Litespud

Any grease is better than no grease. I use a tub of Quaker State red stuff for everything, from car bearings to bike cables and everything in between

rydabent

My Sram X5 twist grip shifter has right at 15000 miles on it and is working fine. However the rubber is getting sticky and I am going to replace in during my Feb overhaul.

BTW shift cables used on down tube shifters probably last the longest.

cxwrench

Grease is not needed w/ new cables and housing. I (and every other mechanic I know) do not grease cables and housing, unless the rider is having a problem and just needs to make it home.

himespau 

I haven't heard of anyone using grease in years (decades?).

zandoval 

Over in Galveston Texas cables don't last long. Even the stainless ones. Especially if the bikes are stored out side or on back porches. I remember seeing one of the Shrimpers on a boat dock tidying up a beater bike used by the boat crews for ridding into town. He was taking spray marine grease and shooting it down the cable housing before threading in a stainless cable through it. He commented that was the only way to get any life outta the cables. I'll tell ya it really does work. Even with cheap ChiCom mystery metal cables...

Edit: Please note that this particular brand does not have the little tube extension to spray into tight places like cable housings. I used another spray head with the tube extension to spray this into cables and other tight places. Other brands like regular white or red grease usually come with the spray tube. Unless you are living near salt water regular spray grease is just fine.

zacster

I have a bike that I'm going to sell and was thinking that I should grease the cables in the housing. It is a kids bike with shifters and isn't worth spending any money on it and I'm not likely to ask more than $20 for it. I'll stick it on the stand, hose it down, lube any pivots I can see, oil the chain.

zandoval 

Yes... I agree. For a long time the cable sets were of reliable quality and upgrading to higher quality special housings and cables was not that expensive. Just the few cable housings I have purchased in the past few years have been of questionable quality. Both in manufacture and content of the metal materials. Recently when replacing a cable with a, BELL Generic ChiCom cable set, the middle of a new cable was frayed. But that is OK as I had plenty of left overs from other sets. Looks like we may have to go back to greasing our cables if we expect to get any life out of them. To bad, allot of stuff is taking this turn...

SoSmellyAir

Thank you for the good news. I was concerned that the grease would gunk up some other part of the STI levers.

thook

grease is a relative need. i use some because i live in a humid area and traverse dirty conditions more often than not. it's also imperative when i use cheap cable housing with no liner. having said that, no matter where you live, a little grease can't hurt even with lined housing. it's not necessary, but you're reducing friction. and, when you do that, everything works that much better and last that much longer

restlessswind

I just squirt a couple drops of Tri-Flow in the housing ends when deemed necessary.

SoSmellyAir

UPDATE: So I finally had time to replace my shift cables today. No riding for > 3 weeks, I really miss it! N + 1! Just a few thoughts and questions:

(1) My bike came originally with Jagwire cables and the RD loop used the stiffer regular housing, but the Shimano road shift cable set I bought came with a piece of more flexible housing (SIS OT-RS900) for the RD loop, which is longer than the original but I did not cut it because I did not want to crush it. The RD shifts fine, but the RD loop looks a little long; is that going to cause a problem later on?

(2) Replacing the RD cable requires removing the BB cable guide in order to thread the RD cable through it, which in turn requires removing the FD cable, so I replaced that too. Does anyone know of a work around for next time?

(3) Each shift cable has one or more thin tubing sections for the internally routed portions, so I replaced the tubing sections too. What purpose does the tubing serve? The tubing does not completely seal each cable, so what is the point of having a section of tubing around only the central 80% of the internally routed portion of the cable?

(4) Thankfully I did not screw up and tangle the two shift cables in the down tube. Any tips on how to avoid this problem?

JoeTBM 

Answers embedded above

Calsun

The fraying is from someone not taking the time to solder the end of the wire cable or even bothering to crimp a thimble cap. With cables there are different quality ones in terms of the number of strands which affects to true gauge of the cable. Many people have paid the premium for Campy cables which are better made than most and will last virtually forever. I bought some Shimano brand brake cables recently and was surprised to see how cheaply made they were and no better than a discount brand. Also a good idea to grease the cable wire before inserting it and this is overlooked as people wrongly assume that having expensive cable housing with the carcinogenic Teflon lining makes this unnecessary.

SoSmellyAir

I already reassembled everything so too late to take my own photo. But here is a link to the Cannondale KP299 bottom bracket guide for my bike:

Cannondale 2014 Synapse Carbon Bottom Bracket Cable Guide - KP299/ 884603534663 | eBay

With reference to the bottom bracket cable guide's orientation in this photo:
(1) After coming down the right side of the down tube, the RD cable enters the top left hole and exits the top right hole to head into the right chain stay; and
(2) After coming down the left side of the down tube, the FD cable enters the bottom left hole, runs along the curved arm, and at the end of the curved arm, it is threaded through an inch long tube which pokes out of a hole the frame aft of the bottom bracket.

As you can see, the holes in the bottom bracket cable guide are quite small, too small for tubing to be threaded through. With my limited mechanical skill, the only way I can thread either shifter cable through this guide is to first remove the guide from the bottom of the bike. But the guide can only be removed if both shifter cables are first disconnected from their respective derailleurs. And if I have to do that, I might as well replace both shifter cables. So I am wondering how to thread just the RD cable through this guide without having to remove the guide from the bike.

sean.hwy

SoSmellyAir any more cables break since 2021?

I have been keeping my bikes for a about a year ish. So that those miles about a year for each bike. Yesterday I snapped the rear cable on gravel ibis at 4k miles one year old bike.
My previous bikes all snapped around 3 to 5k around on year old. All bikes shinamo.

The road systemsix never broke before I sold the bike at 3,600 miles.

maddog34

they last long enough to be neglected, then ignored when they begin to fray and get "sticky"...
If a person rides quite a bit, i suggest changing the Shift cables every year.. since that's so much easier than fighting to remove a frayed hunk of garbage from a well buried brifter spool, eh?

SoSmellyAir

Thankfully, no. But I plan to replace the cables on my Synapse at the end of this year anyway.