Compared to standard cable/housing, just how big of a pain is it to install Nokon cables? Is it worth the effort (performance-wise, not price)?
Steve
I just did it. Yes, more of a pain than regular cables. Worth it? Maybe. Braking feel is much crisper as there is NO slack with the aluminum ferrules. Shifting feels the same unless you get to crazy with the curves (remember, you can make very tight, 2cm min, curves with the Nokon cables that are not possible with std. cables). You do save some weight as well which is always nice 
I have a pair for my road bike on order and hope that they are not too much of a pain in the A$$. I am going to do the tight curve to run the shifter cables under the bartape with the brake cables (like Campy). If it turns out nice I will get another set of shifter housings to do the same bend on my winter bike and keep the housing out of the way of the aerobars when used with my drops.
I’ve installed them twice now…
BE WARNED:
If the frame has internal routing YES… it become quite annoying.
If you happen to hve a Kestrel Talon… give up now.
Hi Rod:
Can you explain what the difference is for these, what they are supposed to do and why they are harder to install? I need to re-cable my ride.
Thanks!
The main advantage of the Nokon cables is that they fully enclose the cable from the shifter to the derailleur or from the brake lever to the caliper. This will reduce greatly reduce any moisture or crap from getting into the cables. The other advantage is that the metal ferrule pieces don’t compress so your cable housing won’t stretch out over time. Once the initial cable stretch is done your shifting will be set. The entire system is supposedly lighter than normal housing/cables but I’ve never weighed it.
It is a little more time consuming to install since you need to get theinner sheath to the right length and then put the correct number of metal pieces on to match. The hardest part is getting both shifter cables to be the exact same length.
I think that it’s well worth the time invested though. Do a search since I responded to someone’s post last year with some tips. The instructions included with the cables aren’t the best. Over the past couple of years I’ve installed about 14 sets of Nokon cables for customers so let me know if you have questions.
I installed them on my Kestrel Talon, it took some time but I did not think it was that difficult. Re-cableing any internal cable set up is somewhat a pain in the a$$.
I agree with rroof, I really like the look of the Shimano STI shifter routing. Minor performance differences, but I think it is mostly a style thing.
Mark
I have had past rides with Nokon. I couldn’t tell you how hard/easy as I have “People” to do that. The main thing I noticed was how the shifting was very crisp. I met Martin Tinger (Mr. Nokon) at Interbike & I’ll build my 2007 T14 with the blue version.
I’m having trouble getting a handle on how the inner sheath going the full length works with internal routing. So, between two cable stops where there would normally be bare cable, there is now inner sheath? Is the stuff pretty tuff?
Also, what do you mean by getting both shift cable to be the exact same length? Do you mean the metal ferrule pieces from the shifters to where they enter the frame?
Steve
The inner sheath will encase the cable. For a bike with internal cables this means that the sheath goes inside the tubes also. Most bikes won’t require you to drill out the cable stops but on some it might be necessary to make the stop a bit wider to accommodate the sheath.
I’m a bit anal so to have one shifter cable be a little longer than the other annoys me. With the Nokons you add/subtract each individual metal housing piece until they’re the appropriate length. One of the first bikes that I installed these for one of the cables was under tension while the other was not which created a slight length discrepancy.
Did you try contacting Nokon USA? info@nokonUSA.com
Just in case you didn’t have the website
http://www.nokonusa.com/
After reading their online instructions, I didn’t bother. Maybe they’d be better “live”, but I thought I’d get a real world evatluation.
Steve
Personally, I do not find them to be a pain, simply a lot more time consuming than your typical shifter/brake cable replacement. Our TCR Composite TT has internal cale routing and came stock with silver Nokon’s which corroded within 1-year. Last month I spent about 1.5 hours per bike replacing the links with more corrsosion resistant (or so Nokon says) black links and had to do the liner as well. Based on my experience, as long as you use a fresh, uncut cable to help ‘chase’ new liner through the internal cable routes, it is not that difficult to replace the liner. I will qualify that by saying in our case, if I had pulled the liner for the front deraileur out without having the new liner chasing the old - oiy - that would have been really bad time to try and fix.
Once you’ve done it a few times a new set doesnt take much longer than normal cables. Expect to take a while on your first go though.