Time required to change outer gear and brake cables & tape.

wolfsbane2k

Hi.

First time doing a full recable on a road bike, so needing to do tape as well.

Planning on an hour and a half to do all four cables: is that realistic for a first timer?

I've got a proper cable cutter, a set of Jagwire pro cables, and new bar tape and some electrical tape ready.

I don't have a third hands tension keeper, but understand that they make it easier, rather than essential.

Ta!

sandyballs

Cables will be done in the time you say, if it's your first time wrapping bars add about a week. Good luck.

bbrap

Timing sounds about right. Just make sure the outers are fully seated else you will be re-adjusting 15 minutes into your 1st ride.

Man Of Lard

Strip & replace one side at a time & decide what wrapping pattern you're going to use around the brifters ahead of time... Makes all the difference and if you take more than 45’ to do one side you can decide whether to push on or leave it for another day... If you strip both off you have no choice.

wolfsbane2k

Thanks all.
Decided before i start I ought to have n+1 back in spring commuting mode, so fixed that first, planning the recable for next weekend.

Was definitely planning on doing one then the other, rear derailleur cable first, as that's the one that desperately needs doing,

bbrap

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

Thanks all.
Decided before i start I ought to have n+1 back in spring commuting mode, so fixed that first, planning the recable for next weekend.

Was definitely planning on doing one then the other, rear derailleur cable first, as that's the one that desperately needs doing,

Presumably that is rear derailleur and associated brake cable :P

sheffsimon

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

Hi.

First time doing a full recable on a road bike, so needing to do tape as well.

Planning on an hour and a half to do all four cables: is that realistic for a first timer?

I've got a proper cable cutter, a set of Jagwire pro cables, and new bar tape and some electrical tape ready.

I don't have a third hands tension keeper, but understand that they make it easier, rather than essential.

Ta!

Is your time in such demand that you need to plan how long it will take to change the cables on your bike?

fenix

In my experience its always about twice s long as I thought.

svetty

Fenix wrote:

In my experience its always about twice s long as I thought.

Me too

wolfsbane2k

SheffSimon wrote:

Is your time in such demand that you need to plan how long it will take to change the cables on your bike?

Yes,
Very Young wolfsbane2ks... means approval needed from the project manager.

wolfsbane2k

Fenix wrote:

In my experience its always about twice s long as I thought.

Past experience has shown me that 3x is the magic number, but that's probably because I've been trying to clean and fettle a rusted set of cables, and never spend enough time doing the weekly simple tasks like cleaning..

drwae

It took me about 4 days to recable my bike the first time.
I took all the old cables out, started cutting new cables and realised my wire cutters wouldn't cut cleanly enough through cable housing.
2 days later after receiving my park tool cable cutters from wiggle I spent about an hour recabling everything and 5 hours trying to get the gears working again
Then I gave up and took it to my LBS the next day who told me they had to recable the front derailleur and that's why it wasn't working... I have no idea to this day what I did wrong because I've since recabled the bike exactly the same way AFAIK and had no problem

wolfsbane2k

drwae wrote:

It took me about 4 days to recable my bike the first time.
I took all the old cables out, started cutting new cables and realised my wire cutters wouldn't cut cleanly enough through cable housing.
2 days later after receiving my park tool cable cutters from wiggle I spent about an hour recabling everything and 5 hours trying to get the gears working again
Then I gave up and took it to my LBS the next day who told me they had to recable the front derailleur and that's why it wasn't working... I have no idea to this day what I did wrong because I've since recabled the bike exactly the same way AFAIK and had no problem

Haha, That's how I expect it to go.... So thanks for the info that I'm not the only one! Odd that they had to do the front again though, possibly you'd managed to Pringle the inner? I'm half expecting that on the rd, which is why I've ordered 2 sets of cables....

Im glad I've got the MTB out of snow boots then just in case....

trivial_poursuivant

Is your bike internal or external cable? In my experience external routed cables are a lot quicker to replace than internal. If they are internal get a strong magnet to help you encourage the cables to come out the other end. I would also suggest using the old cables as a guide to cut the new ones so you don't accidentally make them too short.

wolfsbane2k

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Is your bike internal or external cable? In my experience external routed cables are a lot quicker to replace than internal. If they are internal get a strong magnet to help you encourage the cables to come out the other end. I would also suggest using the old cables as a guide to cut the new ones so you don't accidentally make them too short.

Thanks. It's external cabling, so should be easy, but it's the knowledge that i want to cut to the length of the old outers that means i have to de tape to check the length, meaning bike is then out of action until i replace it.

Matthewfalle

10 mins to take off tape.

Coffee.

10 mins to de cable one side.

10 mins to cut be cable outer to size.

Coffee

10 mins to thread through brake cables and outer.

20 mins for gear cables as they can be a bit fiddly - NOTE: make sure you have clicked the lever to the right position to extract/put in the cables otherwise you'll never get the cables back in.

Coffee

10 mins to set up brakes.

Longer for gears but they really aren't that difficult.

Beer, snip old bits into small pieces and throw into next door's garden.

As long or short as you want for bar tape depending on how good you want it - Park Tools have a good video on this.

Remember just to take your time - it's ridiculously simple as it's a bicycle not the space shuttle.

photonic69

Take a few snaps on phone of the cable routing, cable clamps and the way the bar tape wraps (direction) and around the brifters. If you've not done this before it is easy to completely forget which way things go and you might have less than optimum shifting if you clamp the cable on the wrong side of the bolt (rear derailleur)

pssyche

I just did it myself for the first time about a week ago, external cables with full housing and semi-hydraulic brakes, took me whole afternoon. I was very careful to get cable length right, because stock cables were way too long and pretty ugly routed. Tape wrapping was actually way easier than I thought and came out perfect following this guide. I suspect not having repair stand made job a bit harder than necessary.

Giraffoto

There are jobs that require tools I don't have, and jobs that required skill I don't have, and there's re-taping handlebars which requires a state of mind I don't have. Cables can be a PITA but it's the tape that gives me nightmares. Definitely do it one side at a time, so you can copy the taping pattern from the other side.

Man Of Lard

PhotoNic69 wrote:

Take a few snaps on phone of the cable routing, cable clamps and the way the bar tape wraps (direction) and around the brifters.

Beware of blindly following the pattern of the bar wrapping in particular since you may discover that it was done "wrongly" by the previous wrapper. (Mine came with the bar wrapped the same direction both sides of the brifters (method 1 in the Park video below) - which means it would naturally tend to unravel under pressure, much like myself lol, in one hand/bar position - exactly what it did in fact). I used method 3 and for a first go, I'm rather pleased with the result.

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-hel ... -drop-bars

clickrumble

Threading the brake cables into the shifters is straightforward, however it's worth looking at some videos to check how the gear cables are threaded in before you start.

vrsmatt

If its externally routed and you have decent cutters and all the bits you should be able to do it and tidy up in a couple of hours....of which an hour will be dicking around with the bar tape

redvee

I'm quite good at wrapping bars but can never remember which side goes which way and have to refer to this YT video.
LH - clockwise, RH anti- clockwise though the way they suggest finishing the tape at the centre of the bars is not the way I do it as it leaves a raised edge, I cut the tape squarely and use several wraps of electrical tape to finish off which leaves a softer edge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlpHIERGddU

fenix

It is important to get the direction right - mate of mine did it the wrong way and the edges of the tape all raised up as he was gripping the tops - d'oh ! Always start at the end of the bars !

redvee

I replaced the gear outer from RH shifter to frame and reused the tape but did notice it was in need of replacing fully when I do the brake outer on the other side so bought new from Cycle Republic today and put it in the cupboard on top of the tape of the same make and model I must have bought some months back. It was only £7 so no real stain on the finances.