There's been a few mentions on here recently of bulk buying stainless gear cables and 50m rolls of SP41 but no mention of end caps.
It seems it's a more involved subject than one might first think.
SIS-SP40 caps can be sealed or non sealed depicted by the number of rings on the cap.
They can come with or with out tongues and those with tongues can be long or short tongued.
So, which ones do people use where?
Does a tongue without a rubber boot seal better or worse that a sealed cap with no tongue?
Should you use a non sealed cap at the shifter for a lighter feel?
Should you use a short tongue cap at the rear mech?
Or do we just go full SP41, a tongueless sealed cap each end and a stainless wire down the middle?
Anyone found one solution working significantly better than another?
We're the old Gore cables better or did they die out for a reason when full hosing runs became common place?
Anyone found one solution working significantly better than another?
No.
I have found SP41 lasted longer with a decent brand inner/slickshift/coated wire.
But end caps I bought in bulk a few years ago from Woolyhatshop on eBay and they are just fine.
I like the plain metal ones as they tend to deform less than the plastic type so once indexing is done it tends to stay that way for a good length of time.
Unsealed ones - in the shifter.
Sealed ones - everywhere else.
Tongues ones, only if they came with the external rubber seal to go over the end. I suppose they might do some good on frames with chunky cable guides, or in the rear mech, where you've got quite a pronounced hole/channel for old grease and muck to accumulate where the cable goes.
only if they came with the external rubber seal to go over the end.
That never really quite ever stays in place, and you end up refitting it time after time. Like M-OAB, I've used SP41 before and it does last, but now that both my bikes have internal routing I've gone over to just generic reels of the stuff, with regualr plastic end caps and it doesn't seem to make that much difference.
And specific ones for retro Campagnolo cables…
Some interesting results. Even bought in bulk, the sealed ones cost more than the cable they're sealing.
Or do we just go full SP41, a tongueless sealed cap each end and a stainless wire down the middle?
^ This.
I've used and have again bought a pile of the "normal" Shimano SP40 sealed end caps. For a full outer run with SP41 and stainless inner it gives pretty good performance at a reasonable price in my opinion..
I use sp41 with optislick inners, finished with Jagwire, Sram or Uberbike sealed alloy ferrules, I have them in a few colours and some black ones from when I used to buy Jagwire cable kits, I also use Shimano's little plastic guard pipes Y5XX38000 at the rear mech, it's a little pipe with a lip that sits inside the cable stop of the mech, they come with XTR mechs as standard, I bought several a while ago for a £1 each.
