Brake Cable

sproggysprocket
sproggysprocket Posts: 47
edited November 2007 in Workshop
Is it possible to solder the ends of the brake cable. I have tried a couple of times on some old cable and used flux but it does not seem to want to take, any ideas?

Comments

  • bladerider
    bladerider Posts: 29
    Superglue normally does the trick. Make sure the cable end is clean and grease free before applying.
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    Another tip for stopping cut cables from fraying is to cut small pieces of electrical insulation off a flex cable and slide these over the end. The advantage of these over the cable crimps that bikes come with is that you can easily remove them to remove cables for lubing and replace when you are done.
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    Soldering does work - you just need a powerful enough iron to heat the end of the cable enough to melt the solder. A real weight-weenies trick is to use small bore heat shrink sleeving, available from the likes of Maplin - sticks better than the electric sleeving above.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Be careful doing things like this. Brakes are the most important thing on your bike.
    Without them, well you know. New cables are dirt cheap insurance against brake
    failure.

    Dennis Noward
  • aracer
    aracer Posts: 1,649
    Yes, but it's about more than just a hot enough iron - you need flux too, not just normal electrical solder with flux built in. I've successfully soldered to cables using plumbers' flux, but if all you want to do is stop the end fraying I'd suggest it's no worth the bother.
  • schlepcycling
    schlepcycling Posts: 1,614
    Please don't flame me but, why not just use cable end caps that crimp on the end of the exposed cable?.
    'Hello to Jason Isaacs'
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    schlepcycling wrote:
    Please don't flame me but, why not just use cable end caps that crimp on the end of the exposed cable?.

    Are you joking,seen the weight of those things?
    Must be all of 2grams each.That's a whole 8 grams per bike if you include gear cables ,the difference in losing or winning. I do believe some people even cut their cables too short ....
  • Garybee
    Garybee Posts: 815
    dennisn wrote:
    Be careful doing things like this. Brakes are the most important thing on your bike.
    Without them, well you know. New cables are dirt cheap insurance against brake
    failure.

    Dennis Noward

    And making sure the ends don't fray will make your brakes fail how?
    Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Garybee wrote:
    dennisn wrote:
    Be careful doing things like this. Brakes are the most important thing on your bike.
    Without them, well you know. New cables are dirt cheap insurance against brake
    failure.

    Dennis Noward

    And making sure the ends don't fray will make your brakes fail how?

    Sorry, my mistake. I thought he was trying to solder a, whatever you call them, onto the other end of the cable.


    Dennios Noward
  • aracer
    aracer Posts: 1,649
    dennisn wrote:
    Sorry, my mistake. I thought he was trying to solder a, whatever you call them, onto the other end of the cable.
    That's why I was soldering to a cable, and the only good reason I can think of for doing so. It's on the fork lockout cable on my MTB rather than a brake cable though, so doesn't see huge forces and wouldn't be a show stopper if it failed.

Categories