Weogo

Hi Folks,

What are the most durable, longest-lasting shifter cables?
They are available for $2 to $25+; are the expensive ones that much better?

Also, what are your cable housing preferences?

Thanks and good health, Weogo

Eyes Roll

Varies from person to person, and also depend on the usage of the bike and the gears.

Learn to do research of prior posts on the forum before starting a thread. I own Schwinn and went with Schwinn ones. Make sure you have or know how to cut cables, either with a cable cutter or other tools lying around with you.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...rld-sport.html

veganbikes

I recommend the Jagwire Elite Link or Pro shift and brake kits. It is good reliable stuff and will improve things quite a bit for less money.

maddog34

want to avoid failures? buy cheap ones, then change them every spring.
especially if your bike has Brifters.

Kontact 

Shimano brifters will break any cable with use. Nicer cables are lower friction. Good housing and standard stainless cables shift fine.

Housing with some sort of mesh in the outside won't tend to split over time

pdlamb

+1 on the Jagwires. They also make good housing, which you can occasionally find in large rolls if you never want to have to buy them again.

sch

Maddog's advice is best, just spend $5 on a new R brifter cable in stainless and change once a year, and every other
year change the L brifter cable as well. The majority of brifter cable failures are inside the brifter where the cable is
wrapped tightly around the drum. Also a strand or two breaking inside the brifter can be a big PITA to remove.
A completely broken off cable head inside the brifter can be a multi-hour removal job. Jag or OEM cables in stainless
are fine if changed annually.

Now yes there are better cables and in particular better housings, but by the same token these are an order of
magnitude more expensive and more failure prone as the slippery wraps on the cables and inside the housings
do disintegrate over time.

deacon mark

Jagwire die drawn are the best. They last as long as the environment and riding situation allows. That will vary between users and generally I replace the rear cables about 2 times a year. I can get away with much longer intervals on front as not as much shifting. Get a 25 foot roll of good jagwire or shimano housing and you will save lots of money over the course of time. It also allows you to put on new cables before they got really bad. I want my bike shifting effortlessly.

Weogo

Eyes Roll,
Thanks for the reply.
Before starting this thread I did search and read many threads. You must have better search-fu than me.
I did read the thread you note, but it didn't exactly answer my question.
Cable cutters are Gedore, with replaceable cutting jaws.
In my dotage I'm more discerning in parts used, want to extend maintenance intervals, and trash less stuff.

Veganbikes, thanks for the Jagwire thumbs-up.

Maddog, no brifters here, friction shifter for front, Microshift Advent 10-speed for rear.

Kontact, lower friction sounds good.

Pdlamb, thanks for the heads-up on bulk cable housing.

Sch, I read up on Jagwire and their top-of-the-line cable isn't coated. Don't know what's inside their housings, am going to ask.

Deacon Mark, Jagwire die drawn looks good. I too aspire to effortless shifting, right now it is actually pretty good.


Am guessing all of you already know the tip of cutting the housing a half-inch long, inserting an inch of old cable, then
making the final cut with minimal crush of the housing.

Thanks and good health, Weogo

SurferRosa

For down tube shifters, it's the least expensive cables they sell on eBay from a real sweet Chinese lady that makes really good stuff for practically nothing. It's pretty amazing she can actually ship it to my front door for that price. God bless her.

FBinNY 

I don't get involved with brands, but the key things that separates better gear and brake wires from the crowd are;

Stainless steel vs. plated or galvanized.

Die-drawn, meaning that after the strands are twisted to make the cable, it's drawn through a die (donut hole) to form a smooth outer surface. The smooth lower friction die-drawn surface is critical to light spring index systems.

Some, but not all better wires are coated with low friction plastic, but I'm not a fan (just an opinion, no more).

There's a bit if irony here because the features that improve cable function, also shorten it's service life.

There are comparable differences in housings, though IMO the most important is the durability of the inner liner.

choddo

Oh that’s a neat trick. I’ll have to try it.

I think the coated cables referred to are things like shimano’s top end. They do shift nicely but I find the tufty bits of coating that deteriorate and hang around the inner both unsightly and likely to be adding yet more microplastics to our environment.

smd4

Shift cables:

Alligator

Probably the nicest friction shifter cables available.

icemilkcoffee 

[QUOTE=FBinNY;23044533Die-drawn, meaning that after the strands are twisted to make the cable, it's drawn through a die (donut hole) to form a smooth outer surface. The smooth lower friction die-drawn surface is critical to light spring index systems.
[/QUOTE]

So how can you tell which ones are die drawn and which ones aren't?

FBinNY 

If you're buying new, the maker will say so. Otherwise you can both see (may need a magnifying glass) or feel it.

RCMoeur 

I've carried a tandem-length shift cable in my riding toolbag for 35+ years. I've only had to use it once on a ride, and it was on my own bike - my rear shift cable snapped right at my classic Suntour ratchet bar-con, apparently from repeatedly flexing around that narrow-radius bend on the shifter. I've worked on hundreds of bikes since, and it seems fraying due to flexion only seems to be an issue with downtube or barcon shifters, not with trigger or twist shifters.

I've bought many brands, and in terms of durability they all seem similar, although the cheaper ones (including name-brands) have more of an issue with rough or oversize ends. The die-drawn cables do seem smoother with less friction, and stainless cables minimize later oxidation or corrosion on the wire itself. In my experience, Teflon-coated cables don't seem to have much of an advantage over die-drawn cables.

Biker Pete 

I am new to brifters, I dug this out of my right side brifter on a 2016 bike I bought used after three months of use. About a week before the cable broke the shifting became imprecise. Annual change for me going forward.

Kontact 

Shimano, right?

Biker Pete 

Yes, Shimano R9000 series levers.

soyabean

Anyone here use slick cables?

The only advantage I can see is that they occupy more volume in the housing, so there is less housing expansion.

I've never used them before. Because I fix and sell bikes, I buy all my cables in bulk quantity, so basic cables is all I have on hand.