over the years I've had two shifter cables literally explode into plastic bits and wild wires when the plastic gave up suddenly. Once that happens on some internal runs you're going to have a very hard time pulling the housing out to replace it, aside from the problem of how you'll get home. Leaving the housing and replacing the cable is a false economy of the lazy.