How much attention do you give your cables?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by mastersong
Here's a question - who out there cleans their gear cables on a regular basis and what techniques do you use. How often do you change the inner and/or outer cables. Are there any cables that improve shifting generally.

Reason for asking - I had a lot of problems with shifting at the rear, even the shop didn't improve it. I changed the inner, re set it and it worked fine for about 4 rides but now its [censored] again. I really don't want to have to keep fiddling with it though.

Thanks

Well to give you an idea pro riders get new cables and housing about every 2 weeks.
I personally change them about anywhere between 3 to 4 months depending on how much use the bike has had and how wet it has been. Sometimes I'll remove them and regrease the cables in between if I feel shifting getting heavy. Cables realistically don't shift well or smoothly for that long. The cable eventually scrapes away at the slipery inside lining of the housing along the bends and pressure points making it slide less smoothly. I've found that overall standard shimano SIS housing and their teflon coated cables seem to have the best shifting performance overall. If you don't get the sets that already come pregreased remember to squirt in some inside the cable ends as you cut them or along the lengh of the cable.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by mastersong
Here's a question - who out there cleans their gear cables on a regular basis and what techniques do you use. How often do you change the inner and/or outer cables. Are there any cables that improve shifting generally.

Reason for asking - I had a lot of problems with shifting at the rear, even the shop didn't improve it. I changed the inner, re set it and it worked fine for about 4 rides but now its [censored] again. I really don't want to have to keep fiddling with it though.

Thanks

I scrub the inner and relube the loop off of the stay using Dumonde Liquid Grease with every tune-up. I've been using Dumonde Lite on the rest of the cableset.

I recently noticed a significant difference replacing a shifter cable that was only 14 months old. I've also had good luck just replacing the inner with the basic QBP die-extruded wire.

I'm also needing to do some shifter cable work on my mountain bike. I'm tempted to redo it all with an XTR cableset. Can I do better for the money? Any thoughts?

Thanks - bought a set of SIS cables which fixed the problem but even though they were pre-cut, I had to cut them to fit and ended up with much waste. Can you get SIS housing in one long length to cut yourself?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by mastersong
Thanks - Can you get SIS housing in one long length to cut yourself?

Yep.Many LBS have both Shimano and generic by the foot. www.loosescrews.com also has it

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by mastersong
Thanks - bought a set of SIS cables which fixed the problem but even though they were pre-cut, I had to cut them to fit and ended up with much waste. Can you get SIS housing in one long length to cut yourself?

Thats normal. There is no set length for frame cable runs so you will need to custom trim always. You might even come short with other frames and need two sets. SIS cable is available in spools but it is not pregreased as the pre cut lengths are. You will need to remember to do it yourself.