plumberroy

I was going through my parts box. Since I am getting back to riding. I have a couple of these in my box. I know some people here will look down on them simply because they are Bell and inexpensive. But I have found them to be serviceable . A good way to get a bike working until you decide if you want to do more to it. They are great to fix a bike for a kid to get them back on the bike. What are your thoughts?

Iride01 

For kids bikes anything goes. They'll either have torn the bike completely up or out gown it in a few years.

I use Bell's inner tubes since I can get them locally and cheaply. They are only a few grams heavier than than the Continental tubes I've used and they've lasted longer.

They make decent stuff at an inexpensive price. I'd buy their helmets if it wasn't for the emblem emblazoned on the front making me feel like Teal'c from Stargate SG-1.

Bill Kapaun

OK for "beginners".
If you fix a lot of bikes, you can probably buy Shimano cables & housings in bulk and be as competitive price wise and hopefully have better quality.

plumberroy

Anything I am building up for myself I get good cables from LBS . It's been a while since I worked on anything except for kids bikes. They used to be $6.97 at Walmart . I have used them to get a bike rideable and upgraded later. Once I decided I was going to keep a bike

Schweinhund

Bell over the years has probably made more life saving helmets than anyone besides possibly AGV.
Don't let the name stop you, in helmets, it's a good name.

dedhed

I use them on BSOs and fixing bikes for people who might ride 50 miles a year

Bill Kapaun

They certainly have their "niche" and I have used them.
It's just that if you work on a lot of bikes, you can accumulate pieces of housing & used cables that also fill that niche.
When you buy 10 packs of cables, you can get them pretty inexpensively, so a $buck for a cable and some used but serviceable housing is adequate for the task.
You can often find a length of housing that's "close enough" and avoid having to mess w/ ferrules. Rear cables can be shortened and become front cables.

veganbikes

Not useful for much except maybe a short used kids bike that is probably not going to be passed down anywhere or for a similar BSO used in a similar manner.

For things like cables and housing I always recommend getting the absolute best you can because it can greatly improve shifting and braking for less cost then the other associated parts. I recommend nice slick stainless cables (ideally polished and always uncoated) and good quality housing and especially for brakes, compressionless housing works wonders. My favorite way to go is the Jagwire kits, Pro and Elite are the best way to go but even the Sport kits can be an upgrade for some bikes and you generally have a lot of leftover stuff so it is easy to re-use it for other builds.

I would also never use galvanized cables for anything and shops who purchase them are doing their customers a big disservice all the shops I have worked at don't stock it and if they ever had some it was usually purchased accidentally or was a panic buy from some novice buyer who may not know parts as well.

Bell is a helmet maker that is what they are best at and really all they do. I would not want them making other parts to use. I know they do have branded stuff at wally-mart and maybe they make it but I wouldn't want to use it unless in a desperate emergency.

JoeTBM 

Best part that Bell makes that we do use is their Bell 100 Kickstand. Great on kid's bike after the training wheels come off, easily fits 12 to 18" bikes. and I can still get them at about $5 each on-line. Tubes are not bad if we get them for the right price.

Schweinhund

It's actually Huffy licensing the Bell name.
If you're talking the housing, it's a pretty good deal, but i stopped using their inner wires when one head popped off the cable and screwed up a "new old stock" 1991 deore LX left hand shifter.
Bad part is that Bianchigirll warned me of it. I learned the 80 dollar hard way.

veganbikes

I figured it had to be one of those.

In terms of pretty good deal, I am confused? It is super cheap stuff that I wouldn't want on any of my bikes except in an emergency. Cables and Housing are pretty cheap upgrades so downgrading that much when I could even have a Jagwire Basics kit just seems odd unless again in an emergency.

Sucks you screwed up a nice LX shifter. That is why Jagwire or Shimano cables exist you can get cheapie stuff which I wouldn't use for LX but it will be a heck of a lot better than wally-mart.