broken shifter cable Campagnolo

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was costum
built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts through
the official chain.

It never happened to me, but the heads are usually just pieces of lead
heated up and "cast" by the cable manufacturer while the shifter is
sticking into a mini-crucible. Any contamination on the cable might
make it easy for the lead to separate. I am told that a good
motorcycle can make custom-cast cable-ends onto cables of any size and
shape, e.g. they could make weinmann straddle cables, for example.

When a cable pops out of a brake - for me - its usually because I
screwed up and threaded the wrong pear (the smaller one, not the
larger one) into the brake lever.

- Don "keep moving forward" Gillies
San Diego, CA

On 7 May 2007 09:43:15 -0700, [email hidden] (Donald Gillies)

Quoted message said:

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was costum
built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts through
the official chain.

It never happened to me, but the heads are usually just pieces of lead
heated up and "cast" by the cable manufacturer while the shifter is
sticking into a mini-crucible. Any contamination on the cable might
make it easy for the lead to separate. I am told that a good
motorcycle can make custom-cast cable-ends onto cables of any size and
shape, e.g. they could make weinmann straddle cables, for example.

When a cable pops out of a brake - for me - its usually because I
screwed up and threaded the wrong pear (the smaller one, not the
larger one) into the brake lever.

- Don "keep moving forward" Gillies
San Diego, CA

Dear Don,

On motorcycles, cable ends are soldered onto each end of the cable
after the wire and housing are trimmed to roughly the right length.

Motorcyclists are usually shocked to see the bare end of a bicycle
brake cable just clamped with nothing but a tiny screw and plate.

Slotted fittings allow cable installation and removal from the brake
and clutch levers, the twist throttle, cable adjusters (often at both
ends), brake and clutch arms, and the carburetor slide.

Here's a how-to-trim-and-solder with pictures:

http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/jul2001/jul01rsCableTech.html

Off road, the weight of the motorcycle can easily kink the cables
right at the lever or throttle when you bury the handlebar in the
rocks. (Or somehing snags the cable and pulls the spiral housing
apart.)

You remove the damaged cable, install a spare cable, and see if the
damaged cable can be repaired at home.

It used to be cheaper to shorten a damaged housing an inch or two,
unsolder the end fittings, trim a new cable, and solder the fittings
back into place than to order a whole new cable assembly--which might
take six weeks to arrive because someone else bought the last Montesa
throttle cable in Colorado just before you ruined yours.

Nowadays, expensive and hard-to-install hydraulic brake and clutch
controls make it wiser not to drop motorcycles in the rocks.

Here's the business end of an old-fashioned motorcycle clutch cable:

http://i14.tinypic.com/63cajk6.jpg

The two adjuster nuts tighten against the trough-fitting. The metal
end-fitting on the cable drops into the slotted receiver on the stubby
clutch arm.

Here's the other end, showing the slots in the lever and adjusters of
a spare motorcycle brake/clutch lever:

http://i14.tinypic.com/5zr29tv.jpg

And here's a dainty cut-off-the-wrong-end bicycle cable as sold with
no housing, next to a hefty motorcycle brake-cable-and-housing as sold
in one piece:

http://i11.tinypic.com/63rqiip.jpg

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

carlfogel said:

On 7 May 2007 09:43:15 -0700, [email hidden] (Donald Gillies)

Quoted message said:

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was costum
built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts through
the official chain.

It never happened to me, but the heads are usually just pieces of lead
heated up and "cast" by the cable manufacturer while the shifter is
sticking into a mini-crucible. Any contamination on the cable might
make it easy for the lead to separate. I am told that a good
motorcycle can make custom-cast cable-ends onto cables of any size and
shape, e.g. they could make weinmann straddle cables, for example.

When a cable pops out of a brake - for me - its usually because I
screwed up and threaded the wrong pear (the smaller one, not the
larger one) into the brake lever.

- Don "keep moving forward" Gillies
San Diego, CA

Dear Don,

On motorcycles, cable ends are soldered onto each end of the cable
after the wire and housing are trimmed to roughly the right length.

Motorcyclists are usually shocked to see the bare end of a bicycle
brake cable just clamped with nothing but a tiny screw and plate.

Slotted fittings allow cable installation and removal from the brake
and clutch levers, the twist throttle, cable adjusters (often at both
ends), brake and clutch arms, and the carburetor slide.

Here's a how-to-trim-and-solder with pictures:

http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/jul2001/jul01rsCableTech.html

Is there any reason this couldn't be done with bicycle cable? The
conservationist in me is always bothered when I buy a full-length brake
cable and then clip most of it off when installing a front brake. I've
often thought it would be less wasteful (and cheaper) to get a continuous
length of cable and some end caps. I suppose the biggest difficulty would
be finding end caps, since I've never seen them for sale.

Quoted message said:

On Mon, 07 May 2007 18:45:56 -0500, Gary Young <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

carlfogel said:

On 7 May 2007 09:43:15 -0700, [email hidden] (Donald Gillies)

Quoted message said:

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz <[email hidden]> writes:

>Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
>Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was costum
>built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts through
>the official chain.

It never happened to me, but the heads are usually just pieces of lead
heated up and "cast" by the cable manufacturer while the shifter is
sticking into a mini-crucible. Any contamination on the cable might
make it easy for the lead to separate. I am told that a good
motorcycle can make custom-cast cable-ends onto cables of any size and
shape, e.g. they could make weinmann straddle cables, for example.

When a cable pops out of a brake - for me - its usually because I
screwed up and threaded the wrong pear (the smaller one, not the
larger one) into the brake lever.

- Don "keep moving forward" Gillies
San Diego, CA

Dear Don,

On motorcycles, cable ends are soldered onto each end of the cable
after the wire and housing are trimmed to roughly the right length.

Motorcyclists are usually shocked to see the bare end of a bicycle
brake cable just clamped with nothing but a tiny screw and plate.

Slotted fittings allow cable installation and removal from the brake
and clutch levers, the twist throttle, cable adjusters (often at both
ends), brake and clutch arms, and the carburetor slide.

Here's a how-to-trim-and-solder with pictures:

http://www.off-road.com/dirtbike/jul2001/jul01rsCableTech.html

Is there any reason this couldn't be done with bicycle cable? The
conservationist in me is always bothered when I buy a full-length brake
cable and then clip most of it off when installing a front brake. I've
often thought it would be less wasteful (and cheaper) to get a continuous
length of cable and some end caps. I suppose the biggest difficulty would
be finding end caps, since I've never seen them for sale.

Dear Gary,

You can do it, but the fuss and trouble are probably much greater than
the cost of the bicycle cable.

Many attempts to avoid waste turn out to be extremely wasteful when
you step back and look at the whole process. The best thing to do with
old pieces of cable and housing is to throw them away so that they
don't fill useless boxes on shelves and crowd out useful stuff.

A good antidote to the pack-rat save-anything syndrome is reading any
of Don Aslett's books on getting rid of junk:

For Packrats Only
Not For Packrats Only
Clutter's Last Stand
Clutter-Free Forever
. . . and so on.

You can find used and new copies at www.bookfinder.com,

Aslett made his fortune in office janitorial services, where he
learned the hard way just how much time most people waste cleaning
around useless junk and clutter.

His books are just cheerful exhortations to throw our useless stuff
away, with endless, painfully familiar examples of our mindless urge
to keep things that--that--well, that might be useful someday after a
nuclear war.

True, I might use some of those worn-out old bicycle tires for some
experiment in Fogel Labs, but they're really just junk, even hanging
neatly from the garage rafters.

Excuse me for a moment . . .

There!

Eight worn-out or hopelessly damaged 700c tires now nestle in my trash
can.

In the process, I knocked over some useless junk piled neatly nearby.
(Just as Aslett predicts, the junk got in my way and the resulting
mess wasted my time.)

I also discovered that I had a stash of unused 27-inch tires. (Just as
Aslett predicts, my junk had covered up my useful stuff.)

Like a coward, I ignored the boxes of old 27-inch brake calipers and
cables. (Just as Aslett predicts.)

Excuse me again for a moment . . .

There!

So much for all the old caliper brakes salvaged off junked bicycles.
And the box full of empty cable housings went, too.

(But not before I began to stare and think that I ought keep just one
or two long cable housings--plus maybe one of each color-- and-- and--
No, Aslett is right. If you haven't found a use for it in years and it
just clutters your shelves, it will be just as happy and useful in the
trash and you'll be happier without it. So I tossed the neat box
filled with worn-out old square-taper cranks, bearing rings, and
threaded crank caps.)

The push-reel lawn mower is sulking near the trash can, too. I last
used it over thirty years ago, but it's had a cosy spot in the garage
ever since, just in case disaster struck, gas became unavailable to
run the power mower, and I decided in the midst of Armageddon that the
grass needed mowing. I can use the space that it hogged.

(A moment's thought, as Aslett suggests, showed me that there is no
neighbor I dislike enough to burden with a free push-mower, much less
a friend or charity. Its sheet-metal grass-catcher still bears the
$10.95 price mark, but I have no more use for it than I have for a
buggy whip.)

Thanks for inadvertently reminding me of the dangers of "the
conservationist in me" that leads to most of the clutter in our lives.
The real cost of storing and trying to use old bits of cut-off wire
cable (and similar junk) usually outweighs the imaginary gains.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Günther Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was costum
built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts through
the official chain.
While old cables cables giving up are common to me I never had a head
detaching from the cable. No visible damage on the cable itself. Has
anyone had a similar failure recently which might be a sign for a
faulty batch? This is not as dangerous as bad brake cables but still
annoying. Now I know why I always carry spare cables on longer rides.

Günther

I have seen it twice, once on a der cable and once on a brake cable.
Having it happen on a brake cable can be -BAD. Having it happen on a
shift cable is nothing more than inconvenient, unless you are
'somebody' climbing the Stelvio. Were they Campag cables? When they
replace, ensure they use some sort of small ended der cable as the
'shimano' type, with a larger head, get stuck in the shifter hole.

Donald Gillies said:

=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=FCnther?= Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was
costum built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare parts
through the official chain.

It never happened to me, but the heads are usually just pieces of lead
heated up and "cast" by the cable manufacturer while the shifter is
sticking into a mini-crucible.

AFAIK the heads are pressed onto the cables, not soldered which used to
be the usual method. For the old method one just buys the heads of the
correct size and shape.

Quoted message said:

Any contamination on the cable might
make it easy for the lead to separate.

That's why quality control is essential for any manufacturer of such
cables. I expect every single one to be tested with forces much larger
than what I can produce with just one or two fingers on a shifter
lever. But that might be wishful thinking.

Quoted message said:

I am told that a good
motorcycle can make custom-cast cable-ends onto cables of any size and
shape, e.g. they could make weinmann straddle cables, for example.

There are companies that specialize in the low volume production of any
kind of cable e.g. for vintage motorcycles and cars. But the number of
different heads needed for these will be limited. I don't expect them
to have a mould for straddle cables. Could be done, of course, but at a
prize.

Günther

Qui si parla Campagnolo said:

Günther Schwarz said:

Recently the head of the front shifter cable of my 2006 Campagnolo
Veloce Ergopower just popped off. The bike is almost new and was
costum built by my LBS. So the components were supplied as spare
parts through the official chain.
While old cables cables giving up are common to me I never had a head
detaching from the cable. No visible damage on the cable itself. Has
anyone had a similar failure recently which might be a sign for a
faulty batch? This is not as dangerous as bad brake cables but still
annoying. Now I know why I always carry spare cables on longer rides.

Quoted message said:

I have seen it twice, once on a der cable and once on a brake cable.
Having it happen on a brake cable can be -BAD. Having it happen on a
shift cable is nothing more than inconvenient, unless you are
'somebody' climbing the Stelvio.

Well, it was the front one. So on the Stelvio I would have just climbed
to the top and fixed it there. So it was on a rather flat section of a
Brevet, and as I have a double crank set, I just went on to the next
control point. Nice detail about double chain rings. With a triple I
would have to fix it right on place.

Quoted message said:

Were they Campag cables?

Yes, original cables and housings that came with the Ergopower.

Quoted message said:

When they
replace, ensure they use some sort of small ended der cable as the
'shimano' type, with a larger head, get stuck in the shifter hole.

I'll ask my LBS for them. One good thing about buying things locally is
that I can put defective parts on their desk. Much more satisfying than
sending them back to mail order places.

Günther