Author Topic: Cables freezing (Read 5373 times)

tonycollinet · « **on:** 30 January, 2012, 09:10:44 pm »

Both brake and gear cable froze on the Sprint on the way home tonight. At one point I was pedalling at about 6000 rpm, while moving at 3mph. When I stopped to sort out the stuck gears, my brakes froze on. Freed those, selected a tolerably high gear, and then went home putting my foot down to use as a brake when necessary.

Just ordered some middleburn cable oilers, although they seem to be in short supply - I had to go to ebay.

Quint · « **Reply #1 on:** 31 January, 2012, 11:38:20 am »

I have Middleburn oilers on my cables, minus 4 a week or so back and I had only the front mech working at one point.
As I pulled off the main road into the lane to the village it goes by a lake and the temperature dips (canal and river not to far from my house so damp/colder anyway) that did for the brakes for a while.
I use GT85 in the oilers weekly but am searching for a oil lube, may be will try some MAKT bike lube I have in the shed.
The ideal would be to be able to inject a lightweight grease along the cable but everything is to cold at the mo and anyway if you get moisture mixing with grease twould not be a pretty result

tonycollinet · « **Reply #2 on:** 31 January, 2012, 12:46:45 pm »

My intention is to install the oilers at the lowest part of the run, and then inject the gt85 with the trike upturned - in the hope of driving any moisture out down the now down hill cable run.

We'll see.

Quint · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 January, 2012, 01:24:17 pm »

You will find that you don't need to turn it upside down, the force of the GT85 will drive anything out of both ends of the cable thus driving any gunge into shifters, I have twistgrip shifters and now put a drop of lube through the cable access holes, after the other week I shall also put a bit of vaseline in them as well to stop any droplets getting in.
I travel home after work around 04-30 in the wee hours so usually coldest time of the day

ferret · « **Reply #4 on:** 31 January, 2012, 02:41:07 pm »

check out CRC they appear to have plenty

hope this helps

TimO · « **Reply #5 on:** 31 January, 2012, 02:59:29 pm »

Quote from: ferret on 31 January, 2012, 02:41:07 pm

check out CRC they appear to have plenty

... as long as you want them in blue.

(I've got some black ones on back order, they'll probably arrive in a couple of weeks).

Von Broad · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 January, 2012, 05:53:43 pm »

Quote from: tonycollinet on 30 January, 2012, 09:10:44 pm

Just ordered some middleburn cable oilers

Interesting.

I've had stiff brakes on my old DF road bike for yonks, and although it's an old bike, the levers are pretty new and the brakes are not as old as the bike, so as a last resort I lubed the cables [thinking this was something that you must never do, assuming it would attract dust and thus getting all sticky, making the brakes even worse] and that worked a treat.

arallsopp · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 January, 2012, 08:05:18 pm »

I've had this issue on the USS 'bents, as the upturned bar end shifters and brake levers seem to pipe the rain straight down the cable into the loop under the seat. It tends to stay there invisibly, until it freezes when I become very much aware of things...

I use a glob of vaseline on the end of the cable where it enters the casing, and this seems to keep it out. The only other solution was found when I recently stripped down the steering rig for the furai.

She'd stay fluid whilst the SMGTe froze, and I assumed the cables were better lubed or protected in the former. It turns out, a cable that has let in a few drops will freeze pretty rapidly, whilst a cable *FULL* of water doesn't freeze nearly as readily

Andy.

Kim · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 January, 2012, 08:14:51 pm »

I've not had that problem myself, on account of an aversion to falling off in icy conditions and wrecking yet another set of shifters. Perhaps some sort of drain point could be provided at the bottom of the loop, eg. an in-line adjuster?

Alternatively, stick condoms over your shifters to keep them dry

I've found the blob of grease method seems to be sufficient to keep the cables from rusting...

henshaw11 · « **Reply #9 on:** 01 February, 2012, 01:52:07 pm »

Quote from: arallsopp on 31 January, 2012, 08:05:18 pm

I've had this issue on the USS 'bents, as the upturned bar end shifters and brake levers seem to pipe the rain straight down the cable into the loop under the seat. It tends to stay there invisibly, until it freezes when I become very much aware of things...

Not had a problem with freezing so much as crud buildup on USS - I thought it was at the mech end (yup, to a degree) but there was much more at the upturned shifter end - despite the cables being OEM jagwire jobbies, with o-ring sealed ferrules. I've now replaced that run with some SP41 (greased) shimano stuff - again, with sealed ferrules - and it's now nice and smooth again.

I was *intending* to put some Middleburn oilers inline near each end, having bought 'em a few months ago (prior to buying SP41) thinking that even with the new greased inner I could just use them to replace the last few inches of each end when they got cruddy again. Not quite..slight problem is the SP41 outer is 4mm, the old outer 5mm, and the oilers need 5mm outer without the ferrules fitted. Arse

Kim · « **Reply #10 on:** 01 February, 2012, 02:12:48 pm »

Ah, that's a fair point, I replaced all the cables on the SMGT with SP41 (and whatever the brake equivalent is) when I first got it. The original cables were fairly rusted, and shifting was distinctly dodgy. Combined with a generous blob of grease at the shifter end, I haven't have a problem with crud or corrosion, other than in the last centimetre or two where the cable meets the rear mech (I cunningly left enough extra cable in the run to be able to trim that down a couple of times rather than replace the whole lot).

Sounds like it's well worth using the greased cables. I'll be interested to see how the Jagwire cables on the Trice perform in comparison.

henshaw11 · « **Reply #11 on:** 01 February, 2012, 04:20:31 pm »

Well...I kinda wonder about greased cables - they're more lightly greased than full of grease. I was a little surprised to find the crud at the shifter end despite the original sealed ferrules, so one downside could be if there's any crud that accumulates in there, you can't flush it out with wd40 without stripping the grease. Not sure what an equivalent grease to the Shimano stuff is (if it matters) - you can buy the Shimano stuff but it's expensive for what it is (no surprise there).

On the other hand, it's taken a few years of assorted commuting to get to that point. When it does need cleaning/swapping I'll just cut the last few inches off and use it on the mtb, and put in a new length. IIRC it worked out about £2/metre from Parker International so it's not exactly a fortune, and they sell the sealed ferrules in packs of 10, at about 50p each.

Tigerbiten · « **Reply #12 on:** 08 February, 2012, 06:12:43 pm »

I don't know about cables freezing in this weather but I think my Rohloff hub has partialy frozen.
The resistance in my back wheel has increased a lot since the weather went sub-zero.
I'll have to see if it gets better once the weather warms up.

Plus it has now done +1,000 miles so I want to give it an oil change anyway.
Just waiting for it to get warmer so the old oil drains out of it quicker.

rogerzilla · « **Reply #13 on:** 08 February, 2012, 07:00:46 pm »

I had problems with freezing cables (water betweren inner and outer) when I did a paper round in the 80s. I learned to park the bike outside the paper shop with the levers in the slack cable position. Parked with the cables tight, the spring tension of the old mechs wasn't enough to break the grip of the ice when trying to shift to a smaller sprocket (or ring).

TimO · « **Reply #14 on:** 08 February, 2012, 07:13:00 pm »

Middleburn Oilers are available in both 4mm and 5mm sizes (and various colours). <smug> I've got both sizes in my spares box. </smug>

tonycollinet · « **Reply #15 on:** 09 February, 2012, 06:27:14 am »

Quote from: Tigerbiten on 08 February, 2012, 06:12:43 pm

Just waiting for it to get warmer so the old oil drains out of it quicker.

Warm it up (gently) with a hair dryer

Tigerbiten · « **Reply #16 on:** 09 February, 2012, 10:51:48 am »

I was going to take the trike out today but ..........

Both the back brake and the gears are frozen solid.
I'll have to wait untill it warms up above freezing before I can go out ...........

Quint · « **Reply #17 on:** 09 February, 2012, 11:41:50 am »

Just going to shed to squirt Makt lube lube through the oilers on the cables, spot of lunch then trike to work, forecast not to bad tonight, light snow and zero although the BBC Weather sight has a habit of changing its mind.

Tigerbiten · « **Reply #18 on:** 11 February, 2012, 03:46:08 pm »

Sat it in the sun today and finally got the trike un-froz.
Put some oil on the top of the gear cables.
So go out on a ride and the first dip in the shade I felt the gears start to freeze again.
In the next big shaded part, gears froze solid ..........

Nice 12 mile ride, half done with only 2 gears.
Low gear = 6 mph +/-1, high gear = 15 mph +/-2.
Its do-able but hard on the knees.

Trike is now in the cottage, hopefully I can dry all the water out of the gear cables tonight ready for the next ride ...........

Quint · « **Reply #19 on:** 11 February, 2012, 05:23:30 pm »

ICE say better keep trike @ ambient temperature, middleburn oilers and regular applications of lube through them and through twist grip shifter ports best.
Minus 10c on way home this morning and brakes and gears behaved ok, feet were bloody cold though

henshaw11 · « **Reply #20 on:** 11 February, 2012, 05:59:39 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 08 February, 2012, 07:13:00 pm

Middleburn Oilers are available in both 4mm and 5mm sizes (and various colours). <smug> I've got both sizes in my spares box. </smug>

Ah..<browses CRC> yup, CRC have both - it was so long ago I'd forgotten

I'll bear that in mind for the next cable change, s'pose I could lob the existing ones on the brake cables instead - those are feeling a little sticky too..

BTW - for anyone buying any, the colours aren't quite what you'd expect - the red's a bit dark..I almost bought gold ones but thought better of it 'cos that'd seem like being *too* much of a bike tart

cycleman · « **Reply #21 on:** 11 February, 2012, 10:08:31 pm »

both the front mech cable and the rear derailier cable freeze on the adventure but the hub gear and brakes are fine . so 3 gears for me when it freezes . i just select a lowish gear on the derailier before it freezes

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the brakes freeze up on the qnt so i i let the poor thing still in the warm.

Quint · « **Reply #22 on:** 11 February, 2012, 10:43:28 pm »

Worry no longer Chris, I believe Kevin aka The Oracle @ D-tek is perfecting a method of routing the cables up the trouser leg returning to the brake/gear levers through the sleeves thus keeping the cables at a reasonable operating temperature, feindishly clever what

Kim · « **Reply #23 on:** 11 February, 2012, 10:47:02 pm »

Flexible V-brake noodle to do a 180degree bend, and route the cable down the middle of the bar, a la Auntie Helen's Alfine trigger shifter?

cycleman · « **Reply #24 on:** 12 February, 2012, 01:52:09 pm »

i think the oracle method may have a few minor flaws to be sorted before it become well used

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i am thinking of running a pair of friction bar end shifters in the future that will require the flexi v brake noodle approach . i will wait till the rear indexing goes pear shaped though

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