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Time to replace sticky cable on my brand x dropper, had the original on for over a year. What’s the best cable to use? Tia
Any gear cable will work, choose which ever you prefer.
Stainless steel recommended.
I went for the slightly upgraded Shimano stuff. "Optislick" and SP41. Feels very smooth and low resistance on both dropper and gears although it's early days yet. That said, not sure how much it matters on a dropper, so long as the cable is working broadly as new.
We always use Shimano SP41 outer with sealed SP4 end caps wherever possible, and slick 1.1mm stainless inners. We tend to avoid coated inners due to many previous failures where the coating has broken up, bunched up, and pretty much jammed itself in the outers, sometimes even on brand new bikes that are just being built, feel free to try them though.
My LBS does the same as Coatesy, and both mine work a treat.
In my FS, while the dropper failed and was warrantied at about 15 months the cable/outer is still fine - so over 2 years (of 2-3 times per week in wet Scotland).
SP41 outers, decent stainless inners. Cheap inners feel rough and don't pull as smoothly. Coated (galvanised, polymer, PTFE, etc.) inners always wear out and then rust long before the stainless has given up or the lining of the outer has worn through.