Brake outer cable for gears??

DavidBelcher

Since I first built up my cyclo-cross bike back in 2005, a constant nuisance has been the cable run for the front mech; the outer casing often frays after a few races due to the bars being at 90 degrees to the frame when shouldering the bike and running with it. The way it enters the cable stop offers little room for manoeuvre and outer gear cables are pretty stiff with little "give" which combines to bring about fraying. I've tried different cable end caps and lengths of cable run, to no avail.

The obvious way round the problem would be to substitute a brake outer casing as these have more flex when presented with a tricky angle. But would it have any marked effect on shifting and cable tension?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

David

stigofthedump

No don't do it.

Modern gear cables were developed with indexed gears. The outer has cables running along its length to resist the compression when you change gear. Without this your gear changing would be hopelessly unreliable.

You could try some of the systems which have small balls and tubes, like these
http://www.vertebr.ae/ceramic-bicycle-components/
They can deal with tight bends

This article shows the difference between the two types of cable outer.

ChrisSA

Wow, they're expensive. You can get the ceramic beads from RS significantly cheaper than that.

Monty Dog

There are cheaper options than the vertabrae e.g. alligator ilinks or Nokon. On my CX bikes, I run the gear cable around the far side of the headtube and they cross- over under the downtube - this gives a slightly bigger curve and doesn't force such a kink - if you run a frame with short headtube and stem, then cable runs are pretty tight. BTW you can't do this if your cable adjusters are on the side of the headtube.

maddog 2

single ring?

DavidBelcher

Thanks to all for comments, just to make life more complicated my frame is indeed the sort with the adjuster stop on the head tube (rear mech cable isn't a problem as that goes along the top tube as is often the way for CX machines). Looks like Nokon cabling could be the way forward, single ring not really an option as it's nice to have the double option, especially as I have used the bike as a standby road bike in the past (kitted out with 23mm slicks I did a TT on it last March, sans tri-bars to boot, and didn't finish last, which was nice).

Edit: stainless steel mesh rather than "stranded" outer casings from Alligator and Avid look promising too. Not that pricey either.

David