Find.

During the Lemming Trail Race yesterday I came across a young lad (no not like that’ I was riding FFS) he appeared to have some mechanical issues and it turns out his cable had slipped through as he changed gear due to a loose bolt. All he was carrying was a puncture repair kit, when I asked him if he had far to go he said “Eastbourne’. We were only about 60 miles away :-).

Anyway to the point, he had no tools and I thought I was well tooled up but found myself lacking pliers or more specifically one of those 4th hand type tools that pull cable through. Made me realise that my ride would have been over or very tough just due to the lack of toolage if that had been me so I am going to purchase one of those tools. Any better than the other?

I carry some tiny pliers, good enough for removing the security wire on my brake pads and pulling cable through.

unless your cables are trashed and full of gunge theres absolutely no need for a 3rd hand tool to pull a gear cable – only ever found them hand for initial pull to bed in all the cable ends and prevent the illusive “cable stretch*” of new cables or setting up canti brakes

* new cables do not stretch

I did thnk this was the case, seems you can buy a tool for every job these days when a less specific tool will do the job fine and be useful for other stuff.

new cables do not stretch

Oh yes they do’oo.

New cables can stretch, and bed in, and the cable ends can move around, and all that good stuff. But there’s no need for a 3rd hand tool or pliars, just wind in the barrel adjuster, pull the cable as tight as you can by hand, tighten up, adjust.

(there are tricks you can use, frinstance you can nip the bolt up then pull the exposed bits of cable out like a bowstring, takes up any slack better than just pulling the end. Then release, pull slack through, tighten)

trail_rat – Member
unless your cables are trashed and full of gunge theres absolutely no need for a 3rd hand tool to pull a gear cable

I’d agree with this, you can get cable near enough by hand, and then tweak them up using the shifter/mech barrel adjuster. Thats what it for after all.

takisawa2 – Member
new cables do not stretch
Oh yes they do’oo.

I agree taki that they do need adjusting after the inital build, but it’s been reported that this is as more due to ferrules bedding/sitting into the cable stops, than the cable stretching.

your mechs go out of adjustment but your wire rope doesnt stretch.

“The engineering of wire rope is fundamentally the same for bridges, elevators, or bicycle shifters. The loads applied to these cables, or wire ropes, is far too low to induce any permanent elongation”

just thought id throw that out there.

the term stretch is a throw back from when cables were made differently to today and the tension would pull the strands together making the cable longer – today youll pop the head off the cable before you get any measurable stretch in the steel wire rope.

Explain to me exactly what you want this tool to do? I have never even thought about using pliers for any cable on a bike other than for cutting or crimping.

I’m in the “no need for it” camp also.

Ah – Eastbourne.

Soft southern shandy drinker tools.

That’s rubbish. If the cable didn’t stretch the mech would go out of adjustment in both directions. New cables only ever need tightening, not loosening. Ditto brake cables. Perhaps this is true for massive steel cables on bridges but not bike cables.

GB

Is it a case of cables stretching or is it a case of outers etc becoming compacted?

If you can’t pull the cable through, push the rear derailleur so the chain moves a gear or two up the block, then tighten the cable.

The derailleur will take out the slack, then a bit of jiggery-pokery with he adjuster will set it up.

gee – tell me why your mech would move in both directions when it goes out of adjustment ?

the action that makes your mech go out of adjustment is the cable outers getting compressed and settling into the ferrules and cable stops. then as it gets older the inner cable wears grooves into the outer meaning it goes out of adjustment by the direct route to the mech being shorter through the groove than it was

FWIW theres more chance of the massive steel cables stretching over the ones on your bike – the resistance on your mechs is not enough of a load

you realise folk have tested this ? – the head does actually pop off before you get any measurable stretch in a modern stainless steel cable.

Aww I feel bad now. So there was a way to get the lads bike going again
😥