If people didn’t mind some funky colours, blue, gold, white. Road Pro XL kit for £26:

http://www.probikekit.co.uk/bicycle-gear-brake-cables/jagwire-kit-road-pro-xl-brake/gear-cable/10950909.html

Don’t BMXs do compressionless cables?

http://www.odysseybmx.com/catalog/braking/slic-kable/

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/odyssey-1-5mm-slic-kable/rp-prod45326

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/BSSRSWBCK/sram-slickwire-mtb-brake-cable-kit
Planet X are doing SRAM slick wire kit for £9.99 down from £39.99
I bought some for my spyres and even though it was the Mtb kit the cables worked with rival shifters. Seem to work well for cable discs. I have just put some standard spiral wound outer on to see if I could get a lighter feel at the leaver, yes it is lighter,less friction, but it is spongey compared to the linear cable. TRP do a specific compresionless kit. http://www.trpbrakes.com/category.php?productid=1216&catid=188&subcat=0
But not sure if available in the UK.

I’ve actually been wondering about compression less housing for a while. Currently running shimano 517’s/rt66’s with Sora sti’s and ashima cable/outer. I’m not sure what sort of improvement it would bring, as my current setup seems fine on a steel Cotic frame and fork?

Can you just use (correctly sized) gear outer cable? It’s compressionless….

Cotic >x<, Whiskey Carbon Fork, Jagwire compression-less outer. I found mine improved massively after bedding in and dialling the pad adjusters rather than winding in the cable (Shimano 105 5700 brifters)

Zero rub, quieter, better modulation and adjustment than the BB7s on my day 1…

Can you just use (correctly sized) gear outer cable? It’s compressionless….

They say (I’ve never seen) that it’s great … right up to when it splits wide open due to bigger forces involved in braking and then it kills you dead. In the bum.

How long are the planet-x jagwire outers ?

This even says jagwire on it: postage is a bit steep unless you spend a moderate amount

They are plenty long enough for full run to rear. They are SRAM outers with ‘SRAM’ all over them. Yes think PX have shot themselves in the foot re postage putting it up to £50 spend before free carrage but still cheaper than all the others at £15 inc postage.

update, if anyone is still watching this thread.

Put compressionless outer on the front. Definitely improved the feel of the brake, but not the power.

Only thing left that might save it is a more significant bedding in (this is not 100% bedded in yet, I expect, as I’ve been too ill to ride properly, and only be trying to do it on the flat roads near my house), and possible another rotor change if I can find a good one to borrow.

i am….

I put ‘normal’ cable on the rear on Friday night as the compressionless stuff had not arrived and I needed working brakes for Sunday.

The cable is a bit longer and I re-aligned the caliper again.

The result is they are better but still no real power. I cant see able housing really affecting that.

front is OK.

one thing i will do after the ride on sunday is to put some copper slip on the back of the pads.

I will be racing Sunday, so we’ll see how I do then. if i dont win, it is definitely the brakes right?

Hi Jobless,

So it’s just us and the tumbleweed… 🙂

Out of interest, could you forward me the email from TRP? Just curious. My email is in my profile.

The compressionless cable will help slightly in the power, simply because less of the power you put into pulling the cable is lost in squashing the cable up. I’m not sure if it’s significant, but it’s the idea. Can’t say it made much different with my BB7’s (worked fine with and without), and hasn’t made a lot of difference on the TRP’s (don’t work either way!).

Problem with compressionless is that it’s not very bendy, so I had loads of friction on my frame, as the cable exits the frame and needs a fairly tight bend to get to the caliper. If compressionless fixes the problem on the front (doesn’t seem to have), then I’ll put some on the rear, and get a bit creative with the cable routing to fix the problem (or even use a cable oiler to join a bit of flexy for the last 20cm or so.

I think the best cable solution is something like nokon, which I have used in the past on mtbs, and really does improve the feel of brakes, as it is both very flexible, and rock-solidly-copmressionless, but it is pricey, and I don’t want to just throw money at these brakes, which I should be tucking away to pay for some fancy CX1 hydros.

Sorry to be that guy not reading the complete thread but have you tried different discs?

Just got a bike with Spyres, I’ve got the TRP 140mm disc on the back with an Avid 160mm on the front, the difference is night and day power wise, I’ve only ridden the bike twice (2 pretty flat 60 milers) but it feels like the Avid just bedded in instantly while the TRP still has that fresh pad feel. Going to give it a good few more rides and get some proper braking done on a few hills before I swap to an Avid rotor on the rear but at the minute I’d put the rear on par with a decent dry rim brake whereas the front just feels like a disc! Both “feel” the same squeezing the bars.

oh…that guy.

funnily, I had an avid on, and I just tried switching for the trp, as I wasn’t getting much power! I’ll try that though. Might have a shimano somewhere too

I’ll try and dig the email out but it was basically a 1-liner saying is it aligned… not much help. They did respond though. They were also surprised when I said that I had changed both disks (shimano ice-tech) and pads (nukeproof somming) – mainly because I shouldnt have to do that.

When I get some more time I’ll put the compressionless housing on. But that wont be before racing on sunday.