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Folks
The cable that goes from my gear levers to the actual gears is pretty much broken. I'm going to take it to the Spanish LBS to get replaced, but to help me not get ripped off I have a couple of questions.
Can you just replace the cable and not have to pay for the whole gear mechanism?
Are gear cables generic, or will I have to buy the specific cable for my gears? (Shimano Diores I believe).
Many thanks
Simon
Just generic cables, about a fiver all in for the parts
You can just replace the cable if that's all that's wrong. They should swap the inner and outer cable, and will usually cut it to length from a roll.
Right, you can use cheese wire if you want, but it wont be very good. Deore cables will be fine in general, especially if you ride dry trails but for smoother/longer lasting shifts go for Shimano XTR or similar coated cables (roughly £20) - Gore Ride-ons are probably overkill.
And no you definately don't have to replace your gears, they'll just need to be setup again. It's a pretty straightforward operation so try not to get rinsed. As a guide, Evans Cycles charges £12.50 for a full cable set fitting + cables/guides.
That's great - thanks for your advice.
The euro against the pound right now meant I paid a fortune for my new Juicy 5 brakes (which I am loving mind) but I hate replacing things that don't need replacing.
Cheers
Si
It's worth learning how to replace your cables, as you learn how to setup your gears at the same time. Once you've learn't, it means you can tweak you gears as they need it rather than live with crap changing until you next go to the bike shop.
It's also suprisingly easy, I was shocked when I learnt, how easy it was to make them work perfectly - after ages of relying on my m8 to sort them..
The parktools website has the info on how to do it
http://www.parktool.com/repair/byregion.asp?catid=53
If you do goto the shop ask them to replace the inner and outer cable, as this is a better long term solution rathef than just bodging in a new cable - which can get jammed on the same rubbish/dirt in the cable that stopped the first lot working.
z1ppy
Yeah - I am hoping to learn a bit by being shown stuff when I get back to the UK.
I have a question though. There only seems to be one cable going from the levers to the gears themselves. If they replace all of that, does that include both an inner and an outer cable? Looking at the cable, I don't see an inner or outer, just a long thing in black plastic (here's the cable problem in this pic:)
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The black bits are the "outers", the cables themselves are the "inners."
What you need to do is remove the inner cable, chop hte frayed bit off the outer and refit the inner. Jobsagoodun.
Ah right , yeah, got it. I'll just get brand new cable.
I'll be back in Blighty by September so best get some fairly good quality cable 🙁
Si
TBH - there isn't a lot of difference between the cable qualities. If you do feel the need to replace the cable, just get whatever the shop has.
Smee - I'd have to say that XTR cables are noticably smoother than normal ones. But the added expense would equate to 2 or 3 pairs of normal ones.
Will_M I'd have to say that getting a length of the cheapest stuff that the LBS has a roll of is not noticably different to XTR, or Gore or anything else I've tried.
Well folks I may not actually a choice about the situation. But I am quite lucky in that i can afford to buy good quality components so I will just try and get the shimano cable if possible.
Again thanks for the helpful comments.