tendency

Hey all - do you recommend putting brake cable caps at the brake lever side when cabling vintage (Dura Ace BL-7402) aero levers? Thanks!

smd4

I always do in my 7402s. This is especially important if you run compressionless housing.

tendency

yeah that's kinda what i figured - thanks!

smd4

And I should say, if you do use compressionless housing, be sure to use the ferrules supplied by the housing manufacturer. Either way, I used the ferrules even when I was using the regular Dura Ace housing.

tendency

Yes I use modern Shimano branded compressionless .. I'll make sure to use the supplied caps, but why does that matter?

smd4

Shimano makes compressionless brake housing? I was unaware of that.

If it's constructed like other compressionless housing, the metal wires that make up the housing run parallel along the length of the housing--not in a tight spiral as in standard housing. Braking exerts a pretty large force on the housing. A lot of this force is directed at "pushing" the housing from the ends. If you don't use the proper ferules, these wires can "squeeze out" of the housing ends, thereby destroying the housing. The compressionless housing I've seen is wrapped in Kevlar to prevent the wires from bulging out of the housing along the length.

Andrew R Stewart 

I would not make a blanket claim about casing ferules and all Shimano brake systems. While, IIRC, the non aero systems do usually want a casing ferule at each end many of the aero cable routed versions don't want a ferule fir the casing as it enters the lever body and some adjuster barrels too. My general rule is if there's enough casing fit space use a ferule and if not don't. Andy

smd4

Good point. I didn't use ferrules at the caliper end with regular housing. When I went to compressionless, I had to use the supplied ferrules at both ends. The ferruled end didn't fit into the DA 7700 cable adjuster, so I had to swap them out for DA 7400 adjusters.

tendency

Hmmm, well, the vendor I purchased it from says it is compressionless however according to Shimano's site it looks like some sort of proprietary construct as it doesnt look like compression housing but not exactly like the compressionless ones I've seen.

tendency

Thanks for input - there's enough room in there for me to comfortably fit a cap so I'll just the Shimano ones. Interesting, in the Shimano kit they only include two so I'm assuming they're for the brake lever side and not the caliper?

Andrew R Stewart 

IIRC Shimano, at least at one time, called their brake casing compressionless because it used a spiral with a rectangular cross section, the flat sides will better support the compressive forces that a spiral made from oval or round section. Andy

smd4

I went to the Shimano website and under “cables” there’s a graphic showing a cutaway of a cable and housing. It *looks* like modern compressionless housing, but I could find no references to Shimano compressionless housing in any Google searches.