Gore Ride-On Pro or Yokozuna Reaction for my road bike?
Competitive Cyclist favors the Yokozuna’s, at least with a SRAM group. CHeck out this review.
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/road-bikes/components/yokozuna/cables.2279.html
None of the above. I just got done fishing out the Gore Ride-on coating from where the cable ran through my Pinarello Prince frame to the front derailer as well as out of my SRAM Red shifters. The coating comes off wherever it goes through a rub point, i.e. the cable guide under your BB or in your shifters. Use pre-stretched braided steel cables. Always.
It’s not that I’m against spending the money for nice stuff. I just don’t see the advantage in this case. There’s a reason you don’t see the pros use any of these gimicky cable systems even though everything else on the bike is the absolute top of the line. It’s because there is way too much that can go wrong and the difference isn’t worth it. With indexed shifting, cable stretch isn’t a big deal and it’s a quick fix thanks to barrel adjusters.
Yokozuna—the difference is huge vs OEM, especially in braking. Best $60 you can spend for a performance upgrade on your bike.
Hello All,
Robert T. here, from Gore RideOn Cable Systems. I’m the lead engineer with RideOn and just wanted to clarify some points.
While they worked well most of the time, the 1st generation of our cables that came with SRAM Red shifters sometimes did not perform as expected. This brought us to completely redesign the cables that are used in SRAM Red shifters. The resulting product not only fixed all of the issues with the 1st generation, but produced a product with 40% lower friction than any other cable on the market.
SRAM trusts the product so much they used it on ALL of their PRO-Tour teams for the 2009 season. That included 5 of the top 6 riders on the TdF podium.
This “new and improved” product is now sold after market as Gore RideOn’s Professional System. Competitive Cyclist carries them, and trusts them as much as the Yokozuna cables - which, I might add, only got that review as a result of the 1st generation cables.
I urge you to give the Professional System a try - you will not be disappointed… we are so confident that we offer a 1 year warranty on the system - try to find any other cable system offering that!
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me at rthomas (at) wlgore.com.
thanks,
Robert Thomas
Applications Engineer
Gore RideOn Cable Systems
I just looked at that link and have to say that I was really disappointed to see the ‘double headed’ cable thingy. I’m not sure how many times you’ve ever tried to thread a cut cable through the left SRAM Double tap shifter, but it is a royal pain in the Butt. unless the coating on the cable keeps it from fraying the way normal cables do, I’d never buy a new cable I had to clip the end off and then thread through the shifter. I love SRAM shifters, but I have learned why all the new ones come with the cables installed, it is really tough, and nearly impossible with a cable end that is not fused together.
I hear your pain! The double end can be tricky to thread through the shifter. I’ve found two tricks that make it much easier.
First, use a drop of super glue to bind the ends of the cable together after you cut off the termination you do not need. Then, take a pair of plier, and put a 30 degree bend in the cable about 1/2 inch from the end. This helps guide it through the internal curvature of the shifter.
This is what I’ve found to work…
FWIW, you can also use a drop of super glue in place of a crimp cap to save yourself a gram if you’re a weight weenie!
I used a set of Reactions to significantly improve shifting on a 7900 group for a client this summer, but the housing is pretty stiff. Not a problem, but requires a little attention. For the brake cables though, I found the housing and ferrule freakishly large in diameter, and IIRC it would not seat properly in the brake caliper barrel. I’d recommend getting only the shift cables and leave the brakes standard.
I used the early generation Gore cables many years ago and loved the shifting and the sealed system, but they were a total pain, so I’m very keen to try to new system that looks much easier to setup. Velonews had a really good video on it as well that I saw the other day that made it look like a pretty simple setup.
So are you saying the coating won’t peel back on the cables?
The coating on our latest generation of cables is about 10 X thinner than the cables made in the 1990s. In addition, the coating on the Professional System is about 1/2 the thickness of the Sealed Low Friction system. In all of the most recent generations, the adhesion of the coating to the cable itself is MUCH stronger than in the 1990s versions. Both of these aspects have greatly reduced the chances of the coating peeling off.
That being said, the cable is still coated with a softer-than-steel substance, and one must be careful during installation not to scrape the coating against any sharp edges.
I am talking about compared to 2008/2009 product.
I got my gore cables with a SRAM Red shifter set- the ones that came with them frayed all over the place and then shifting got stiff. They were crap.
Is the new stuff I can buy right now different than that?
Rob Thomas? “THE” Rob Thomas??
Michael
Yes, the Professional System’s design changes (which have been updated in the OEM SRAM Red cables as well) is designed to get rid of the fray seen in the 1st Generation cables. The coating is thinner and better adhered to the cable. In addition, the coating is removed from the 1st 100 mm of the cable to minimize wear inside of various shifters - SRAM’s included.
Thanks- maybe I will give a go to a new set.
I hope they work well for you! please let me know if you have any issues.
Thanks!
I had moved my SRAM Red to a new bike last fall, and didn’t get new Gore cables. The brake action isn’t nearly as smooth, and I have been thinking about getting some premium cables again. I was leaning towards Yokozuna cables until I read this. It’s great to see a manufacturer on here standing behind their product (and speaking openly about problems with previous versions). Plus, the Ride-on cables come in white! 
So… my frame has a lot of internal routing and doesn’t have threaded barrel adjusters. I don’t really need an in-line adjuster for the rear, but would like something for the front. If I got the new Ride-On Pro cables, what would you recommend for in-line barrel adjuster for the front shifting? I wonder what options I’d have with the Yokozuna cables, for that matter.
4 bikes with Red … 4 bikes with Gore. I love the stuff
I was using it before Lance was too!
Had the original Gore cables, worked great for about a month or two then it was worse than regular non-coated cables. Hope the Gore has better durability as I have new SRAM Red shifters I’ll be using in around a month.
Thank you for posting. You are one of the first industry folks in a while to be brave enough to post in the “we will flame you” world of Slowtwitch. It is nice to see folks such as yourself, Emilio DeSoto (DeSoto), Gerard (Cervelo), Steve Fleck (Nineteen), David Greenfield (Elite) and many others posting on the forum.
You are right about the super glue (or solder) and many folks just dont know that trick…the fact is however that most folks screwing with their bikes just cant figure out why it is that they need a side cutter, a grinder AND a cable cutter to properly install a cable set on their bike…then they like to complain about their shifting and brake caliper performance.
But “Cables are just cables, right?”.
We hear it all the time, and try to educate! Regardless of the cables you end up using, take some time and care to install them! They’re your bike’s nervous system…