How much SP41 to order.

3m is lots, 1500m brake hoses always need trimming

4m will be plenty, stock brake hoses are around 170cm on Shimano brakes as a comparison I believe.

FWIW I've always just gone for a 10m roll - if you maintain your own bikes you'll get through it sooner or later, and buying a shorter length just means you're more likely to end up with an offcut that's too short to be useful.

FWIW I’ve always just gone for a 10m roll – if you maintain your own bikes you’ll get through it sooner or later, and buying a shorter length just means you’re more likely to end up with an offcut that’s too short to be useful.

This +1

Or at least order a cost effective amount if it's not freepost.

Now that everything's continuous outer, thanks ironically to internal cabling, then it's likley to be ~170cm for the gears and ~120cm for the dropper. So 4m leaves you with an offcut too short for either to be any use.

50 Metres - anything shorter and it's ludicrously overpriced.

Will last you pretty much forever - treat it as an heirloom. ;o)

Went through this myself. 50m purchased in the end £/m better. Hope to be able to ride long enough to use it up and help mates out.

Depends how many bikes you do or will end up looking after.

I did the same as the last few posters. Always found myself scrabbling around or ordering a single use kit when servicing / repairing one of the half a million bikes I seem to get stuck with.

Bought a 30m roll of Clarks outer for something like £20 from Amazon and a bag of 100 cable ends and ferules, along with a batch of 20 inner cables for road/mtb.

I've had a roll of Clarks for 8 years or so. Plus a massive set of cheap inner cables.

Very convenient. And it has helped me help a bunch of mates out over the years

n.b. a lot of the benefit comes from sealed cable ends so it's worth going for at least not the cheapest ones.

Just make sure you buy good inner cables that have been wound and ground smooth. If they've got a non slip coating that's even better. it makes quite a difference.

Frustratingly it's almost cost effective to buy the cable kits Shimano make just so you get decent inners and a limited supply of ferules and cable ends.

So what (gear) outer do people recommend? (I'm nearly out of my last roll)
Also, what are the best cable ends?

Supplier recommendations needed for both - it seems difficult to buy cable ends between small packs (where they're over £1 a time) and massive pack (expensive and more than will ever need).