Hey guys a long question. I have a relatively new Argon18 E112 with DA bar end shifters. Bike came stock with 5mm cable housing for all cables. Two days ago I noticed a bunch of fine wires sticking out of my left bar end shifter bottom. Bike shop where I bought the bike is closed for a few days and had to take it to another one. Technician replaced the cable with shimano cable and cable housing with 4mm Jagwire housing.
Forgive my ignorrance, is that good and the way to go with size and brand of the housing. Just curious if Argon18 installs all 5mm cable housing, why would one use 4mm to replace it. Explanation given by tech, which sounds valid is that on bar end shifters 4mm works better. True or not. Just a little anal here about my housings not matching oem, that’s all or should I have a reason for concern. Obviously, I know where little techincal stuff about the bikes. Thanks.
4mm is standard for shifter cable. I am not sure why Argon would use anything else on the OEM spec.
if argon installed the same size housing for brake and shift cables, argon needs some new assembly folks.
modern shift housing (SIS, in shimano’s case) is smaller diameter than modern brake cable housing.
go with what your shop said.
Great than, I just learned something new. Yep, my E112 came with all 5mm cable housing, for shifters and brakes. Thanks guys.
now you got me curious, can you tell if the OE shift housing was wound steel wrapped with vinyl (as is typically used for brakes), or steel strands wrapped with vinyl (sis housing)?
There are several different size housings (Campy for ex, new '09) but 4mm is the std shifter size for Shimano as was mentioned. But, 4mm is stiffer and some shops use 5mm all around since the 5mm is more flexible and easier to route sometimes in internal aerobars with tight bends.
The key difference between kinds of housing isn’t the diameter, its the alignment of the metal support in the housing. Brake housing needs to compress a bit to allow for brake modulation so the structural part of the housing is coiled metal. Shift housing needs to be rigid so the structural part is a bunch of metal cables running parallel to the shift cable. Brake housing has to be 5mm because brake cables are thicker. Shift housing can be either, but the vast majority of people use the 4mm. The shifters that came with your bike came with 4mm gray Shimano SIS (shimano indexed shifting) housing. Jagwire makes excellent housing and cables, but make sure to use stainless steel rather than galvanized cables.
(The older) 5mm housing is not only more flexible, it is much more durable than the 4mm housing. The 4mm housing spilts very easily.
To throw a wrench into this answer, the premium housing sets that are available will come with 5mm housings and be better sealed.
You can use 5mm or 4mm casing as long as it’s the proper SIS type casing. Either will work fine. Yours obviously was the correct casing, evidenced by the steel wires pushing out the ends. The problem was the casing end caps used, probably weren’t the the proper ones and allowed the steel wires to push through the center hole. I imagine your shifting got a little stiff?
I also agree with you that a lot of the 4mm Shimano casing is the shits and splits right from the get-go.
Greg.
I think it was the second one, sis type. At first it looked to my untrained eye that it was a shifter cable coming appart as the fine wires that were showing lined up in the same direction as the cable itself. Than, the tech pointed to me that it was the cable housing. As I understand from all the info, oppinions are divided, both 4mm and 5mm have advantages and downsides. Thank you all for great info.
Yep, it got stiff, it got harder to pull up from small to big chainring.