What brand , type and why? Rebuilding a couple of bikes this winter and need to order parts now.
Standard steel cables from REI. I think the housing and prep work make the most difference.
I’ve used those black Jagwire ones before, they seemed slicker but frayed at the bar end shifter end earlier than I expected.
jaretj
Hi triitagain,
We lab tested a bunch of OEM and aftermarket cables a few years ago and nothing beat genuine Shimano cables and housing for low friction. Some high-end aftermarket sets had as much as 2.2x the friction.
Cheers,
Best choice would be electric wires for cables 
But as in standard cables I like jagwire but only because that’s what came on both my Felt stock and I never tried anything else.
Jagwire is good, and as Damon indicated above Shimano OEM stuff is good as well. I have my LBS cut housings for me from a giant roll they have, and pay per-foot.
I have had great luck with Jagwire cables and housing. It is what my LBS buys in bulk so I get a good price. Nothing fancy but works great. On my bikes that see a lot of outdoor riding, I change cables every year and housing every 2.
Hi triitagain,
We lab tested a bunch of OEM and aftermarket cables a few years ago and nothing beat genuine Shimano cables and housing for low friction. Some high-end aftermarket sets had as much as 2.2x the friction.
Cheers,
Damon,
Did this testing include segmented housing? Any insight for how those perform?
-Yancey
Are Powercordz still around? I have heard very little feedback on how those work.
I have tried Shimano, Jagwire, Yokozuna, and the Gore sealed systems. My thoughts:
Shimano: Like everything else Shimano, works great. Don’t know about mind blowing, but is trouble free.
Jagwire: Works great, trouble free
Yokozuna: Great for a season, but brake housing is a real pain to work with
Gore: Have had this on my cross/winter bike for the last 4 months and am pleasantly surprised. Was a huge pain to set up but everything has stayed very smooth and functional despite weekly (or more often) hose downs/washings.
As others have stated, I think how you route has much more to do with performance than a specific brand. Some bikes (i.e. my first gen Blue AC1) will probably never shift as good as a traditionally routed road bike because of all the extra bends and twists involved. Good designs mitigate this to a large extent, other designs, well…
Hi Pantelones,
Yes, we tested a very popular segmented housing. In our testing it had the most friction.
We didn’t test to find out why, but of course if one were to speculate, it seems that the coefficient of friction of the plastic liner or cable are important; I don’t want to think the outer being segmented should have much to do with cable friction.
Cheers,
Hi Jesse,
You’ve used some of the best, no wonder they all work well. Gore tied Shimano for lowest friction in our testing, but I’m not sure it’s still made?
Right - housing prep and good routing are super important. We’ve studied routing extensively in our newest Cervelo models. For housing prep, Sheldon Brown wrote a nice piece with good practical steps anyone can follow:
http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html
Cheers,
Thanks everyone …been most helpful. Jag wire came on both my Felt’s and seem to work well. Sounds like either Jag or Shimano is the way to go.
Hi Damon, were the Shimano cables the zinc coated or the SS ones. Did you try both?
Shimano and Shimano. Their cable housings Have lasted me as many as 25,000 miles withour incident. One set on my MTB lasted me 13 years of MTB use. I keep my cables lightly oiled and use a little denatured alcohol to remove moisture if I’ve been riding in the rain. Never any problems ever. I assemble all my bikes myself.
SS, didn’t test zinc. Also not coated with any polymers. The D-A 7900 coated cables we tested had higher friction. We haven’t tested the current coated cables.