Is this stuff all the same i.e. the inners and outers, or is there a particular brand/spec i should be buying? Same goes for ferrules as well actually, any differences there?

(i know about the Gore sealed stuff, but im not paying 35 quid for cables 😀 )

Cheers,
James

yeah there's a clear difference between the cheapo ones and good quality sets.

XTR are the best IMO – and you can pick them up dirt cheap on ebay/CRC

cheers, xtr bought from ebay. ill know who to come hunting down if its rubbish 😉

cheers, – but i reckon i'll be safe! qulaity kit 8)

XTR, gore etc are better, but normal cable is much of a muchness.

Btw Gore work out by far the best value. £35 and they last many years (if done properly) and you never have to lube them. And for all the years you run them shifting is basically perfect – unlike normal cables which deteriorate until you lube/replace them. And on top of that, gore shifting is better than normal cable shifting even when normal cables are new.. and they stay like that too.

Gore all the way here.

SRAM and Shimano also use different cable diameters; 1.1 and 1.2mm – sorry, can't recall which one uses which!

Shimano inners are drawn through a die to make the surface smoother and their ferrules have little o-rings inside.

Is it digital or analogue levers? 😉

MB – isn't that only XTR with the o rings?

Oxygen free directional cables FTW

Running full length outers is the biggest improvement you can make to your cable shifts (even with dirt cheap cables). Any set-up where the run is broken soon gets shit up in my experience.

I find full length cables a curse. They inevitably get sh*t in them and then you can't clean the buggers out properly without taking the lot apart.

I just got 10 inners for £10 at that price I can afford to keep replacing them if they are crap and only last 6 months.

I wanted one of those boxes of 100 or so shimano cables but they were a bit pricey so I just went for 10.

Have to agree with molgrips here. I've had one set of Gore cables since I built my Soda 2 years ago. It's not just the expense of replacing them, it's also the time you save not having to set it up.

Been running the hooted, full lenght since last July. I stripped the off one bike onto another, and swapped shifter and they are still perfect!

I've got Goodridge ones, because they say Goodridge on, and they're white
they have similar fixings to the Gore ones and they're very stiff

Goodridge ones are quite different. That's why Gore Ride Ons are patented.

Transfil flying snake carbon cable sets KG24 £24.99. almost as good as Gore at 1/2 the price, only thing I can see that is different between Transfil and Gore is the Gore wire cable has the Goretex wrap that makes it very slippery, running both types at the moment and the Gore is supper smooth, but the Transfil is smooth and last about 2 years per cable set, then the sleeve between the cable and out gets rucked up,mainly in the loop to the rear mech,have not run the Gore long enough to give any feed back on it yet.
Im just about to try out some PowerCordz Synthetic Fibre cable on the outer parts of Transfil to see how it works.