Brake cables that don't snap?

volvicspar
volvicspar Posts: 208
edited April 2009 in Workshop
Can anyone recommend GOOD brake cables ? Ones that don't snap when your out riding in traffic. It's not an experience I want to repeat :shock: I don't know who made the ones the snap otherwise the MFG would be in serious trouble... Front brake cable snapped at the part in the brake housing and the rest of the strands are intact up to the brake so it can't have been my fitting work. They were only about 8 months old.

Thanks. :cry:

Comments

  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    Gore Ride-On or Dura Ace (if you ride Shimano)
  • redvee
    redvee Posts: 11,922
    Never broke a cable in all the years I've riden, even with cheapo cables and bodging a gear cable for a brake in dire emergencies.
    I've added a signature to prove it is still possible.
  • Smokin Joe
    Smokin Joe Posts: 2,706
    Never broke one either, and that's in 40 years +. You were just unlucky.
  • Horton
    Horton Posts: 327
    +1 for never broken one. My installation "method" involves dripping a bit of wet lube down the inside of outer cable and then with the inevitable oily fingers wiping the inner cable down with lube as well. Then periodically - every couple of months, slacken off the cables so I can get the outers out of the cable stops on the frame and slide them down, checking the bits you can't normally see. It's frightening how rusty they can get in there if you leave them unchecked, as you seem to have found out to your near cost. I've only ever used bog-standard shimano mtb cables for about a tenner a set of f+r inners, outers and end caps.
  • volvicspar
    volvicspar Posts: 208
    Well I would have thought that it was impossible to break one under normal circumstances. It wasn't rusty at all, still shiny in fact which is odd. Still not going to feel safe now for a while :?
  • andrew_s
    andrew_s Posts: 2,511
    The bit the nipple sits in should rotate freely. If it doesn't, the cable end gets bent back and forth each time you brake, and breaks fairly quickly.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    These cables are strong with a breaking strain far in excess of the force you can apply on the lever. The steel is decent quality too and these days, pre-stretched. So they really should not snap, ever.

    I'd suggest severe corrosion (but you'd spot this) or maybe the cable was installed with a hiccup or too and was fraying?

    As for a replacement, any half-decent cable set will work fine, don't worry.
  • volvicspar
    volvicspar Posts: 208
    I am going to get the bike shop to fit them this time. Normally I'd fit them myself without hesitation but I want to be sure.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,336
    Last time I've change them, after 10,000 miles of service, the front one was on the verge of snapping (few steel wires were keeping it miracuolously all together), if I left them on another month or so, it would have happened the same to me.
    However it was a while I had noticed they didn't respond as well as usual, but laziness...

    The only advice I can give is to change them (or at least check them) regularly, every year or so, if you ride a lot.
    left the forum March 2023
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Horton wrote:
    +1 for never broken one. My installation "method" involves dripping a bit of wet lube down the inside of outer cable and then with the inevitable oily fingers wiping the inner cable down with lube as well. Then periodically - every couple of months, slacken off the cables so I can get the outers out of the cable stops on the frame and slide them down, checking the bits you can't normally see. It's frightening how rusty they can get in there if you leave them unchecked, as you seem to have found out to your near cost. I've only ever used bog-standard shimano mtb cables for about a tenner a set of f+r inners, outers and end caps.

    +2 for NEVER. I do however replace them once a year. Not a great cost.

    Dennis Noward
  • JonEdwards
    JonEdwards Posts: 452
    I am going to get the bike shop to fit them this time. Normally I'd fit them myself without hesitation but I want to be sure.

    So you trust some random bloke who you've never met to do it?

    Do it yourself - at least you then know a) it *IS* done properly b) the only person to blame is yourself.
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Never snapped one. Incompetence in fitting them has led to some rather interesting braking performance though (cables not tight enough to pull calipers hard onto rim, bolts not done up tight enough to prevent cable slipping out under hard braking on an alp). So yeah... care and attention are the best medicine.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent

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