Cable Inners - Grease or not?

[ElyDave]

As I'm rebuilding the Faran, I'm using Clark's stainless gear and brake cables, adn will use Jagwire outers on the brakes. 

My practice has always been to ligthtly grease the inner cables. Is this a good idea or not, and why?

[Wowbagger]

I've occasionally used a "Purple Extreme" style "dry" lube and I don't seem to have done any harm.

[Polar Bear]

I have always been a greaser.  I recall that Shimano outers have a blob of grease in pre cut outers at the end where you tread the inner wire through so I have tried to replicate this in my fettling.

The only time I did not was when I used cables with an inner liner.  Those inners wore very quickly.  Money not so well spent imo.

[hatler]

There's this stuff.   I bought a pot recently but haven't had the opportunity to use it yet.

[Kim]

Just to be different, I'm in the non-grease camp.  Dry cables work demonstrably well.  Greased cables work demonstrably well.  Cables that water has got into gum up.  Gummed up cables that have GT85 or similar squirted down them to clear out the schmoo work for a bit and then inevitably gum up again.

I reckon time angsting about grease would be better spent on keeping the weather away from the open ends of the cables.  I've greatly improved the cable life on my tourer (USS, which is probably the worst for this sort of thing) by sticking a bit of tape over the slot in the MTB brake levers, riding with my hands over the bar-end shifters as much as possible during heavy rain, and sticking bags over the handlebars when parking outdoors.  DF bikes have a much easier time of it, with that little loop of outer that links to the rear mech having 90% of the issues.

And of course the other part of cable longevity is the choice of inner.  I reckon stainless steel is where it's at.  Galvanised is rubbish, and my brief foray into coated inners was disappointing: it seemed to flake off and give the schmoo something to congeal around.

[sojournermike]

Like Sydney*, I’m a greaser with my little pot of Shimano cable grease. Stainless inners and use the end caps.

That’s it. I don’t agonise over it.



* Sydney was a greaser with some nasty roots
He poured a pint of Guinness over Benny’s boots
…

[onerousdeporte]

Don't modern cables have a plastic liner hence greasing is no longer a good idea.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Teflon liners is where it is at.

No grease required.

[onerousdeporte]

Teflon liners is where it is at.

No grease required.

But you wear through the teflon.

[Hot Flatus]

I'm increasingly of the view that I'll never buy a cabled bike again.

[MattH]

So you're going down the route of being a brakeless fixie hipster?

[onerousdeporte]

So you're going down the route of being a brakeless fixie hipster?

Back pedal brake for the win

[ElyDave]

I'm increasingly of the view that I'll never buy a cabled bike again.

That's your choice, but I'd certainly not go that way with the Faran, least of all I can replace a cable by the side of a track on Salisbury Plain if I need to. 

I'd consider SRAM E-tap on my recumbent - unless DI2 has actually gone wireless I can't see it working due to cable lengths.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Teflon liners is where it is at.

No grease required.

But you wear through the teflon.

Never had that happen with a liner inside an outer.

Have had it happen when the inner cable extended under the BB.

[onerousdeporte]

Teflon liners is where it is at.

No grease required.

But you wear through the teflon.

Never had that happen with a liner inside an outer.

Have had it happen when the inner cable extended under the BB.

Seen it on bikes that have had them fitted, not fitted them myself.  So no idea of quality.

[onerousdeporte]

Actually who are the prefered source of cheap stainless steel cables at the moment?

[Lightning Phil]

Merlin are doing them for £1.99. You can get them for £0.99 on Amazon but no idea of quality.

[ElyDave]

I've been using Clarke's, you can normally get them for £1.99-2.99 if you look about, I think SJS supplied my last bunch

[Hot Flatus]

I'm increasingly of the view that I'll never buy a cabled bike again.

That's your choice, but I'd certainly not go that way with the Faran, least of all I can replace a cable by the side of a track on Salisbury Plain if I need to. 

That's the beauty of di2.  You'd never have to 

Mine's been pretty solid in the 8 years I've had it. Had to replace battery after 7 years, but it died in such a way as to not leave me stranded.

It's a weird one though because for the first few years of ownership I was a bit non-plussed by it. It's only after owning for years, particularly after using it through winters, that I've come to value it.  By now I'd have had to recable and replace outers several time , whereas the di2 is as fresh as it was on day one.

I think that is perhaps why some people forget to charge the battery, because the stuff is so consistent, and so maintenance free that you forget it is even there.

I'd consider SRAM E-tap on my recumbent - unless DI2 has actually gone wireless I can't see it working due to cable lengths.

The new 12 sp has gone partially wireless. The shifters are now wireless so the only cabling is between mechs and wherever you stash the battery.

I guess you'd have to use an MTB set-up on a recumbent, about which I know nothing. I do know that the latest 105 hydro grouksets can be found for about £1200. Expensive, yes, but I can't see myself ever buying a cabled bike again. You do enter the world of ever-increasing sprocketted cassettes, which means finer chains that don't last as long, and a compatability path that is a little more complex than it was 15 years ago, but that's life I suppose.

[Hot Flatus]

So you're going down the route of being a brakeless fixie hipster?

hydro discs and di2 

[MartinC]

....The new 12 sp has gone partially wireless....

Yes. Wired Di2 is now obsolescent and only for retro grouches.  Just like 10 speed Di2 was in short order.  Start saving your pocket money for it's replacement - there may be an iteration - and don't forget to get a new frame without those redundant cable tunnels too (does anyone remember when it was fashionable not to have any braze on frame fittings?).  Why anyone would design wired electronic systems in the 21st century was always beyond me.

[Kim]

Why anyone would design wired electronic systems in the 21st century was always beyond me.

Because wires are predictable and reliable, and radio and batteries are not.

(I accept that I'm a retro grouch.)

[Hot Flatus]

Also Shimano's view up until recently was that wireless was not quick enough, I believe.

[Kim]

Also Shimano's view up until recently was that wireless was not quick enough, I believe.

That's a symptom of unreliability, in that you potentially have to send the message multiple times to ensure it gets through.  Various ways to improve that, of which there will be the usual engineering tradeoffs (battery life, for example).  So it may be that better battery performance has allowed them to use a more robust / higher throughput encoding scheme or something.

[ElyDave]

So you're going down the route of being a brakeless fixie hipster?

hydro discs and di2 

I'd consider SRAM E-tap on my recumbent - unless DI2 has actually gone wireless I can't see it working due to cable lengths.

The new 12 sp has gone partially wireless. The shifters are now wireless so the only cabling is between mechs and wherever you stash the battery.

I guess you'd have to use an MTB set-up on a recumbent, about which I know nothing. I do know that the latest 105 hydro grouksets can be found for about £1200. Expensive, yes, but I can't see myself ever buying a cabled bike again. You do enter the world of ever-increasing sprocketted cassettes, which means finer chains that don't last as long, and a compatability path that is a little more complex than it was 15 years ago, but that's life I suppose.

my recumbent is based around road components, I have a mix of ultegra and 105 and cable discs, and 10sp.

So groupsets that insist they can only work with hydro, and ever increasing coggage are not an effective investment to me when all my cable bits work.  A new cable is £2.99, outer (compressionless brake) is £5 a meter.  That's a lot of cable changes to get to £1200.

If I were buying off the shelf, a new road bike or high end MTB it might be a different choice.