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can cable housing make a cracking sound when turning the handlebars?

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can cable housing make a cracking sound when turning the handlebars?

Old 04-25-22, 02:39 PM
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masi61
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can cable housing make a cracking sound when turning the handlebars?

I get an intermittent cracking noise on the front end of my titanium road bike. It happens only when turning the handlebars side to side. It will happen loudly once then not recur for a long time. It does not happen when actually riding the bike. For a while I thought I had made some kind of mistake torqueing the stem bolts on my Ritchey stem or thought that perhaps my Chris King headset doesn't like to be fully turned.

Lately when it happens I get the impression that it is coming from either the brake housing (wound, standard issue brake housing) or the compression-less derailleur housing. I am running slightly oversized compression-less housing on my Dura Ace 7800 shifters that was Deore XT spec (oversized).

If the housing is making a noise, is it something that can be fixed by lubing the ferules or should I replace the housing?
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Old 04-25-22, 02:44 PM
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Crankycrank
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Yes, usually from the cut strands of the housing ends rubbing against a ferrule or cable stop. Check to make sure that the housing ends are cut/ground square and no individual strands are protruding beyond the others. A tiny bit of grease on the ends may help.

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Old 04-25-22, 02:52 PM
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If the cable housing is too short, the ferrules can bind in the cable stops and make noise when turning the bars. It can even happen when they aren't too short; dab a little light grease or lube at the contact point and see if it stops the noise.
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Old 04-25-22, 05:51 PM
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The early SIS casings had metal end caps (and current 5mm housing still usually uses the same end caps) and as mentioned the slow spiral of casing strands will scrap against the base of the ferrule as the casing tries to twist (with handle bar turning). Going to 4mm casing and plastic end caps pretty much stops the clicks. Andy
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Old 04-26-22, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Crankycrank
Yes, usually from the cut strands of the housing ends rubbing against a ferrule or cable stop. Check to make sure that the housing ends are cut/ground square and no individual strands are protruding beyond the others. A tiny bit of grease on the ends may help.
Might just be a little corrosion where there casing/ferrule ends. Either way, a touch of grease or a drop of oil fixes the noise.
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