You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Changing out gear inner cables. The outer cable terminates at the entrance of the head tube so the bare inner runs down the down tube, around a plastic insert at the bottom bracket then down the chain stay or up around the BB and out for the front mech. What's the best way to chase through as you remove the old cable so you can thread the new cable through? Holes are too small to tape the cables together to thread through. Tried soldering the ends of the cable but solder wont stick, or there is not enough area at the end of the cable.
Seen something about some plastic sheathing but not sure where to source it.
Any top tips?
thanks.
tie dental floss to the end of the old cable, thread out, tie to new cable, thread back through
I looked myself prompted by the other thread, ive got a roll of nylon tube which is brilliant, you just thread it over the old inner and thread the new one through, then pull the tube out. But all i can find is 4mm OD which is no good. Mine is more like 2mm od, came with my canyon strive. Theres a canyon owners group on facebook maybe ask on there, theres a lot of multiple owners could have some spare.
Bit of hunting and ive found some.
Could you screw the red thing, that comes with a Reverb if you have one, between the new and old outers?
He’s talking about inners
Strong magnet is the answer
I once cut about an inch or two off an old spoke and used it to connect the two outers in a similar way to the red reverb thing.
Edit: missed that it was inners..
Yeah inners on my road bikes.my MTB has external cables thankfully!
Will try the dental floss thing first as I have some kicking about if not source some of the tubing. Not sure how I can use a magnet. The cable will be running down the centre of the tube suspended by the bottom bracket insert/guide and the head tube hole so would need to suspend the cable end in mid air inside the tube to thread it through.
Zip tie as a lasso through the lower hole.
I'm in exactly the same boat right now, also prompted by the other thread.
On the MTB I glued some thread to the end of the old cable using seam seal (because it's what I had lying around and it's quite gummy and sticky) am sure superglue would work also.
My road bike already has the nylon sheaths. I'm also looking to source some more, there's plenty of the Jagwire ones on eBay but they're either shipping from China or (it seems) quite overpriced.
I think electronic suppliers will do you 1.8mm ID teflon tubing, which is basically all the inner sheath is. I'm pretty certain that is the same stuff as the 4mm OD stuff NickDavies is talking about, pretty sure this is the standard dimension for inner sheath.
I'm wary of the silicone tubing, wouldn't that be quite 'soft'? NickDavies - your link on other thread refers to '60% Shore hardness' which I think is the same as 60A tyre compound? Am worried that the cable would just sink/saw into that and cause all sorts of resistance around the BB bend.
Heatshrink if you have any.
OK just to close this one out. Thanks for your suggestions all. Turned out to be a bit of a mare. The biggest challenge was where the rear derailleur cable exits the end of the chain stay. There is a ferrule in the end with a small hole where the inner cable was threaded through, so not large enough to thread any sheathing through or heat shrink or anything. No way I could see to remove the ferrule - had a go with some needle nose pliers and a small flat bladed screwdriver but it wasn't going to budge without applying alot of force and not even sure it is meant to come out (though you can buy spares so assume it should). I didn't want to damage anything so abandoned that approach.
After a few hours of scratching my head ended up cutting a quarter of an inch or so off the length of sheathing used as a guide for the front mech, secured it lightly with some insulation tape at the end of the cable, threaded another length of cable from the end and mated with short length of sheath about half way down its length and pushed through so the short length of sheath acted as an alignment piece. A few attempts and it worked...so pretty delighted. Got a bit of sheath and insulation tape along the length of the inner cable in the chain stay but shouldn't get in the way of anything.
So just got to wait for my replacement front mech and button everything up and hopefully good to go.