I was in my LBS this morning looking at cables and housing and realized we never discuss these products on the forum. There is actually some pretty solid design that has gone into the cables available. Teflon coatings and anti-compression sleeves… et cetera.
Does anyone have thoughts to share on these cables:
Aztec, Nokon, Shimano’s SIS, Jagwire
The Jagwire looked the best- teflon coated inner wire, simple design, very bendy casings, beefy brake cables, and smartly designed ferrules.
nokon is the metal sheathed (sp?) one, right?
If so when the cable is slack within the housing, the metal tends to rattle in some instances.
you should get some very stong opinions on this topic, but to me its like choosing the expensive oil over the standard oil when you get it changed in your car. One clearly costs more, but are you seeing any benefit for the added dollars.
Point being, as long as you are maintaining your bike/cables and changing them out on occasion, I don’t think the upgrades are worth the extra bucks. On the other hand, if you just let 'em go and never clean, adjust, or lube, then the upgraded cables might benefit you.
I agree. Cables are like chains, most folks do not maintain or change them as often as they should. No matter how much you pay they still wear out.
I’ve used the Aztec Powerlines. In general, very pleased.
Only tools you need are scissors and cable cutter for cutting the cable. The scissors will cut the housing and inner liner.
The little links that form the rigid portion of the housing are uni-directional, so you have to pay attention when filling the plastic housing with them. They also corrode/oxidize when they get wet. So not as pretty after a while.
Quite flexible. I put this clean bends in my gear cables of my road bike so that the shifter cables are mostly hidden except for 2 small loops.
The plastic end caps work well in most cases, but I blew right through the end when I used them with reverse brake levers. So I use a stock metal cap in that case and it works well.
Difficult to thread the inner liner through a long run. There are some tricks to it, but it can be done. Kind of like threading beads on a string.
Finally, if using the Powerline brake cables with Shimano calipers, first remove the snap ring and ferrule from the caliper (at least in 6600 and 7800) before insterting the end of the Powerline into the caliper. Otherwise, the plastic ferrule on the end of the powerline won’t fit into the caliper recess.
I work at a shop in San Antonio. I put Nokon’s (brake and shift cables) on my bike about 3 months ago, and they have only been headache. They rattle against everything, shift very poorly, get scratched easlity, and salt corrodes them even quicker. I have ordered a set jagwires, so I hope they are better.
for the most part standard cables are all that you’ll ever want or need. That being said I have Nokons on my P3sl and although they can be a real PAIN to get sorted out once you have them set up they are damn SWEET! Obviously they are lighter, look dope and all that good stuff. Running the plastic liner (you have to) means no cable rattle inside them but I don’t run a fully enclosed sytem like they suggest, I run exposed cable from housing to housing. They tell you to run one continuous plastic liner, a super light thin teflon tube, all the way from the shifters to the derailler, or brakes, which keeps all contaminants out. I found it stacked up too much friction on the back derailler and often wouldn’t drop into the smallest cog. And you have to install the clear protective tubing on anywhere that touches your frame but that’s easy.
The thing is they shift and brake a little better than standard housing, I’d say a lot better but it’s not liek there is much to improve int eh first place. Best part is they don’t compress over time like standard shift housing so your shifting doesn’t change. Very few tune ups after going to nokon. One thing, they use a bigger cable, brake cable for shift duties so make sure you dont’ pop in a standard shift cable or you’ll get some funny housing movement which will mess up your shifting right in the middle of the cogset.