Gear cable snapped :(

ocaaaaa

Gear cable on my Synapse snapped this morning so the majority of the journey in the highest gear this morning.

Went to Evans, bought some cable, outer and wire cutters.

Cutting the outer case is impossible - after cutting the cable never goes in do I need to invest in more expensive cutters??

jonginge

Yep, a good pair of cutters saves a lot of pain. Use a bradawl type tool to open up squashed cable ends.

chriskempton

+1 don't skimp on cable cutters - well worth spending ££ on good ones.

Underscore

ocaaaaa wrote:

Cutting the outer case is impossible - after cutting the cable never goes in do I need to invest in more expensive cutters??

I insert an offcut of the inner far enough into the outer to go just past the place where I am going to cut. This stops the outer from squishing too much. Then I feed the cable in from the other end which pops out the little bit of inner left inside the outer.

HTH,

_

mudcovered

ocaaaaa wrote:

Cutting the outer case is impossible - after cutting the cable never goes in do I need to invest in more expensive cutters??

A trick I use when cutting cable outers is to use a sacrificial bit of cable inside it at the cut point. Reduces the amount of squashing significantly. This is wuth the park tool cable cutters.

Mike

ocaaaaa

Thanks for the tips.

Have to make my third trip to the bike shop today as I managed to lose the bolt and bit that holds the cable in - will pick this up on the way and get it fixed at home

PeeDee

If you have a Dremmel mini-grinder then the cutting disc makes a very neat cut through even the toughest cable outers. Good for gear cables especially when you want the smoothest cable run possible.

ocaaaaa

It seems the bolt that holds in the cable isn't easily available - tried 2 shops and no luck will have to try the local shops tomorrow before going into the office - bit of a pain cycling around in the highest gear though

mudcovered

ocaaaaa wrote:

Have to make my third trip to the bike shop today as I managed to lose the bolt and bit that holds the cable in - will pick this up on the way and get it fixed at home

I did that while replacing a cable once . I'd loosened it off and taken out the old cable. I then did a check ride to make sure some brake work I'd done was right before I fitted the new one. Cue me walking round my street staring at the road for 5mins trying to find it. :oops: Luckily I did. Replacements may be a bit tricky but you should be able to come up with something.

Mike

bails87

It might just be a standard bolt size, try B&Q etc.