Frayed Gear Cable
I have a question to ask the experts ...During ride this weekend the rear gear cable broke so rode home unable to change rear mech. I had a look and to my surprise it turns out the cable has frayed about 1cm away from nipple so it happened inside the STI. I've not come across this before but then I've not a lot of experience. Is this common? They are Jagwire LEX inner & outer cables and only about one year old, and I thought good quality? They are Ultegra 6700 10 speed which I've had since new.
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I've never broken a cable - gear or brake in 30 years - so I'd not say it's common. I've had STI's since they came out as well.0
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Thanks Fenix. I should have searched before asking, doh. It seems it has happened to a few but as you say probably not a common problem. Will replace cable and check it every few months. Unfortunately for me, there wasn't any indication before it went, but others have noticed a change in shifting before cable finally broke.0
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Maybe there's a problem on the design of it ?0
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...which is exactly what the guys in the lbs told me this last week. "The later 10 speed shifters were not the finest moment in Shimano's design office" or similar words were used (yes, I had a break in the same spot)Fenix wrote:Maybe there's a problem on the design of it ?"It must be true, it's on the internet" - Winston Churchill0 -
I've had an outer failure inside a 9 speed shifter, but that was mostly my own fault for forgetting a ferrule. The other failure I had was when I unknowingly lost the end cap at the rear derailleur and the fray unravelled beyond the clamp. Both of those are attributable to user error, but I would guess over the populations of fettlers it's not that rare?0
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It happened to me on a 10 speed 105 rear lever under the rubber hood. Also, a club mate had the same thing occur recently on an 11 speed Utegra shifter. Our local LBS has some thin dental picks for just such an event, and used them to get the bits out of his shifter.0
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It's apparently quite common on Shimano 10 speed rear shifters - happened to me 6 months ago.
Pete0 -
It's happened to me with Campagnolo Chorus 11-speed shifters. The rear derailleur started going out of adjustment - chain no longer centred on the sprocket and trying to change gear on its own. I tweaked the barrel adjuster a couple of times to get it back centred, but then it would go out of adjustment again. In the end I put the chain on a middle sprocket, centred it with the barrel adjuster, and then left the rear derailleur alone—for the last 20km home I treated the bike as a two-speed, changing only the front derailleur if I needed a lower or higher gear. When I pulled the gear cable, this was what it looked like. It was quite difficult to get out of the lever body as the broken cable ends were snagging on something inside:
This is the original gear cable that came installed with the shifters, and it had only had about a year of use from new.
Modern integrated shifters run gear cables around smaller radii than old-style shifters, and as a consequence the cables don't last as long. My old commute bike with bar-end shifters has been using the same cables for almost 20 years, and I can look at the cables where they bend around the barrel of the shifters and see that they are quite undamaged.
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